Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

. Prayer
THE MISSION OF JESUS
§14.2
The other aspect of the childlike trust implicit in the above passage is given prominence
elsewhere in Jesus' teaching and deserves separate comment — prayer. The
children of the Father know that they can take their concerns and requests to God
in confidence. This is clear already in the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, simple but
basic in the concerns they voice. It is to God as Father that Jesus encourages his
disciples to bring their requests for bread, for forgiveness, for deliverance from
temptation (Matt. 6.9-13/Luke 11.2-4). 52 Equally memorable is Jesus' assurance
that God hears and answers prayer — (Matt.7.7-ll/Luke 11.9-13):
Matt. 7.7-11
7 Ask, and it will be given you;
seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will
be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks
receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for
everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 Or what person among you who, if his son asks
for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks
for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you then, who are evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father who is in heaven give
good things to those who ask him.
Luke 11.9-13
9 So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you:
seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will
be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks
receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for
everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 What father among you who, if your son
asks
for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12
Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a
scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will the heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Few question whether this teaching goes back to Jesus. 53 It is not just an encouragement
to persistent prayer 54 but also an assurance of the eagerness of the Fa-
52. Note how by adding the assurance that 'your Father knows what you need before
you ask him' immediately before the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6.8; the same assurance as in 6.32),
Matthew deliberately links the prayer to the subsequent teaching in 6.25-34.
53. Funk, Five Gospels 155; Lüdemann, Jesus 151. Note the typical performance variations
(Matt. 7.9-10/Luke 11.11-12). It is presumably to Luke himself that we owe
crystallisation of the 'good things' promised (Matthew) into 'the Holy Spirit', since the Spirit
features more prominently in his Gospel (six appearances in Mark, twelve in Matthew, and seventeen
in Luke). Partial echoes are retained in P.Oxy. 654 = GTh 2 and GTh 92, 94. Note also
John 16.23-24. Matt. 18.19 is probably an elaboration of the same motif as part of Matthew's
'community rule'. See also below, §15.7g (3).
54. Reinforced in the Greek by the present tenses: 'keep asking', 'keep seeking', 'keep
knocking' (though see also Davies and Allison, Matthew 1.679-80). Luke further reinforces the
point by appending the parable of the friend at midnight (Luke 11.5-8), another parable which,
despite its sole attestation by Luke, is usually referred back to Jesus without difficulty (Funk,
Five Gospels 327-28; Hultgren, Parables 233 n. 29; Lüdemann, Jesus 335); for discussion of
detail see Bailey, Poet and Peasant 119-33; Catchpole, Quest 201-11; Hultgren 226-33. It is
also Luke who records the parable of the unjust judge in Luke 18.2-8, making the same point
(see chapter 12 n. 251).
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