Lenten Devotion – Day 20

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Today’s Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13   Part 1

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10)

Those who have prayed the Lord's Prayer with an open heart, as an act of humble discipleship, know that the prayer is powerful and even dangerous. In praying the Lord's Prayer we ask God to lead us down some risky and unfamiliar paths. Praying the Lord's Prayer compromises the sense of security we fumble to maintain within our own power. - Victoria Rebeck, The Christian Ministry, Jan-Feb 1995, 2.

  As we have been examining the kingdom of God and its role in our discipleship as we follow Jesus Christ, we come today to the Lord’s Prayer. Today will be Part 1 of a two part devotional looking at Matt. 6:10 of the Lord’s Prayer. We will examine the beginning of the prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” (vv. 9-10) The kingdom was important to Jesus in his teachings and parables and now he teaches his disciples to pray a prayer that begins with the kingdom as its first focus.

  The Kingdom of God or Heaven was central to the message of Jesus. Jesus himself described the preaching of the Kingdom as an obligation laid upon him: “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4:43; Mark 1:38) Luke’s description of Jesus’ activity is that he went through every city and village preaching and showing the good news of the Kingdom of God (Luke 8:1).

  We find that Jesus spoke of the Kingdom in three different ways. He spoke of the Kingdom as existing in the past. He said that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets were in the Kingdom, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.” (Luke 13:28) “I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” (Matt. 8:11) Clearly, therefore, the Kingdom goes far back into history.

  Jesus spoke of the Kingdom as present. “For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you," Jesus said. (Luke 17:21) Jesus also said the kingdom was near, “cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'” (Luke 10:9) The Kingdom of God is therefore a present reality here and now.

  Jesus also spoke of the Kingdom of God as future, Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the coming of the Kingdom in the Lord’s Prayer. How then can the Kingdom be past, present, and future all at the same time? How can the Kingdom be at one and the same time something which existed, which exists, and for whose coming it is our duty to pray? We discover an understanding of this in the double petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

Let your Kingdom come:
Let your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. (v. 10)

  One of the commonest characteristics of Hebrew style is what is technically known as parallelism. The Hebrew tended to say everything twice. The writer would said it in one way, and then he said it in another way which repeated or amplified or explained the first way. Almost any verse of the Psalms divides in two in the middle; and the second half repeats or amplifies or explains the first half. For example, in Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

  “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10) Let us assume that the second petition explains, and amplifies, and defines the first. This phrase leads us to a solid definition of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a society upon earth were God’s will is as perfectly done as it is in heaven. Here we have an explanation of how the kingdom can be past, present and future all at the same time.

  Any person who at any time in history perfectly did God’s will was within the kingdom; any person who perfectly does God’s will is within the kingdom; but since the world is very far from being a place where God’s will is perfectly and universally done, the final realization of the kingdom is still in the future and is still something for which we must pray.

  To be in the kingdom is to do the will of God. Immediately we see that the kingdom is not something which primarily has to do with the nations and people and countries. It is something which has to do with each one of us. The kingdom demands the submission of my will, my heart, and my life. It is only when each one of us makes his personal decision and submission that the kingdom comes.

  The Chinese Christian prayed the well-known prayer, “Lord, revive thy church, beginning with me." And we might well paraphrase that and say, “Lord, bring in thy kingdom, beginning with me.” To pray for the kingdom of heaven is to pray that we may submit our wills entirely to the will of God. Tomorrow, we will look at fulfilling God’s will on earth.

Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning: Psalms 27; 147:12–20
Evening: Psalms 126; 102
Jeremiah 10:11–24
Romans 5:12–21
John 8:21–32