1. Lead us not into temptation

We are reading the Bible in accordance with the Bible education program. Today’s lecturing part is ‘Lord’s prayer’ from Matthew. Christians generally reflect on the passage as the whole entity, which consists in 6 parts, 3 in the first and 3 in the second groups. However the program writer instructs us today to focus on 6:13 alone. He must think that Lords’ prayer is so important that each stanza should be contemplated separately. Indeed, we find in Anazon.jp site more than 10 theological books of which subject is Lord’s prayer. It has such profound signification.

The word ‘temptation’ is ‘¦Ð¦Å¦É¦Ñ¦Á¦Ò¦Ìός, {peirasmos}’ in the original Greek text, which means an enticement to sin or a trial to prove human’s integrity and virtue. Though two meanings are slightly different, unfortunately Japanese translation does not allow us to distinguish them clearly. I think that temptation is comes only from negative intention to entice us to sin while trial might aim for guidance or instruction to a better way of living. And interpretation depends on how we understand the word. We can pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation,’ or ‘Lead us not into trial.’

Today we take the former because all of us are weak in facing temptation. When we reflect on that weakness, we might refer immediate to the episode in Genesis, ‘The fall of man’:
– The LORD God commanded Adam, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” But the serpent, the most crafty of all animals, said to Adam’s wife Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You will surely die by eating from the tree’ ? But it’s not true. When you eat a fruit of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Eve could not resist the temptation and ate one. Besides she gave another to her husband and he also ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (see Genesis 2:16-3:2:7)

The episode implies that when the sin entered in humans they became unfaithful and arrogant. And they wanted to be equal to God. We, who live in the modern world, also are tempted into sin. For example, when we undergo terrible incidents or severe sufferings we might feel betrayed by God and abandon the faith. We should think then that a life in accordance with God’s teaching is worthless and begin to do whatever we desire by ignoring God’s will.

People who live that way form a society in which the voracious exploit the weak. Furthermore, losing God, they don’t have a correct answer to the question, ‘Why we must not kill?’ So they can kill anyone for a trivial reason, or even without any reason. They will look for superficial and easy pleasure, for instance, anonymous sexes, druguse, or abusive drinking, etc.

But Paul said ; - “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive.(1 Corinthians 10:23) And, forgeting that, a human becomes inhuman, which happens easily in this world. Therefore Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’

2. Deliver us from the evil one

In Greek text, the expression ‘The evil one’ is an adjective, ‘¦Ð¦Ï¦Í¦Ç¦Ñός, {pon-ay-ros}’. And, being used as a masculine noun, it means ‘the evil one, or Satan. ‘ (in form of neutral noun it means ‘evil act’) Satan is personification of evil, who tries to entice humans with ‘temptation, (peirasmos)’ to the sin.

But I think that it is not a mere allusion. He should exist in reality and inside. For example, Nazi’s monstrous acts should have been impossible without satanic nature which hides inside humans. When Germans chose Hitler as their leader the very nature occupied the mind of German citizens. In other words, Satin captured the majority of Germans. Thus they allowed Nazi party to kill thousands of millions of Jewish and other peoples in extremely cruel ways. Or, though Japanese are generally considered to be meek, they behaved like Satan in China during the world war II. Americans and Serbs did likewise in Vietnam and Yugoslavia respectively. Those historical facts reveal that the good in normal time can conduct as horrible killers. It is due to the weakness of all human beings.

A german theologian Julius Schniewind* explained the concerning stanza of Lord’s prayer : –Trough Lord’s prayer, we pray God that the evil one would not induce us of flesh to become sceptic and faithless then to commit shameful sin . – We understand thus that ‘Satan’ as our earthy desires in modern sense.

Jesus’ life was filled with fights against ‘ temptations (peirasmos)’. And among them, that of the Gethsemane must be the most strived one. Matthew described it ; - Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."(Matthew 26:36-39)

‘May this cup be taken from me,’ implies that Jesus was reluctant to die on a cross. He might think that he as the Son of God could save humans in another way, by remaining alive. The inner conflict was so severe that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, while his disciples fell asleep by exhaustion of sorrow. Therefore, when they awoke, Jesus said to them, “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” and “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."(see matthew 26:40-41)

‘The spirit is willing, but the body is weak,’ points exactly to the nature of humans. The same word ‘temptation (pirasmos)’ is also used here. Jesus knew very well how and what humans were. Therefore he teaches us to pray, ‘Deliver us from the evil one.’

* Julius Schniewind (automatically translated page)
http://translate.google.co.jp/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Schniewind&ei=2lTeS6ybHZWekQW0l_CeBw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DJulius%2BSchniewind%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den

3. Supported by Jesus’ prayer

Today’s invocation verse is John 17:15 ; - My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

John 17 is the recored of words that Jesus told his disciples just before the death. To begin with, he prayed that God protects them ; - I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.(John 17:11) Then ; - I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.(John 17:14-15)

He wanted his disciples to fight against the evil and to overcome the world. However he knew that they are not very strong. They were scattered away when Jesus was arrested. (see again matthew 40-41. and also 26:56)

So much so Jesus prayed that God for protection. Please remark that it has the same essence to ‘Deliver us from the evil one,’ in Lord’s Prayer. Jesus himself prayed the same prayer as he had teaches us.

Now we must recognize that the most dangerous temptation comes from inner side of ourselves, not from the evil in outside. And, if we yield to it, we won’t be anymore the children of God but similar to those who are of the world .

Indeed, we are very weak and powerless per se. We cannot resist temptations categorically. But Jesus protects us. He is always praying for us. And we should be able to overcome the world by helping each other. For that purpose, we should remain in a Christian community, or the church, following as Jesus’ will.

As an example of those communities, I present now ‘Alcoholics Anonymous.*’ Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a worldwide mutual aid movement which describes itself as “a fellowship of men and women.” The primary purpose of the members is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. They follow a set of guiding principles,’ Twelve-steps program,’ which outlines a course of action for recovery from addiction. The first step is to declare ‘We admitted that we are powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.’ Thus they declare their weakness. However they still believe that a power greater than themselves can restore them to sanity. And they think that such a power must come from God then they make a decision to turn their will and their lives over to the care of Him. They help and pray for each other. Members arrive to overcome the addiction that way. They understand and accept humbly that, only thanks to mutual aid, they can become independent from alcohol. They achieve the aim by continuously praying and meditating as methodes to improve their conscious. The prayers should be exclusively for knowledge of God’s will for them and the power to carry that out. By clearing all twelve steps, they should be awaken spiritually. So they begin making efforts to spread the movement to other alcoholics by supporting them.

Presently the movement turns from changing drinking behavior into solving other addiction problems. Those who suffer from different types of dependences are now interested in or participate to the movement.

Addiction, more exactly substance dependence is defined this way by WHO*2:
– Substance dependence is a chronic and relapsing behavioural disorder, caused by a repeated and often prolonged and/or heavy use of psychoactive substances. It is characterized by the continued use of these substances despite physical and mental problems, strong desire to take the substance(s), difficulties in controlling substance use, neglect of other activities and interests in favour of using or seeking the drug, increased tolerance and sometimes a withdrawal syndrome once drug use is abruptly ceased.–

Although alcoholism is the best known case, drug and nicotine are also substances which cause addiction. And, a part form material substances, excessive enthusiasm and desire make persons obsessed with them, for instance to gamble excessively, to have abusive sexual relationship, to use internet insanely or to borrow money to spend at illegally hight rate for example. And those habitudes generate social problems very often.

We must also know that dependence is not due to the lack of will, mental resistance or weak moral. It is a sickness which to be cured correctly. For that purpose, the sick must admit and face their real state. Then they must understand that others persons also are suffering from the same sickness. And the most important step is to believe that there is an effective treatment to restore themselves in sane, which is to trust in a power which prevails human capacity.

The activities of AA reveal that praying Lord’s prayer give us a real and tangible power. It is never mere verbal repeatings. It orients us to recognize, ‘We are too weak to resist temptations alone. Without faith in God we yield easily to the evil. And we need fellows to pray together in order to continue fighting, despite our weakness.’

Thus we will be guided to repent and join the church. Lord’s prayer is the very prayer which empower us to live in fighting against the evil.

*1 Alcoholics Anonymous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholics_Anonymous
*2 Addiction http://www.who.int/mip2001/files/1962/ManagementofSubstanceDependence..pdf