Abba

When the disciples asked Jesus, “teach us to pray,” He obliged them.

But it’s interesting how He begins: “Our Father in heaven…”

A German New Testament scholar named Joachim Jeremias did a study in which he went through the Old Testament, plus the existing rabbinic writings from ancient Jewish sources.  He couldn’t find a single example ever of a Jewish writer or author addressing God directly and personally as Father until the 10th century AD.   On the other hand, Jeremias found that Jesus addresses God as Father in every one of His prayers (except one) recorded in the New Testament.

Jesus could do this because He was God’s only begotten Son.  But does it feel a little presumptuous for you and I to address Sovereign, Holy God as “Father”?  It should, if we take His holiness seriously.  To the Jews of Jesus’ day, it was shocking – so shocking that the religious leaders of the day nearly stoned him for blasphemy (John 5:18).  But this is the privilege that comes with being adopted into Christ’s family by faith: we not only can call Him Father – but we can address Him in the most intimate terms as “Abba.”  This is an Aramaic term that’s more or less the equivalent of “Daddy” (and not a Swedish 70’s band).

If you’re a parent – especially a dad – maybe you also get this.  There are so many days when, well, let’s just say they aren’t “full of win.”  I drag myself in the door, licking my wounds – where I’m greeted by two very high-pitched excited voices saying, “Daddy!”  Suddenly it doesn’t matter what the rest of my day was like.  How can I not smile?

So the God who made the Universe, who parted the Red Sea, who raises the dead and is so holy that He sanctified even the dirt around the Burning Bush – this God wants me to address Him like that?  He smiles when I address Him as “Daddy”?  Just like my little girls?

Jesus’ answer is a definitive YES.

So go to Him this morning – take this day and all it holds to Him.  And when you do, remember that it makes Him smile just to hear the voices of His adopted children.

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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
– Matthew 7:7-11