Green Baggins

Matthew 6:11

There are many people in the world today who do not have enough to eat. 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 per day. 3 billion people live on less than $2 per day. That’s 4.3 billion people on this earth who live on less than $2 per day. We don’t like to think about all those starving people out there. Instead, we like to compare ourselves with our good, fat neighbors who are earning maybe just a little bit more than we are. When we think of how much we make, and how much we live on, do we compare ourselves to other Americans, or do we compare ourselves to the vast majority of starving humanity out there? Would this impact our lifestyle choices?

Jesus here tells us to pray for our daily sustenance. But He does not tell us to pray for that until after we pray for God’s concerns. Thomas Manton says, “When God’s name is sanctified, His kingdom comes, and His will is done; these things do not only concern the glory of God, but also our benefit.” We come now to the second half of this prayer. The first half is all about God. But what Mr. Manton has just told us is that everything that is about God also concerns us, even if that is not the primary concern. Our primary concern in life is the glory of God. We are to pursue the glorifying of God with all our might.

Jesus recognizes, however, that in order for us to do that, we need everyday things just to live. We need our daily bread. There are several things to notice about this request. The first is rather obvious, but also easily forgotten: it is God who gives us our daily bread. When we labor and sweat, when we receive our paycheck, then we tend to think that it was our labor that procured the bread. What Jesus tells us here is that we must recognize that God gives us our daily bread. It is not something to take for granted, but something for which we must ask God.

Going along with this thought is the immediately corresponding thought that it is a gift. God does not have to give us this bread. Witness the many billions of people who do not have what we have. God is not required to give us anything. He is our Creator: God owes us nothing. We tend to forget the fact that even if we were not sinful creatures, God owes us nothing. How much less does God owe to us sinful creatures who live in rebellion against Him! To think that God owes us food and lodging and clothes, let alone cars, tractors, boats, and money in our bank account, when we are sinful creatures, is a bit like a convicted man requiring the judge who convicted him to lend him $50. It just isn’t done, and yet that is exactly what many people do, maybe some of us. No, our daily bread is a gift.

The next thing we need to notice is the recipients of this gift: us. Jesus does not say here, “Give me this day my daily bread,” but “give us this day our daily bread.” We are praying that we will not be selfish. Alfred Plummer says this: “’Give us’ becomes a mockery when those who have been entrusted with a large portion of God’s bounty do nothing for the fulfilment of their own prayer in reference to others.” In other words, how can we pray this request truly, if we do nothing to bring it about? God uses us as instruments to give daily bread to others. We are not to hog the world’s goods for ourselves, as if we deserved more than others. This does not mean that we should necessarily feel guilty about having a lot of possessions. Having a goodly estate is a blessing from God, not a curse. However, God gave that estate to us for a reason. That reason is so that we can be a blessing to others, so that we can fulfill God’s Kingdom plans for this world. We are not given wealth so that we can pamper ourselves all day long, and not concern ourselves with the well-being of others. Again, with whom do we compare ourselves? With our rich neighbors, or with the poor of the world? I wonder how many of our decisions are influenced by the way in which society tells us we should live, rather than on how we can best serve God. It is “we” who are the recipients of this daily sustenance, not merely “I.”

The third thing to notice about this verse is when this bread is to be given. It is daily. This is profound. The amount of necessities for which we ask is to be that which is sufficient for our daily needs. Jesus is not saying here that we cannot plan a week or a month in advance. What Jesus is saying is that we are to ask for a moderate amount for our necessities. We do not need the finest cuts of meat every day, the very best in fruits and vegetables, and all things just so. We are to ask for what we need. Then if God gives us more than that, we are to be all the more grateful. But we are not to ask for more than we need for daily sustenance.

We should be reminded of the ancient Israelites in the wilderness when they had just enough manna for one day, except for the weekend, when God rained down enough for the Sabbath. For each day, the one who gathered more did not have too much, and the one who gathered less had no lack. That is what is in Jesus’ mind when He tells us to pray for daily bread. We must pray for our manna, as it were. It comes straight from God, is sufficient for the day, and is a gift to us. We are to live hand to mouth, as it were.

Now some of us might be wondering how this petition squares with Jesus’ command not to worry about our lives. This is in verse 25ff. The solution is in verse 33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” That is what the structure of the Lord’s Prayer tells us: the first half is about the kingdom of God, and the second half is about our needs in the light of God’s Kingdom. Put in practical terms, we are to respectfully request our daily needs, but we are not to be anxious about them. For instance, if we need to make a trip to the hospital for health reasons, we are to pray that God will heal us, but we are not to be anxious as to whether or not God will heal us. As Paul says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” If that is the case about our very lives, how much more is it true about piddling little things such as cars and houses!

Going back to the manna analogy, there is more to this petition. When we ask for our daily bread, we are also asking that God will nourish our souls. We are praying for God to tell us something from His Word. Jesus said in His first temptation, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We cannot live without the word of God. We die without it. So when we pray for our daily bread, we are also praying for our daily spiritual bread. How often do we pray that God will plunge us ever deeper into the magnificent riches of God’s Word, so that we may live ever richer spiritual lives? That should be part of what we mean when we pray this petition. Going even further, it also means that we pray for the Gospel to spread abroad. Remember, this is not an “I” petition, but a “we” petition. We are praying for us, that we would all receive the bread that will make us never hungry again. We are praying for the Living Bread, the Bread of Life, Jesus Himself. This is ultimately a prayer that Jesus would fill us with His Holy Spirit. The promise is that of the wedding supper of the Lamb, when we will eat of the table of eternal life forever. In fact, we will eat from the Tree of Life, which will once again be made available to us. Christ has opened the doors to paradise itself, through his sacrifice of Himself. That is what we commemorate when we partake of the bread of the Lord’s Supper. We might think that this petition in the Lord’s Prayer is only focused on the present. It is focused on the present. However, it has one eye cocked to the future, when we will always sup with the Lamb. We pray that God will sustain us now so that we can be about our Father’s business, and thus come in the end to our eternal rest, when faith becomes sight, and we will not need to pray that prayer anymore.

Do you pray this petition with all this in mind? Or do you look to the gift while ignoring the fact that it was a gift, and also ignoring the Giver? When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we find that Jesus’ body symbolized by bread represents salvation for us. It is a visible proclamation, a visible sermon, of what Jesus has done for us.

It is common in the Christian life to despise all earthly things, thinking that everything that is physical is evil. This petition overturns that way of thinking. God made the physical things in this universe. Physical does not mean evil. However, when we think of physical things, we should use them as a springboard to think of heavenly things. As one writer puts it, “We must aim at heaven while we are praying for earth.”

Are we thankful for what we have, or do we always want just a little bit more? I don’t see anyone in this congregation starving, or without clothes, or without housing, or without transportation, or withou many other things in life. Just think of all those who do not have, and be content.