Today we are concluding our series entitled: Soul Matters: Shaping life around the Lord’s Prayer.
Matthew 6:9-13
"This, then, is how you should pray:
"'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
As we’ve gone through each line over these past weeks….we’ve recognized that the nature of prayer which Jesus sets forth is not about how we get God to serve our will….but how we bring ourselves into the proper orbit around the will of God.
Now we come to the final petition… perhaps the most dramatic and climatic… “Deliver us from the evil one.”
This final petition declares the real condition of our lives…that our souls exist in a world ruled by a force that is set on their detruction.
When we pray: “Deliver us from the evil one”….we are placing ourselves in sphere of dependence upon God to be delivered and rescued from a force that seeks to destroy us.
Most of human history understood enough about the power of evil to join this prayer….many still do today. But as lives shaped by our modern Western culture... this may sound a bit dramatic.
We might think it’s more appropriate to pray for a little help with our problems.
We may think that we simply have some unfortunate behaviors which need behavior modification… some low self-esteem that needs lifting…but deliverance from evil may sound a little extreme.
Yet it is that recognition of need that defines everything.
Christ came to save us. And in this declaration we are reminded why.
When we pray to God to save us, we are not asking just for some changed self-understanding…although that is something God does bring,….not just some new way of feeling about ourselves…although that is something that may naturally flow from God. We are asking to be rescued from the power of evil….rescued from destruction. The word translated “deliver” carries the drastic meaning of rescuing or snatching.
So the first thing we face in this declaration is that…
1. Evil is real
The Lord’s Prayer recognizes the reality of evil.
There is a force that operates in opposition to God.
It is not inherent to creation. God did not create evil… for ‘evil’ is merely the negation of the ‘good’ that was created. [1] God created good…and that good included freedom…. freedom to rebel.
God created a world to enjoy his glory…his goodness. Evil is that which seeks it’s glory and submission to itself.
God provides order that serves us with peace…evil disorders life and destroys peace.
God is the essence of love… evil is the very essence of hatred…contempt...of disdain…it abhors love.
God created life… evil seeks our death…eternal death.
There is no part of life that is not touched by evil. It has ruined our circumstances, it has marred our character, indeed it has affected the whole of God’s creation. According to Romans 8:22-23
Romans 8:22-23 (NIV)
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul speaks of a tension we all feel…a sense that there is a good that had been corrupted. There is something beautiful and sacred…and something that has brought a work of death ad destruction to it.
And this force is personal.
• Evil is personal
If you have grown up reciting this prayer in various settings…you may have noticed that here we read the reference to evil as that “the evil one.”
Some translations simply say “evil.” The general consensus is that this is best translated as the evil one. [2]
Of course it’s not a matter of opposites…it is referring to every way in which evil is at work…but it recognizes that evil has a personal source.
Jesus spoke regularly of a personal adversary…the devil…not just a force…but an entity at work. [3]
John 17:15 (NIV)
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
Matthew 13:38 (NIV)
The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
The Scriptures give glimpses into the nature of the personal forefront of evil – they speak of one referred to as Satan or the Devil as originally a powerful angelic being… wise and beautiful … named Lucifer. Pride led to a rebellion (described in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-17.) Lucifer became proud because of his wisdom and beauty and he declared, “I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). He sought to make himself equal to God and aspired to be worshipped. This is the very lie that he would be depicted in the story of creation as deceiving humankind with…. Telling Eve that they could be like God.
Well…this angel was cast from heaven and would subsequently be known as the Hebrew name Satan which means “adversary.” Satan is also called the devil (from the Greek word diabolos) with the meaning of slanderer or accuser.
The angels who joined Satan in his rebellion against God are commonly referred to as evil spirits or demons. The Book of Revelation tells us that one-third of the angelic population were bound with the fallen angel and cast out of heaven with him. Revelation 12:4, 9)
Why might some find the idea of a personal force behind evil strange today?
Probably because of the ways that culture began to capture this figure. Such ideas have fictionalized the existence of the evil one.
The character in the red suit and pitchfork seems rather a silly character…and is just a human created character. And I have no doubt the biggest fan of that character is the very real father of evil.
The fictionalized characters… are portrayed as evil in appearance. When portrayed in the movies, the devil always has a sinister appearance.
The truth is that…
• Evil is disguised
The Bible says,
“Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” - 2 Corinthians 11:14 (ESV)
There is something far more sophisticated and strategic at work….seeking to destroy you.
Ephesians 6:10-12 (NLT)
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
As Will Willimon describes,
“Evil is large, cosmic, organized, subtle, pervasive, and real. The powers never appear as evil or coercive. The powers always masquerade as freedoms that we have been graciously given or as necessities that we cannot live without.”
For example, "the economy" is a power. It takes on the power of an entity that controls everything…that determines our lives. It demands our loyalty and dictates our well being.
Another is “race.” Race takes on a power to define us and divide us… beyond any actual differences between our racial make-up. It has called for superiority….exploitation…fear. It has called for making itself a primary source of allegiance and loyalty.
The same could be said for the powers of sexual desire…, substances…as well as the powers that can consume us in discouragement, depression, and anger…even the powers of self-reliant religion.
All of these can be strategies to destroy us by turning us from God. The Scriptures tell us he is the Father of Lies (John 8:44)
Perhaps even more basically,
Western culture has become so materialistic that we simply think only matter is real.
Yet we are drawn to horror movies…and most disturbed by that which captures the darkest of evil.
- I recall when the movie “The Exorcist” came out…I was never the same. It wasn’t that I kept expecting to see a girl with a green face contorting leap out at me….but something in the eyes that represented something very real.
The truth is that evil is a force that surrounds us in a million subtle ways… always seeking to hide it’s face.
Somewhere we may catch a quick look at it’s reality it… in what happens to us… or within us.
When someone takes a trust and outright hurts us with it… or takes a life from us in a selfish act.
Then we begin to feel how evil evil can be.
But usually we want to ignore such evil. Again…we have our human caricatures that just don’t seem real…we are more comfortable with our materialistic sense of knowing and controlling the world. But even more deeply, I suppose we resist this for the same reason we resist truly believing in God…. we want to consider ourselves our own masters. We’ve become so enamored with our own sense of independence…with being our own person…making our own choices…that we simply refuse to accept that we should submit to God or that we are under the dominion of an evil ruler.
(Of course if we get in trouble for the independent choices we make…then we might say “The devil made me do it.”)
Jesus is teaching us to pray for being delivered from the evil one because that is who has been ruling this world…and ruling over our lives until Christ breaks through and we join him.
The Scriptures describe the evil one as the…
• God of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4)
• Prince of demons (Matthew (9:34, 12:24)
• Prince of this world (John 12:31)
• Ruler of the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2)
> Notice... the authority that is recognized…not in relationship to the eternal God…but to US.
We are deluded into thinking the world is neutral and we are just the rulers of our lives.
The result is that it shouldn’t surprise us that the modern western cultures see less outward manifestations of such spiritual power.
Why would one seeking to rule over human souls show themselves to those who think they are free?
Those who don’t realize they need to be delivered are already on a side.
Those who first began the Vineyard churches… faced the need to shed our western materialism in order to re-engage the powers of evil which Jesus had called us to. Jesus sent his followers into the world to preach good news buut also to demonstrate the breaking though of God’s kingdom with signs…with healing and the deliverance from evil oppression. The simple truth is that in most cultures were more engaged in this tha western cultures. Our materialistic worldview had made us naïve about spiritual forces. We need to re-engage the enemy more directly…to be awakened to the spiritual warfare… to the need for deliverance.
Our desire is to simply follow the way of Christ…to recognize the enemy of our souls with the same dependence as Christ did. Engaging demonic powers is not about playfully claiming “we’re gonna stomp on the devil’s head”….or magically thinking if we have a formula we can control him with some sort of incantation.
(I remember John Wimber once challenging such tendencies by saying that “Jesus showed the devil more respect than many of us.” He meant that Jesus didn’t consider this enemy as one to just play with or presume easy control over.)
What we need to understand is that…
2. Evil is actively pursuing our destruction.
1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV)
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
We need to awaken to something that is actively at work.
Personal examples - encounters…physically….but those which are the most intense should awaken to what are the most pervasive.
“You know from your own experience that a lie becomes more violent once stripped of its pretense and exposed as a lie.” So when you acknowledge that there is an evil that is at work…and you desire to overcome it… don’t be surprised if you face some spiritual reaction. Get ready for a fight.”
“Praying this prayer is the beginning of problems we would never have had had we not met Christ and enlisted with Christ's people. The forces of evil do not relinquish their territory without a fight and, in being saved, God's newly won territory is you. You become a virtual battleground where the living God fights the powers. So praying this prayer is a bit like a declaration of war.” (Adapted from Willimon)
How do we respond?
As N.T. Wright describes [4]….there are three basic options or approaches…
The first option is the head-in-the-sand approach. You can pretend that evil doesn't really exist, or that, if it does, it doesn't really matter. Bad things happen…but we just need to all try to do a little better. In Jesus’ day that might have been represented by the Sadducces… the more secular religious type.
A second option is to be so overwhelmed by evil that we see it as the dominant force everywhere. Once you realize that there is such a thing as radical evil, and that it's much more powerful than you are, you can become consumed by it…allowing evil to dominate you…as you retreat in hiding. That was represented by the Essenes of Jesus’ day.
A third option was represented by the Pharisees...and is that of self-righteousness. They might declare: `Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other people.' Yes, we say, evil is out there all right; but we are the righteous ones, the holy ones… those who are too good to be vulnerable.
Jesus adopts none of them, and he doesn't want his followers to, either.
His way is to recognize the reality and power of evil, and to confront it with the reality and power of the kingdom…which is God’s reign and rule.
The power of evil is real….but the victory over evil is also real and more powerful.
It’s what the Father is doing and what Jesus was dependent upon.
“You see, the only reason to shrink from a serious and radical analysis of evil would be if we were to forget that in the cross God has seriously and radically dealt with it. We are instinctively afraid of facing the evil that still lurks within us; we are, perhaps, also afraid of the humiliation involved in grasping God's solution to it. But, fearful or not, this is the route we are called to take.”
3. Evil cannot overcome God…nor those who are His through Christ.
While we may like to question how God could allow evil…in truth God is the one who comes to face off with the evil that we have welcomed in all it’s subtle ways.
This prayer is rooted in God…. binding us to Him.
That is what Jesus was drawing us into… dependence on God.
When we pray for deliverance from evil, we acknowledge that we have not the resources, on our own, to resist evil. Like the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous - "We had to reach out to a power greater than ourselves."
And that is the power of this prayer…it directs us to the power of God. [5]
The One who taught us this prayer then led the way in the deliverance of evil. [6]
1 John 3:8 (NIV)
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
We have the death and resurrection of Christ.
• In his death… we have been forgiven…set free from the power of death.
• In his resurrection we have the power of new life….eternal life that has already begun.
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Colossians 2:15
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
• We have the person of Christ.
Luke 10:17-20 (NLT)
When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” “Yes,” he told them, “….I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy…..But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”
1 John 4:4 (NIV)
“….the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
• We have the community of Christ.
We have the power to stand together
As Will Willimon notes…
Note that we don't pray, "Save me." It's, "Save us." Certainly, the "me" is included in the "us." Just as we began by praying, "Our Father," so here we find again that we are being included in a larger drama (salvation). Our cry to be saved is more determinative of who you are than any available "me." It also unites us more than any other characteristic ever will. You join all those saints through the ages who have had their lives transformed, commandeered, turned over, and detoxified by the love of God in Christ. Like the disciples in Matthew 8, we are all in the same boat, tossed by a storm not of our creation, praying, "Lord, save us!"
Our position is shared.
Note that one of the ways Alcoholics Anonymous enables you to reach out "to a power greater than ourselves" and the chief means through which that power intervenes in our behalf, is by putting you in a group. The community enables us to be free from the powers.
Standing alone, as isolated individuals, we are no match for the powers.
The enemy loves to find a lone sheep.
> Therefore we are adopted by a community (church) whereby our prayer "Deliver us from evil" is answered.
Let’s stand and pray:
God… forgive us for even presuming we are free from the power of evil on our own.
Forgive us for taking evil so lightly…for taking the evil one so lightly as to think that we are an even match for him.
We acknowledge our need to take hold of your power over evil….and what you have done.
Jesus…you have indeed gone before us… bore our sin… shame…separation.
You were delivered from the evil one…and now with you we can share in that deliverance.
Amen.
Now let’s conclude with this common prayer…
"'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
The Psalmist expresses his confidence this way,
Psalm 121:7-8 (ESV)
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Closing Song:
Resources: Will Willimon (Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer & the Christian Life (Kindle Locations 1130-1140). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition), John Hamby, N. T. Wright. The Lord and His Prayer (Kindle Locations 480-487). Kindle Edition.
Notes:
1. At first thought, it may seem like basic logic that if we assume God as the creator of all, He must have created evil, and be responsible for it… but …God created everything, but evil is not a “thing.”
• We may think of a sword or a gun as evil, but they aren’t.
• Where is the evil? Evil is in the will, the choice to harm, the intent.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Probable meaning: “If it be thy will do not permit us, weak as we are by nature and prone to sin, to enter into situations which in the natural course of events would expose us to temptation and fall (cf. 26:41), but, whatever be thy way with us, deliver us from the evil one.” Though it is true that here as before (5:37) both the neuter “from evil” and the masculine “from the evil one” are possible, and, as Calvin points out, “There is no necessity of raising a debate on this point, for the meaning remains nearly the same,” nevertheless, both because in the consciousness of Christ the devil was very real (see proof on p. 309), and because one naturally associates temptation, mentioned in this petition, with the tempter (see especially 4:1), I, along with many others, give the preference to the rendering “the evil one.”
Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 9: Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew. New Testament Commentary (336–337). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
R.C. Sproul notes,
Jesus does not simply teach us to pray that God would deliver us from testing. He gets very specific in the second part of the sixth petition. This part of the petition both reinforces and expands what Jesus is teaching us in this petition, for we find here a Hebrew literary strategy called parallelism, a technique that links two statements so that the second illumines the significance of the first.
This petition is frequently translated and recited with these words: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The use of the word evil in this translation is not accurate, and it often causes a lot of misunderstanding. People come to all sorts of incorrect ideas about what "evil" means, but the original Greek makes the meaning perfectly clear.
In the Scriptures, in the New Testament Greek, the word for evil is poneron. The last two letters, -on, indicate something particular. In the Greek language, as in many languages, nouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. We sometimes do this even in English when we talk about ships or even cars and call them by feminine pronouns. Well, the -on ending puts this Greek word in the neuter form. In this form, it refers to evil in the abstract. But this is not the form in which the word appears in the Lord's Prayer. Here, the Greek word is not poneron, it's poneros-and the -os ending in the Greek indicates a masculine noun. Therefore, what Jesus is saying here is best translated not as "deliver us from evil" but as "deliver us from the evil one." The New King James Version has it exactly right, for when the term poneros is used in the New Testament, it is a title specifically for Satan.
Now we can see how the second half of this petition amplifies the first. As Scripture reveals, God often uses Satan to bring testing on His children. Thus, when Jesus teaches us to pray, "Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one," He not only is teaching us to pray for deliverance from testing, but teaching us to seek divine protection from the wiles of Satan.
R.C. Sproul. The Prayer of the Lord (Kindle Locations 866-870). Kindle Edition.
3. Scriptures which refer to the “evil one.”
Matthew 13:38 (NIV)
The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
John 17:15 (NIV)
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
Ephesians 6:16 (NIV)
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 (NIV)
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
1 John 2:13 (NIV)
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
1 John 3:12 (NIV)
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
According to a national survey conducted by the Barna Research Group most Americans do not believe in Satan. 60 percent of American adults – six out of ten – believe that Satan “is not a living being but a symbol of evil.” Only 25 percent “believe strongly” that Satan is a real being. Only 45 percent of those who describe themselves as “born again” deny Satan’s existence.
4. N. T. Wright. Describes the responses to evil in the following:
The first answer is the head-in-the-sand approach. You can pretend that evil doesn't really exist, or that, if it does, it doesn't really matter. Yes, we say, people do silly things sometimes, but if we all try a little harder it'll work out all right. That's about as much use as saying, when the house is on fire, that yes, it is getting a little warm, but if we all take off a layer of clothing and drink more iced water things will be just fine.
The second answer, the mirror-image of the first, is to wallow in evil, and to see it all over the place. Once you realise that there is such a thing as radical evil, and that it's much more powerful than you are, you can either become evil yourself or become paranoid, seeing demons behind every bush. Either way, you are giving in - indeed, caving in, allowing evil to dominate you.
The third answer is that of self-righteousness. `Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other people.' Yes, we say, evil is out there all right; but we are the righteous ones, the holy ones, called to leap on our white chargers and ride off to do battle with it. But what if self-righteous battles are themselves another manifestation of evil?
At the risk of caricature, you could say that, in Jesus' day, the first approach (minimising evil) was that of the Sadducees; the second (wallowing in the fact of evil) was that of the Essenes; and the third (the zealous fight against evil) was that of the Pharisees. Jesus adopts none of them, and he doesn't want his followers to, either. His way is to recognize the reality and power of evil, and to confront it with the reality and power of the kingdom-announcement. The result is Gethsemane and Calvary. His way for his followers is that they, too, recognize evil for what it is, and that they learn to pray, Deliver Us From Evil. To omit the petitions about `testing' and `evil' off the end of the prayer would indicate the first wrong route; to make them the only significant part of the prayer would be the second wrong route; to see yourself as the answer to the prayer, as the people through whose virtue the world will be delivered from evil, would be the third.
This prayer, in its setting within the whole Lord's Prayer, keeps the proper balance. Jesus intends his followers to recognize not only the reality of evil but the reality of his victory over it. We need to examine both sides of this balance.
Evil is real and powerful. It is not only `out there', in other people, but it is present and active within each of us. What is more, `evil' is more than the sum total of all evil impulses and actions. When human beings worship that which is not God, they give authority to forces of destruction and malevolence; and those forces gain a power, collectively, that has, down the centuries of Christian experience, caused wise people to personify it, to give it the name of Satan, the Accuser. `The Satan', `the Evil One', is not equal and opposite to God; but `he', or `it', is a potent force, opposed to God's good creation, and particularly to the human beings whom God wishes to put in authority over his world. If all this were not so, the final petition in the Lord's Prayer would be an unnecessary anti-climax.
But Jesus' victory over evil is also real and powerful. It, too, is not only `out there', a fact of history two thousand years ago, but it is available here and now for each of us. Where human beings turn from idolatry and worship the God they see revealed on Calvary, they are turning from darkness to light, from the Strong Man to the one who has bound the Strong Man. To pray `deliver us from evil', or `from the evil one', is to inhale the victory of the cross, and thereby to hold the line for another moment, another hour, another day, against the forces of destruction within ourselves and the world.
You see, the only reason to shrink from a serious and radical analysis of evil would be if we were to forget that in the cross God has seriously and radically dealt with it. We are instinctively afraid of facing the evil that still lurks within us; we are, perhaps, also afraid of the humiliation involved in grasping God's solution to it. But, fearful or not, this is the route we are called to take.
N. T. Wright. The Lord and His Prayer (Kindle Locations 480-487). Kindle Edition.
5. Satan is under God’s authority. As Ray Pritchard describes:
. “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). In this case Satan’s temporary victory in Peter’s life leads to a much greater victory for God in the end. So it is for us as well. Our defeats, bitter as they are, can lead on to great spiritual victories.
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat." The word translated “has asked” is a bit stronger than that in the Greek. It means something like a strong demand. Satan set his eyes on Peter and determined to bring him down by any means possible. I find it comforting that Satan must ask God’s permission before touching any of his children. Sometimes Christians become frozen in fear because they have given Satan too much credit. Sometimes we talk as if Satan were a kind of “Junior God,” almost God but not quite, as if he has, say, 90% of God’s power, 90% of his wisdom, and so on. But that is quite different from the biblical picture. Satan is always revealed as a creature of great power and cunning who is nevertheless first and always a created being. He has no power independent of God. He can only do what God permits him to do. As Martin Luther put it, the devil is “God’s devil.” One Puritan writer called him “God’s lapdog.” Surely this is more biblical than viewing him as some evil force equal with God. If he is God’s equal, he wouldn’t have to ask permission before attacking Peter.
6. Though not included in this form of the sermon message, I was particularly drawn to the way in which N.T. Wright places this in the historical context. The following is adapted from his writings:
Deliverance from the evil and the evil one was the prayer of Israel…which Jesus came to fulfill.
From the early prophets right up to Jesus' day and beyond, Israel had come to understand that the world had set itself against the Creator… and there was an inevitable judgment….and that that their calling as a people involved a great build-up of pressure and pain. The night would get darker and then the morning star would dawn at last. The whole world, with Israel at its heart, would enter a period of tribulation, of sorrow and anguish, like that of a woman in labor; and from this the new world would be born, in which God's kingdom would come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Israel's task was to say `Behold, the handmaid of the Lord,' and so to become the vessel and vehicle of God's pain and travail, and of his triumph over evil.
Jesus embodied this reality. Testing, temptation, and trial marked out his entire public life. Immediately after God the father spoke over his life and launched his mission…he was drawn into the wilderness where he faced the enemy who sought to draw him away from his calling. He returned in the power of the Spirit, to announce the Kingdom. Wherever he went he was faced with opposition. Sometimes this took the form of tormented souls yelling and raving; sometimes it was threatened religious powers criticizing and attacking him, claiming to represent the voice either of reason or of the ancestral traditions. He was faced with what he called Satanic opposition from his own followers, even from his own chosen right-hand man. As he came to the end, he said to his followers, `You are those who have continued with me in my trials, my testings.'
Finally, in Gethsemane, Jesus shrank from drinking the cup held out to him. But he turned that shrinking into agonized prayer, until finally he stretched out his hands, in obedience, to take the poisoned chalice. This is what obedience looks like when it stares evil in the face.
Gethsemane suggests the deepest meanings of the prayer: `Do not let us be led into the Testing, but deliver us from Evil.' The deep darkness of evil was now coming to take him. The great tribulation, the birth pangs of the new age, the moment of horror and deep darkness, is coming swiftly towards him. And in his own moment of agony he prays to the Father….that he might be able to have this temptation…which really means “test” or “tribulation” pass from him….but if not….if it is part of the greater redemption over evil …then may he be delivered.
That is a moment he will have to come to alone… to settle the accusers hold… but all who follow will need to overcome as well. He said the birth pains were just beginning and that we would face opposition… an adversary. We must pray: Let us not be brought into the Testing, into the great Tribulation; Deliver us from Evil.
