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The Greatest Prayer

Reviewed by Chris Skilton.

There are many books on the Lord’s Prayer, dedicating a chapter to each phrase – and here is another by John Dominic Crossan who has written widely on Jesus in the setting of his own historical times.

This is a very accessible and scholarly meditation on the prayer. Crossan defines his method as taking the core key word of each phrase of the prayer – Father, name, kingdom, etc. – and, with the help of a concordance, tracing the word through Old and New Testament. His guiding perspective is that this prayer is “a revolutionary manifesto and a hymn of radical hope”.

He is provocative and compelling. For instance, he sees the ‘abba’ word as being not so much about male exclusiveness, but alluding to the householder, whose primary concern is for a well-ordered household, established for the well-being of all. The chapter on ‘your kingdom come’, defined as “the ruling style of God” is for Crossan a prayer for realized justice whereby “the challenge about God’s kingdom is not about the imminence of divine intervention, but about the empowerment of human collaboration.” (p.93).  I was fascinated by his conviction that the phrase translated ‘forgive us our debts’ resonates with the most common experience of debt in Jesus’ day – debt that resulted in or from slavery. The phrase therefore leads back to the Exodus experience and God’s deliverance of his household from slavery and the formative experience of the nation of Israel.

For placing the Lord’s Prayer in its cultural setting, I personally have valued the insights which Kenneth Bailey offers in his wonderful book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern  Eyes (SPCK 2008) and would turn to that first.  I’m not sure that I would give Crossan to a member of the congregation wanting to explore the significance of the Lord’s Prayer for their own prayer life, but for ministers preaching a sermon series on this prayer, it may be a helpful resource. You may not agree with it, but it will certainly set you thinking creatively.