Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

 

 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."  So He said to them, "When you pray, say:  

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one."

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?  I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

"So I say to you, 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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

 - Luke 11:1–13 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus and the disciples entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." 

 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."   My study bible says that the request, teach us to pray, expresses a universal longing to be in communion with God 

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  My study bible comments here that the Father-Son relationship within the Trinity is a revelation of our own potential relationship with God  Christ is the Son of God, and He grants us that privilege of calling God Our Father by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).  Therefore, as one who is also a "son of God" (regardless of gender; "son" indicates one is an heir), each Christian is called to love, trust, and serve God just as Christ does the Father.  My study bible also notes that God is not our Father just because He is our Creator.  God is only Father to those who are in a saving and personal relationship to God, a communion that comes only through the grace of adoption (see John 1:13, Romans 8:14-16).  As heirs to this kingdom, so we all pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven; this includes our own walk in the path of Christ.

"Give us day by day our daily bread."  My study bible tells us that daily is a misleading translation of the Greek word epiousios/επιούσιος, which literally means "above the essence," or "supersubstantial."  The expression in the prayer, daily bread, indicates not simply bread for today.  It is neither merely a plea for earthly nourishment.  The word in Greek indicates the bread for the eternal day of the Kingdom of God, and for the nourishment of our immortal soul.  It is an acknowledgement of the fullness of our humanity, our need for a deeper nourishment than something worldly.  This living, supersubstantial bread, my study bible says, is Christ Himself.  Therefore, in this prayer, we aren't simply asking for material bread for physical health, but for the spiritual bread of eternal life (John 6:27-58).  We ask for that which nurtures, sustains, and deepens the fullness of identity in Christ.

"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."  My study bible calls to our attention that this request to be forgiven is plural, noting that it directs us to pray always for the forgiveness of others.  Debts refers to spiritual debts (see 18:21-35). 

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."  A note here tells us that God tempts no one to sin (James 1:13).  Rather, temptations are from the evil one, the devil.  Temptations are aimed at the soul's giving in to the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5); such temptations come in many forms, which may sometimes be hard to recognize - but experience, with prayer, becomes our teacher.  My study bible adds that no one lives without encountering temptations, but we pray that great temptations, tests beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), should not come to us.

"So I say to you, 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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"    In the original Greek, these verbs which are translated ask, seek, and knock are in fact in a form that implies continuing action.  They are better translated, "keep asking," "keep seeking," and "keep knocking."  My study bible teaches that God responds when we are persistent in asking for things that are good.  The words that Christ uses:  bread, fish, and an egg, are images of life.  They all symbolize the gift of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:13-14, James 4:3).

Jesus teaches us how to pray.  Let us remember that He is speaking to His disciples, one of whom requests that they be taught how to pray.  The disciple cites the example of John the Baptist.  Many of Christ's disciples were first disciples of the Baptist, and the text indicates that John taught his disciples ways to pray.  So, this request is made of Jesus, clearly after observing Jesus in prayer.  No doubt -- as the Gospels tell us in various places that Jesus withdrew for prayer -- this is the way discipleship works; we are meant to learn by imitating our Teacher (6:40).  And so, this is how we come to this prayer in the Church, which is universally known and heard at every liturgy.  It is often titled, "The Lord's Prayer," as this is the prayer He gives to the disciples in response to the request.  But a message which is as urgently given as the prayer itself is for praying with persistence.  This is not meant to be a one-time prayer.  It's not even meant for simply once on Sundays.  The injunction by Christ which accompanies the prayer is for us to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking.  Ultimately, the symbols of life which Jesus gives -- bread, fish, an egg -- are symbols of the life meant to be lived by the disciples.  That is, they are images of life in Christ, of an eternal life which opens into this kingdom of heaven, even as we live our lives here on earth.  Jesus speaks explicitly of the gift of the Holy Spirit.  In the Creed, the universal Church calls the Holy Spirit "the giver of life."  Therefore, when Jesus urges us to keep praying persistently -- to keep asking, seeking, and knocking -- we are seeking the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, to dwell in us and pray in us, to continue enhancing and enriching our lives so that we may have the life in abundance promised by Christ (John 10:10).  In this place of prayer to Our Father, in which we proclaim, as does Jesus, that we are all "sons" and therefore heirs by adoption, we pray to be given even more greatly the gift of life, the Holy Spirit.   For the Holy Spirit is the Lord (the Third Person of the Trinity) who dwells with us and among us, in whose place is the presence of the Kingdom with us, and who enlivens our own lives so that we bear the Kingdom into the world ourselves.  We might add that where the Lord the Holy Spirit is present, so are Father and Son.  Where God is present, so is God's kingdom -- as well as the eternal reality of that Kingdom.  In other words, if we can wrap our heads around it, we might come to understand that in prayer we not only seek God's presence and help in our daily lives, but we are also knocking, seeking, and asking in the place of the eternal day of the Kingdom of God.  We seek and ask and knock for the gift of life beyond the limitations we know, even of time and space.  In this way, prayer truly acts to help us to transcend our present problems, the limitations of life and circumstances we can't necessarily see around or find our ways out of -- and it connects us with that place where all is reconciled in Christ.  Our prayer is communion with the Kingdom that lives beyond the present day, beyond time and space, and connects us to the ultimate union with the Teacher.  In this way, prayer works in a subtle sense, where insight may become possible, a flash of enlightenment about how to proceed through a problem, as well as the great gift of the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7).  Prayer is the essential movement toward communion with God that must accompany all things in life, for it connects us with God who knows our deepest troubles and who shows us the way through all things, even our own stumbling blocks.  Let us not forget that we are not meant to live lives in limitation, but to seek that place of the Kingdom always, so that we may be the disciples who bring the kingdom of God near (10:9).