The Lord’s Prayer, a cornerstone of Christian faith, holds within it a profound and radical message that challenges our conventional understanding of evil, morality, and the human condition. The phrase “Deliver us from evil” is often interpreted as a plea to be saved from the forces of darkness, but what if this reading is misguided? What if, instead, Jesus is asking us to be delivered from the very notion of evil as we understand it?
To grasp this, we must delve into the linguistic and philosophical nuances of the prayer. The Greek word “ponēron,” often translated as “evil,” is actually a neuter noun, implying a state or condition rather than a person or entity. This understanding of evil as a phenomenological, irreducible aspect of our biological being resonates with the concept of “default evil” – the idea that being alive inherently involves suffering, toil, and the expulsion of poison.
The request “Deliver us from evil” can be seen as a plea to be freed from this default state, to be extracted from the cycle of suffering and torment that comes with being alive. But this liberation is not about escaping the difficulties of existence; rather, it’s about embracing the uncertainty and unpredictability of life. Jesus is not asking us to be saved from the challenges of the world but to be delivered into the agony of living, to be present in the midst of uncertainty and chaos.
This interpretation is reinforced by the concept of “the kingdom of heaven” being “at hand.” The phrase “kingdom of heaven” is often misunderstood as a physical or metaphysical realm, but what if it refers to the lived experience of being alive, with all its complexities and mysteries? The “kingdom” is not something to be achieved or attained but is instead the reality that surrounds us, waiting to be acknowledged and embraced.
In this sense, the Lord’s Prayer can be seen as a call to transcend our conventional understanding of morality and ethics, to move beyond the dichotomies of good and evil, and to embody a more radical and subversive form of goodness. This goodness is not about behaving well or following rules but about being present in the midst of uncertainty, embracing the complexity of human experience, and acknowledging the inherent suffering and toil that comes with being alive.
Ultimately, the prayer “Deliver us from evil” is not a request to be saved from the forces of darkness but an invitation to participate in the messy, uncertain, and often painful process of being human. It’s a call to embrace the default-ness of existence, to acknowledge the inherent suffering and toil that comes with being alive, and to find a way to live with it, to live through it, and to find a way to be good in the midst of it all.
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