Matthew 6:10
When we got to the section of the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount I was not sure how I was supposed to handle it but I wanted to be careful with it. I believe that some of the most important truth of Scripture are things that most of us believe we know and yet probably fall short of truly understanding their depth and value. John 3:16 is often considered elementary, quoted quickly and thoughtlessly as if it is “cute” or “easy” and yet it carries enormous value that if not fully grasped leaves us not knowing the depth of God’s great love, the action of God’s great giving or the role of Jesus as God’s perfect gift that changes dead orphans into living children. The Lord’s Prayer is probably the most quoted prayer ever uttered and yet it is possibly one of the least understood teachings Jesus ever gave. This prayer is our blueprints, it is our foundation it is quite literally how we are supposed to pray even if it is not what we are supposed to pray. Jesus teaches very succinctly “In this manner, therefore pray”, He is saying, “Pray like this!” If we can grasp the fullness of this prayer as the Holy Spirit inspired it and as Jesus taught it then we can have prayer lives that will not be the best we can do but that will be exactly as God desires. If worshipful prayer is initiated by God and for the glory of God then all of our prayers must be from the example that God gave us, we can’t go rogue, we can’t decide to give Him a gift from our possessions like Cain gave, we have to give Him what He desires and what He inspires, as Abel did. Maybe the Cain and Abel reference sounds harsh, but isn’t it the same? It was time to make an offering to God, Cain brought what he had and what he wanted to give, Abel brought what God had asked for, God received Abel’s because it was what He desired and rejected Cain’s because it was rebellious. The Lord’s Prayer, its model and its purpose will keep our hearts from rebellion because we will always be praying in response to the Spirit’s leadership and Jesus’ teaching and when we are led by the Spirit and obedient to Jesus the Father is pleased.
Now that we have entered the prayer itself we have to go through it word by word and line by line. The opening address to “Our Father” means that the entire prayer is about relationship, this is not a religious activity it is both the production and outcome of intimacy, prayer is not creatures talking to their creator nearly as much as it is children in communion with their Father. “Hallowed be Your name” is not a statement of praise or an act of worship it is a petition of prayer. I am asking that God’s name would be glorified and seen as great in all the earth and at the same time I pray it I am making myself accountable to take part in the action of hallowing His name. It is as if I am saying “God, let the entire world see You in all of Your glory, all of Your love, all of Your power and all of Your mercy” and at the exact same time standing up and raising our hands and saying “I will show them! Let me be the one, I will live, move and breathe in such a way as to make your name hallowed!” It is a petition on God’s behalf and a promise from the prayer. It is one of the times in which we ask of God and He makes us the answer to that which we have asked. “Hallow Your name and make me the one that hallows You in all the earth!” The next three words are where our attention will fall today, “Your kingdom come.” Some of the authors I have read believe this to be the second petition on God’s behalf in the prayer and it is but I also believe it needs to be seen as something a bit more. This is not a separate request, it is an expansion of the first. The name of God is hallowed on earth by the coming and revelation of His kingdom. The entirety of the Sermon on the Mount is given to the kingdom of God, it is the character of the King, the calling of surpassing righteousness for the citizens, the language of liberty, the reality of the new covenant and here in this one line of the Lord’s Prayer it becomes the focus of all of our prayers and our lives. Jesus prays to the Father, “Your kingdom come.” Remember, it is context to the hallowing of the Father’s name and so this is not a request for rescue. When Jesus was about to ascend to heaven the disciples asked Him “will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” They knew the kingdom was in Jesus, they knew they were now called to inhabit the kingdom but they still did not know what the coming of the kingdom would look like for them. The understood the future kingdom, Jesus ruling the earth from Jerusalem, they didn’t understand the present kingdom, Jesus ruling the hearts of the Father’s children from the Father’s right hand in heaven. The kingdom of God is both and, it is not only coming in the future, it is here now; it is in us and it is coming on that day. For us to truly grasp this second petition or expansion of the first, however you see it, we are going to have to know what the kingdom of God is right now so that we can ask for it to come both now and in the future, we have to want Jesus to reign in our hearts now so that we can hasten His return to reign on earth.