It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

—Luke 11:1

I think this is probably one of the sweetest moments in all of Scripture. Most of the sweet moments I can think of involve Jesus or the Father showing someone their kindness and care, but this moment is sweet because I think that whichever of the disciples asked this question offered Jesus Himself an amazing blessing.

I imagine this question blessed Jesus in a similar way that a child might bless his or her parents when they, without prompting, put into practice the lessons Mom and Dad have worked hard to teach them about kindness and goodness.

At this point, Jesus has spent a good amount of time teaching His disciples to reshape their values and priorities to more closely reflect what God values and prioritizes. He has prioritized healing people over resting on the Sabbath. He’s valued caring for people over cultural norms surrounding gender and race. 

He sacrificed time to minister to a Samaritan woman. He taught Martha that Mary’s idea about sitting at His feet to learn from Him was more important than being the best hostess on the block. He was constantly reshaping the way they saw things, and finally, one of them put those lessons into practice by asking just the right question. I can’t help but think that He was just beaming with pride that day, which makes His answer to the question interesting.

If the question was to teach them to pray, it’s not surprising that He would model how to pray, and that’s what He does through the Lord’s Prayer. That’s not the interesting part. 

The interesting part is what comes after the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a passage I’ve heard many times before, but I had no idea what its context was until now. From verse five to the end of the section, Jesus used parables to teach about prayer.

The first is the story of the man who goes next door to get some bread because a surprise visitor has come to his house and he needs bread to give the visitor. The neighbor isn’t thrilled at being roused in the middle of the night and originally refuses to get out of bed, but finally does because the man is so persistent.

Next Jesus uses the relationship a father has with his children. “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?”

I’ve often heard these verses referenced when discussing the fact that God is generous and takes good care of His children or encouraging people to bring their requests to God regularly in prayer, but I think there’s more to it than that. It certainly is true that God cares for and provides for His children. It’s also true that He wants us to bring our needs and desires to Him in prayer often, but there’s another layer that makes the last half of Jesus’s lesson on prayer so much more beautiful.

When Jesus starts to answer the disciple’s question, He spends a little time modeling what types of things to say in prayer, but then He spends a lot more time talking about people making requests in different relationships.

With neighbors or acquaintances, you might have to humbly ask multiple times, but in the end, your request is likely to be granted.

With your earthly father, when you make a request, you can expect that if you request something good for you, you will get something good for you.

But both of these are contrasted with what happens when we approach our Heavenly Father on a regular basis. In a culture where rituals, courts, and curtains still stood between the people and the Holy God, Jesus brought a connection with the Father much closer to home. 

Where people would have feared going into the Holy of Holies if they weren’t supposed to, Jesus says to come to God with the confidence and faith of a boy asking his dad for something to eat. That doesn’t mean the answer will always be yes. Even a good earthly father might say his son can’t have any more fish if he has already eaten four, but we can approach God in prayer with confidence that what is good and right for the season we’re in will be provided in an abundance of love and care.

What I love about this passage is that even the request made by the disciple at the start of Luke eleven received over and above what He asked for. He made a request of Jesus and was blessed in abundance in the answer. May we also boldly approach our Heavenly Father, arms outstretched offering up our requests because we can be confident in the relationship we have with Him.