Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done
In Matthew 6, the Lord’s Prayer is given as part of the Sermon of the Mount when Jesus moves from teaching about giving to the subject of prayer. Jesus says when we pray we’re to be more concerned with praying to God than praying in places that enable us to be seen or heard by others while we pray. A simple definition of prayer is talking to God about what we are doing together. Last week I shared the Lord’s Prayer from Luke’s Gospel, today we hear it from the Gospel of Matthew 6:7-13: 7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.[1]”
May 4, 2014
Matthew 6:7-13, Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
[powerpress]
In Week One of our series on The Lord’s Prayer, we learned that God is the focus of our prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is spoken to “Our Father, the one in the heavens” or “Our Father always near us.” The Lord’s Prayer speaks first about God’s name and then about God’s kingdom and God’s will being done on earth. Praying this prayer we begin by focusing on God and what God wants actually being accomplished. We don’t pray, “my will be done,” we pray “thy will be done.” This isn’t easy if we’re serious about it.
In his book, Rediscovering New Testament Prayer, John Koenig writes about the Lord’s Prayer, “Every day, in countless languages, in public and in private, in virtually every country of the world, this prayer ascends to God. It could be argued that no single minute passes when it is not being uttered. Paradoxically, one could also argue that very few of us who pray this prayer have a clear notion of what we are asking for, especially when we reach the second petition: ‘Let your kingdom come.’ Yet in many ways this is the central focus of the only prayer Jesus taught us, just as it was the central focus of his entire ministry.”
This part of the Lord’s Prayer is a petition or plea that God’s kingdom would fully come on earth. “Thy kingdom come.” In other words, that what God prefers is what actually happens. This is very often not the case on this troubled earth. This phrase of the Lord’s Prayer is a constant reminder that we want to act within the flow of God’s actions and will for us and for the world. “Thy kingdom come,” or “let your kingdom come,” demonstrates the need for our active participation in the coming of God’s kingdom and the doing of God’s will. Our participation begins with our prayers but it can’t stop there. There’s a significant difference between being a Christian and a fatalist. Some Christians seem so fatalistic they could go out on the Brewster flats at low tide and sit on the sand until high tide came in and they drowned – then they’d say, “I guess it was God’s will.” Nonsense.
Praying for God’s will to be done on earth, by the power of God’s Spirit working among us and through us, requires our active participation and our full engagement. As Christian, we don’t fatalistically accept everything that happens to us or to others, as God’s will. Everything that happens in the world is not the will of God. God wouldn’t have had to send Jesus to the world if everything that happened in the world was according to the will of God. Jesus wouldn’t have told his disciples to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, if it was already being done on earth.
Human free will exercised under the influence of selfishness, sin, and evil produces actions and behavior outside of God’s will and desire for humanity. For example, I don’t believe it is ever God’s will for a child to be abused. I don’t believe it is ever God’s will for someone to beat his or her spouse, child, or significant other. Don’t try to tell me that it was God’s will for little 4-year-old Jeremiah Oliver of Fitchburg to be murdered because I don’t believe it. When those sorts of things occur it’s because of the influence of human sin, disobedience, and evil; not because it’s God’s will.
When we pray, “your kingdom come,” we’re praying for a kingdom that remains extremely vulnerable to human free will and the powers that oppose God’s will and work in the world. We’re also praying for a kingdom that has great potential to transform sinful individuals, institutions, and the world – beginning with ourselves. When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” we’re praying, for example, that servanthood will replace domination, that forgiveness will absorb hostility (we’ll talk more about forgiveness in two weeks), and that God’s kingdom of love. light, grace, justice and mercy, will come into every area of human experience.
In praying for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth, we are praying that we will work with God to accomplish what the Lord wants. Imagine God’s will like a river, flowing with a fairly strong current. When we’re in the center of God’s will, our life moving in God’s intended path, it’s like paddling a canoe down the center of the river, carried by the current. There is a degree of freedom and space in the center of the river, we have room to move, however the further we venture from the center of God’s will, the closer we get to the edge, the more perilous it is because that’s where the rocks, downed trees, and hidden obstacles are that can cause us to get wrecked and hurt. It’s also more difficult to paddle upstream against the current of God’s will. It’s also exhausting. I can imagine Jesus sitting in the front of our canoe paddling, every now and then turning around and asking, “Are you sure this is the way you want to go?” We insist we know what we’re doing, even though our arms ache, our shoulders are burning, and we know we’re going in a direction we shouldn’t. Jesus will not force us to change direction, he’ll stay with us, and he doesn’t ever get tired. He’ll be with us until we’re willing to turn around, and to seek the center of God’s will rather than our own way. We pray and strive for God’s will, not our will, to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Some of our confusion over this part of the Lord’s Prayer emerges when we pray for other people. Sometimes we may pray saying, without thinking too much about it, “If it be your will, Lord…” How often do you hear that phrase in the Bible expressed by Jesus or one of his disciples in prayer? “If it be your will Lord…” Most of the time when Jesus prays, or when the disciples or Paul prays, they pray with belief and conviction. In the Bible when people are being healed and delivered, there aren’t a whole lot of, “If it be your will” kind of prayers being uttered. People who need more faith like the father with sick son who cried to Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief,” may pray that way, but that’s not our model for praying, the Lord’s Prayer is. In the New Testament Jesus and his followers are to believe and trust that God wants the lame to be made whole, the blind to see, the disordered to be put in their right mind, the dead to have life, and God’s will to be done. Now, given our humanity and mortality, there may come a time in life when we need to recognize that we’re nearing our end like in 2 Kings 20:1, “In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'” There may be a time we need to put our house in order, there are diseases, illnesses or conditions that we may bear the rest of our life or that may be terminal and it’s not wise to pretend otherwise. However, even if there is not the physical healing we hope for, there are other kinds of healing – spiritual, emotional, or relational – that may take place even in the midst of dying.
The point is that most of the time we don’t need to be praying, “If it be your will…” If what we’re asking is in line with what we know of God’s will, then let’s ask boldly and not timidly as if we’re unsure if it’s okay to ask. We’re to pray believing God wants to answer our prayers. In John 15:16,.Jesus says to his disciples then and now, “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”
Asking for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done shapes the entire Lord’s Prayer. Jesus used the word translated “kingdom” as the primary image of his teaching. Matthew 4:23 sums up what Jesus did in the early days of his work: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” The kingdom of heaven is part of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3, 10), “3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus uses the word “kingdom” most frequently in his parables which often are pictures of what God’s reign or God’s will looks like. Matthew 13 is filled with parables of the kingdom. Often Jesus used the image of a feast, banquet, or a party to demonstrate what the kingdom of God is like. Jesus says in Matthew 8:11, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
When Jesus was accused by religious leaders of casting out demons in the name of evil, Jesus confronted his critics with another possible view of the healing being done through him (Mark 12:27-28), “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” The Kingdom of God is seen most clearly in the life of Jesus – what he said and what he did. One Bible scholar (John Yoder) describes the qualities of the kingdom of God we’re praying for as they’re seen in Jesus. “Here at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him. The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the kingdom; it is the kingdom come. We may choose to consider that kingdom as not real, or not relevant, or not possible, or not inviting; but we can’t choose any of these based on an honest reading of the gospels.”[2]
Jesus’ life and teaching including the Lord’s Prayer call us to join him as servants in the kingdom of God so that we can labor with him to help God’s will be done on earth as it is in already being done in heaven. In a speech to pastors, the highly respected teacher of preaching Fred Craddock described how it looks for us to live our lives in the kingdom here on earth. He said, “To give my life for Christ appears glorious. We think giving our all to the Lord is like a taking a $1,000 bill & laying it on the table – ‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’ But the reality for most of us is that God sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 bill for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”
Sharing kindness, generosity, and friendship with children and seniors and strangers, with the less powerful, the poor, the homeless, the sick, are all part of God’s will being done on earth. What would you say if someone asked you, “How do I enter the kingdom of God that you pray for every time you say the Lord’s Prayer?” In the familiar story of Jesus blessing the children that we share when we dedicate and bless children here at BBC, we hear the answer (Mark 10:14b-15). ““Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” This is not simply a picture of Jesus’ compassion for children. It’s also a picture of how people of every age enter the Kingdom of God. Like children, who call God Father, we’re often brought to Jesus by others, but then we must decide if we will approach him for a blessing. In coming to Jesus we not only receive the kingdom through his touch and embrace, but we enter into it as we give ourselves to him.
Entering God’s kingdom means trusting Jesus like a child. Entering God’s kingdom doesn’t transfer us into another world; it recruits us into being a part of God’s invasion of this world. Entering God’s kingdom means accepting Jesus’ invitation to become a guest at the banquet he will give. Entering God’s kingdom means we seek to repent from every thought, feeling, or act that hinders us from companionship with Jesus and strive to demonstrate practical love, forgiveness and generosity.
When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, for “thy will to be done,” we’re asking not only for the final establishment of God’s rule on earth, but also for help in sharing everyday 25 cent and 50 cent signs of it in our midst. When we pray, “your kingdom come,” we’re praying to be an active participant in God’s will for creation. This is not a prayer to be said passively or fatalistically. We’re praying that God’s kingdom will come to every area of human experience beginning with our lives and relationships and the institutions in which we live and work.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
- “A simple definition of prayer is talking to God about what we are doing together.” Talk as a group about the different aspects or components of prayer that are included in this definition. What is involved in this understanding of prayer?
- What do you think you’re praying for when you say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”
- In the sermon, Pastor Doug said, “Everything that happens in the world is not the will of God. God wouldn’t have had to send Jesus to the world if everything that happened in the world was according to the will of God. Jesus wouldn’t have told his disciples to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, if it was already being done on earth.” How does this help us to understand the nature of some of the terrible things human beings do to other people?
- How would you describe the difference between being a Christian and a fatalist?
- How would we know if God’s kingdom was in the process of coming or had come? How would you know if this petition was being answered?
- What role do we have in the meantime before God’s kingdom has fully come to earth? What does the Lord expect of us?
- How do we enter the kingdom of God Jesus talks about so much? What are some signs we are actively participating in God’s will being done on earth?
- What hope do you draw from knowing that God’s will is done in heaven? What do picture that being like?
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Mt 6:7–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.