Invite the Tiger Out of the Cage

The Heirloom of Prayer

During her sunset years of life, Kendra’s grandmother hand-stitched several colorful quilts for Kendra.  They are some of our favorite heirlooms—especially the double wedding band quilt.  The blankets remind us of Memaw’s generous love, fun-loving spirit and quirky personality.  I think of her every time we pull a quilt out of our hallway closet.

Perhaps you have an heirloom from a much-loved-one.  A family piano.  A treasured set of crystal.  A piece of framed art.  These items reflect that individual’s kindness and care.  They tell us something about the heart of that person.

Leaving an inheritance is a common practice.  We’ve come to expect it from those who are important to us.  But what about the One who is most important?  Did Jesus leave an heirloom?  If so, what was it?  What gift did Jesus bequeath to those who lived after he left?  If Jesus had written a will, what legacy would he have listed on its pages?

Perhaps with such questions in mind, George Buttrick writes this: “Two signs of Jesus abide, though all else be ignored or forgotten—a prayer and a cross…These are His memorial: not a tombstone or a moneyed foundation, but a simple prayer and a gallows set against the daybreak.”[i]

You may not be surprised to find the cross listed on Jesus’ Last Will and Testament.  Almost universally, when people think of the Christ they think of the cross.  The worldwide symbol of Jesus’ contribution to humanity is his cross.  The world-changing summary of Jesus’ challenge to humanity is his cross.  He died so we might live.  We die so that others might live.

But you may be surprised by the mention of a prayer.  A prayer is listed among his most prized possessions?  Buttrick is referring to a specific prayer—what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.”  Besides the cross, what captures the heart of Jesus is the heirloom bequeathed to us in his Lord’s Prayer.  As Jesus sought some way to pass down what most mattered to him, he chose to grant us the inheritance of Calvary’s cross and the Lord’s Prayer.  William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas write, “So if you are asked, ‘Who is a Christian?’ the best answer you can give is, ‘A Christian is none other than someone who has learned to pray the Lord’s Prayer.’”[ii]  To be a Christian is to pray Jesus’ prayer.

What’s so valuable about this prayer?  Consider its wonderful words:

⁹  Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,
¹² and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. (Matt. 6:9-13 ESV)

The prayer, as Frederick Buechner writes, focuses primarily on God’s omnipotence and our impotence.  It is rooted in the belief that God can still do anything and that we still can’t do much of anything.  It is the ultimate declaration of dependence.  It puts God in his place.  It puts us in our place:

“We do well not to prayer the prayer lightly.  It takes guts to pray it at all…’Thy will be done’ is what we are saying.  That is the climax of the first half of the prayer.  We are asking God to be God.  We are asking God to do not what we want but what God wants…To speak those words is to invite the tiger out of the cage, to unleash a power that makes atomic power look like a warm breeze.  You need to be bold in another way to speak the second half.  Give us.  Forgive us.  Don’t test us.  Deliver us.  If it takes guts to face the omnipotence that is God’s, it takes perhaps not less to face the impotence that is ours.  We can do nothing without God.  Without God we are nothing.”[iii]

The prayer puts God in his place and us in ours.  It invites the tiger out of the cage.  Authors Mike Breem and Steve Cockram propose that everything Jesus taught about life in the kingdom of God is summarized in this brief prayer.  True discipleship comes only as we learn to pray this prayer.[iv]

The cross and this prayer.  These are Jesus’ greatest gifts.  In them we find all that is needed for a life of following in his footsteps.