Luke 11:1

This chapter gives Jesus' instruction on prayer (Luke 11:1-13), recounts his refutation of the Pharisees' insinuation that Christ was in league with Satan (Luke 11:14-26), records his reaction to a compliment (Luke 11:27-28), details another instance of his reference to Jonah (Luke 11:29-32), stresses his warning against spiritual blindness (Luke 11:33-36), tells of his lunch with a Pharisee (Luke 11:42-44), includes an additional three "woes" against the lawyers, and concludes with Luke's summary of the intensified evil cabal against Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees (Luke 11:53-54).

Much of the material in this chapter is suggestive of very similar teachings found in Matthew; but this must not be understood as variable accounts of the same events and teachings, colored by the individual viewpoints of the narrators, and therefore being inaccurate or deficient in one or another of the sacred evangelists. The holy Gospels are totally accurate in all of their details; and the conviction that underlies this series of commentaries makes it impossible to receive as valid any type of exegesis that fails to respect this viewpoint.

It is absolutely certain that Christ repeated, over and over again, all of the sacred teachings regarding himself and the message which he brought from the Father; and in the light of that certainty, how inane and puerile are the speculations regarding the Lord's prayer, recorded both in this chapter and in Matthew, and the pontifications of scholars about which is the "true" account! The same may be said of many other things in this Gospel. How natural, and how impossible to suppose that it could have been otherwise, that Jesus would have returned again and again to the principal teachings that made up the burden of his four-year campaign of enlightenment!

THE LORD'S PRAYER

And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. (Luke 11:1)

He was praying ... Prayer was a characteristic habit of the Lord Jesus Christ; and no prayerless person has any kinship whatever with the Saviour. "That man is a brute, a monster, who never prays, never gives glory to his Maker, nor owns his dependence upon him."[1]

When he ceased, one of his disciples said ... The circumstances here are utterly different from those in which the similar Lord's prayer was given in Matthew. Jesus repeated it "on two or more occasions"[2] for the instruction of his followers; and it was most natural that the prayer should have been repeated in different words, "for Jesus' view of prayer was that it should not be mechanical."[3] The respect of that unnamed disciple who made the request for instruction should be noted; he waited until Jesus had finished praying.

Lord, teach us to pray ... "This itself is a good prayer, and a very needful one; for it is a hard thing to pray well."[4]

As John taught his disciples ... No other record of such action on John's part has come down from that age.

[1] Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Holy Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1960), p. 692.

[2] Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1951), p. 318.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Matthew Henry, op. cit., p. 692.