Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. —Matthew 6:11–12
Father Richard Rohr points to the economic emphasis present in the prayer of Jesus:
These phrases in the prayer of Jesus or the “Our Father” on bread and debts are clearly a prayer given to the poor. Bread and debt are the preoccupations of the peasant class. How do I have food for tomorrow and how do I pay my bills? In the Old English of the King James Bible, the word “debts” was rendered as “trespasses.” It seems unchangeable now because we’ve said it for so long, but without doubt, the word in the original text is clearly an economic word.
We have spiritualized this petition, as we did most of the gospel. We made this petition refer to private, individual forgiveness—you trespassing against me. Surely it does have that meaning, but on the first level this petition really refers to economic indebtedness. The power of this petition lies in the Jubilee year, described in Leviticus 25.
You shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the aftergrowth or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces. In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property…. You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.
—Leviticus 25:10–13; 17–19
In ancient Israel, in the fiftieth year, everything went back to its original owner. Ideally, all debts were forgiven. It was the great equalizer, a sign of the largess and magnanimity of God. This is the teaching Jesus is drawing upon when he quotes from Isaiah in his inaugural address and throughout his ministry (Luke 4:18–19, 21).
If people had lived by the law of Jubilee, communism would never have been necessary, and capitalism would have never been possible. The spirit behind this jubilee thinking lasted for the first 1,000 years of Christianity, when one could be excommunicated for taking an interest on a loan. (They called it the sin of usury.) The prayer of petition Jesus teaches still raises questions about economics: How does the burden of debt—the personal debt people carry in our consumer society, the national debt carried, particularly by Global South countries—keep people imprisoned in their own history?
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Alternative Plan: The Sermon on the Mount, 2nd ed. (Franciscan Media, 2022), 178–179.
Image credit and inspiration: Wei Feng, untitled (detail), 2025, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like this person in the field, arms unbound and outstretched, we explore the freedom that rises when we support economic justice, no longer tethered to endless and oppressive debt relationships.
Story from Our Community:
Thank you to Randy Woodley’s insights in “A Harmonious Goodness.” We have drifted away from this unified whole and seem to be galloping headlong toward a precipice of nuclear annihilation, climate chaos, shootings, pollution, and disregard for the poor, sick and marginalized. But we have a choice: We don’t have to accept this scenario as an inevitable outcome of human greed and domination. We can choose the way of God’s love, compassion and justice. We can be filled with the Spirit and treat every encounter as an opportunity to share God’s goodness.
—Andy H.
