Commentary - Luke 11:1-13

Bird's-eye view

In this foundational passage, Luke presents us with the disciples' request for instruction in prayer, prompted by the example of Jesus Himself. The Lord responds not with a complex mystical system, but with a model of profound simplicity and relational directness, what we have come to call the Lord's Prayer. This prayer establishes the proper orientation of the Christian life: God-ward first, in worship and submission to His kingdom purposes, and then man-ward, in our humble requests for provision, pardon, and protection. But Jesus does not stop with the content of prayer. He immediately follows the prayer with two parables, or illustrations, designed to teach us the disposition of prayer. The first, the parable of the persistent friend, teaches us to be shamelessly importunate. The second, the illustration of the earthly father, teaches us to be utterly confident in our heavenly Father's goodness. The entire section is a master class in communion with God, grounding our prayers not in our eloquence or deservingness, but in the very character of the Father to whom we are privileged to speak.

The climax of the passage reveals the ultimate gift that the Father delights to give: the Holy Spirit. This is crucial. Jesus teaches us to ask for bread, forgiveness, and guidance, but He concludes by showing that the Father's greatest desire is to give us Himself. Prayer, then, is not a transactional exercise to get things from God, but a relational means by which we receive more of God Himself, through His Spirit. It is the engine of the Christian life, fueled by a persistent faith in a Father who is infinitely more willing to give good gifts than we are to ask for them.

Outline

Context In Luke

This passage is situated in the long central section of Luke's Gospel, often called the "Travel Narrative," which details Jesus' journey toward Jerusalem. This section is rich with Jesus' teaching, particularly through parables. The request, "Lord, teach us to pray," follows a period of intense ministry and precedes further confrontations with His opponents. Luke frequently highlights Jesus' own prayer life (Luke 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28), so it is natural that the disciples, observing their Master's deep communion with the Father, would desire to learn His "secret." This instruction on prayer is not given in a vacuum; it is given to men who are being trained to carry on His mission. Proper prayer is therefore presented as essential equipment for discipleship. The emphasis on the Holy Spirit at the end of the passage also anticipates the central role the Spirit will play in the book of Acts, Luke's second volume, where the Spirit empowers the prayerful church to turn the world upside down.

Key Issues

The Open Door to the Father's House

The disciples come to Jesus with a simple request: "Lord, teach us to pray." They had seen John the Baptist teach his disciples a particular way to pray, and more importantly, they had seen Jesus Himself pray. They knew His power and His peace were somehow connected to this regular communion with His Father. Jesus' response is revolutionary. He doesn't give them a mantra or a set of esoteric rituals. He gives them a family password. He tells them to walk right up to the throne of the universe, knock on the door, and say, "Father."

This is the radical reorientation of the new covenant. God is not primarily a distant, inscrutable monarch or a cosmic principle. Through the work of the Son, He has become our Father. Everything else in this passage flows from this foundational truth. Because He is our Father, we can ask for His name to be honored and His kingdom to come with the confidence of loyal sons. Because He is our Father, we can ask for our daily bread like children at the family table. And because He is a good Father, we can be shamelessly persistent, knowing that our knocking is not an irritation to Him, but a demonstration of our dependence that He loves to reward.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 And 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.”

Everything begins with the example of Jesus. The disciples don't ask this out of the blue. They see Jesus praying, and they see the fruit of it in His life and ministry. They perceive a depth of communion that they lack. Their request is not for a better technique, but for a deeper relationship. They want the kind of access to God that Jesus clearly has. The reference to John the Baptist is telling; it was common for a rabbi to give his followers a characteristic prayer. The disciples are asking Jesus to do the same for them, to give them an identity and a rule of life centered on the kind of prayer He practices.

2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

Jesus' instruction starts with a revolution in a single word: Father. While God is referred to as a father in the Old Testament, it was not the common, direct form of address in prayer. Jesus invites His followers into the same intimate relationship He has with the Father. This is the bedrock of Christian prayer. We do not approach a tyrant or a stranger, but our Dad. From this foundation, the first two petitions are utterly God-centered. Before we ask for anything for ourselves, we are to ask for God's name to be "hallowed", to be set apart, regarded as holy, and treasured above all else. And we are to pray for His kingdom to come. This is a prayer for God's will to be done, for His reign to be established and made visible on earth as it is in heaven. It is an explicitly postmillennial prayer; we are asking for the kingdom to come, not for us to go.

3 Give us each day our daily bread.

Having established the right priorities, God's glory and God's kingdom, we are now free to ask for our own needs. And the request is a model of simple, creaturely dependence. We ask for bread, the basic staple of life. We ask for it "daily," acknowledging that we depend on God not just for our salvation in the abstract, but for our very next meal. This is a prayer against anxiety. We are not to worry about tomorrow, but to trust our Father to provide for today. It keeps us coming back to Him every single day, reinforcing our reliance on His goodness.

4 And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ”

This petition has two parts. First, we ask for forgiveness for our sins. This is a daily necessity, just like bread. We are always sinning and always in need of pardon. But Jesus connects our receiving of forgiveness to our granting of forgiveness. This is not to say that we earn God's forgiveness by forgiving others. Rather, a willingness to forgive is the necessary evidence that we have truly understood and received God's grace ourselves. An unforgiving Christian is a walking contradiction. He is like a man who has been pardoned of a billion-dollar debt who then goes out and throttles a friend for an unpaid twenty. The second part, "lead us not into temptation," is a humble request for protection. We are acknowledging our own weakness and asking our Father to steer us away from trials that would be too great for us, and to deliver us from the Evil One when we must face them.

5-7 Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything.’

Having taught them what to pray, Jesus now teaches them how to pray. He uses a parable of contrast. A man is in need because of a hospitality crisis, a friend has arrived unexpectedly at midnight, and he has no bread. He goes to his neighbor, not just to ask, but to bang on the door in the middle of the night. The neighbor's response is completely understandable. The whole family is asleep on the mat in their one-room house. Getting up means disturbing everyone. From a human standpoint, the request is an imposition.

8 I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

Here is the punchline. Friendship might not be enough to get the man out of bed, but shameless, bold, unending persistence will. The Greek word here for persistence carries the idea of shamelessness or importunity. The man keeps knocking, keeps shouting, making a scene. He will not take no for an answer. Eventually, the neighbor gets up and gives him what he needs, not out of friendship, but just to get him to go away. Jesus' point is an argument from lesser to greater. If even a grumpy, inconvenienced neighbor will give in to shameless persistence, how much more will your loving heavenly Father respond to the persistent cries of His children?

9-10 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

Jesus now states the principle directly. The verbs, ask, seek, knock, are in the present imperative in Greek, meaning this is a command to have a continuous attitude. "Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking." This is not a one-time request but a lifestyle of dependent pursuit. And the promise is absolute. Everyone who keeps asking receives. Everyone who keeps seeking finds. For everyone who keeps knocking, the door will be opened. This is not a blank check for our every whim, but a bedrock promise that when we pursue God Himself, we will not be disappointed.

11-12 But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Jesus drives the point home with another argument from the lesser to the greater, this time focusing on the character of the one being asked. He appeals to their own experience as fathers. What decent father, when his child asks for something good and necessary like a fish or an egg, would respond with a cruel and dangerous prank, handing him a snake or a scorpion? The idea is absurd. Even fallen, sinful human fathers have a natural instinct to provide for their children.

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

This is the glorious climax of the entire teaching. Jesus calls the earthly fathers in the crowd "evil", not because they are monsters, but because they are part of a fallen race, tainted by sin. Yet even in their fallenness, they know how to give good gifts. The logic is inescapable: "how much more" will your perfect, holy, loving heavenly Father give good things? And what is the ultimate good gift? Luke specifies it here: the Holy Spirit. Matthew's version says "good things," but Luke gets to the heart of the matter. The best gift the Father can give us is Himself. When we ask, seek, and knock, we are not just seeking things or solutions; we are seeking God. And the Father's ultimate delight is to answer that prayer by pouring out His own Spirit into our lives, empowering us, sanctifying us, and drawing us into deeper fellowship with Him.

Application

This passage ought to fundamentally reshape our prayer lives. First, it tells us to begin with our identity. We are children speaking to our Father. This should strip away all fear, pretense, and flowery religious language. We can and should speak plainly, honestly, and directly. Second, it sets our priorities straight. Our first concern in prayer should be for the reputation of our Father and the advancement of His kingdom. When our hearts are aligned with His purposes, our own petitions fall into their proper place.

Third, this passage commands us to be persistent pests. We are to be shameless. We are to ask, and keep asking. We are to knock, and keep knocking. This is not because God is reluctant like the sleepy neighbor, but because persistence demonstrates faith and clarifies our desires. God often delays His answers to teach us to want what He wants, and to trust His timing. Finally, we must have a rock-solid confidence in the Father's goodness. He is not a cosmic trickster who will give us a scorpion when we ask for an egg. He gives good gifts, and the best gift of all is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the ultimate goal of our asking, seeking, and knocking should be for more of the Spirit's presence and power in our lives. If we are feeling spiritually dry, weak, or defeated, the solution Jesus gives is startlingly simple: ask the Father for the Spirit. He delights to give Him.