Perhaps the most well-known words from the Bible are the "Lord's Prayer." Versions of the prayer occur in both the "The Sermon On The Mount" in Matthew 6:9-13 and "the Sermon on the Plain" in Luke 11:1-4. Although it is not immediately obvious to most people who pray this prayer, this prayer is deeply concerned with economic issues.

Even though every Christian church uses the Lord's Prayer, following Matthew's version rather than Luke's, there are variations in the exact wording.

Some churches use the archaic English, "thy" and "thine." Protestant churches usually end the prayer with the words, "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory." Roman Catholics do not recite this ending.

The most significant difference between various churches is that some churches use the language of "debts," some use "trespasses," and some use "sins."

When Jesus taught his followers to pray for daily bread and forgiveness of debts, it was more than a prayer for spiritual sustenance and forgiveness of sins. He was first of all referring to real bread and real debts.

The most basic meaning of the Greek word for "debts" is financial. This meaning is consistent with the approach of Jesus to the social and ethical injustices of his society against the poor and dispossessed. In the prayer, he makes explicit the need for real bread and for payment of debt.

The most critical element of the prayer is the reference to the Kingdom of God, which does not refer to an afterlife in Heaven. When Jesus prays, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," he is expressing his belief that God will end oppression, poverty, and suffering on earth. The Kingdom of God refers to the rule of God on earth.

A prayer with the words: "Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" loses the economic foundation of the prayer when "bread" and "debt" become spiritual metaphors, with no connection to real food and economic debt.

No one who heard Jesus speak would have limited his words about bread and debts to spiritual metaphors. Jesus spoke to a population who were underfed and overtaxed. Most of the peasants were in debt, because the king and the elite class owned the land. They claimed proprietary rights to the land and everything grown on it. The demands from the ruling class were so high that the peasants were deeply in debt. In addition, many of the beggars were people who had been forced off the land because they could not pay their debts to the ruling class.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus spoke about the real human needs of people in a society divided between the haves and the have-nots. He saw the vast gap between the rich and the poor, and criticized the rich for their exploitation and oppression of the poor. He also condemned a religious system which excluded whole categories of people from God's blessing, by labeling them as "unclean."

Jesus saw hunger, poverty, sickness, and suffering endured by most of the population. He saw how the rich landowners grew rich at the expense of the poor. He saw people who were homeless because they had been driven off their land by high rents and taxes. He saw the result of high taxes on the people who had to turn over most of what they grew, made, or caught. He also knew what it was to live under Roman occupation. Roman soldiers could force people to do whatever they wanted. He saw how the Temple system collaborated with the Roman occupiers to bleed the people of their money and their power.

It is also true that Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer preserves an Aramaic idiom. Aramaic writings show that the language of "debt" and "debtors" was used regularly for "sin" and "sinners." Jesus spoke Aramaic and clearly intended that the word "debts" in the prayer refer to both money debts and sins.

In Luke, the prayer loses the double meaning of the word, "debts." Instead, Luke uses the word "sin" rather than "debt." This word choice loses the financial reality behind the metaphor and obscures the underlying concern with real bread and real debts.

Especially in these times of food shortages and rampant debts, Christians who want to pray as Jesus intended need to restore the basic economic meaning to the prayer. This is especially significant at a time when basic staples such as wheat, rice, and corn have become more and more scarce. It is also significant for the millions of people who are swamped in debt and facing foreclosure and bankruptcy because of debts they cannot repay.

Jesus meant his words to address suffering and injustice in his own society. His prayer for bread and debts referred to real bread and forgiveness of real financial debts.

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Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D. What if most of what you were taught about Jesus and money is not true? Get your copy of Going Broke With Jesus at www.GoingBrokeWithJesus.com to see how often Christians misunderstand what Jesus said about money.