Luke 11:2b (CEV)
Come and set up your kingdom.
Pray … (Part 2)
Yesterday we looked at the first bit of the Lord’s prayer. We talked about what type of a Father Jesus is describing, and why honouring the Father can simply be the logical outflow of a loving, gracious relationship.
And that matters, because our next sentence is “Come and set up your kingdom.”
We mostly don’t go in for kingdoms so much these days … we have lots of democracies (and pseudo-democracies), we dabble a bit in puppet regimes, still have some dictatorships floating around, but out of 196 countries in the world there are only three actual Kingdoms run only by their absolute monarchs (Oman, Saudi Arabia and Swaziland, in case you were curious).
And because we don’t have a lot of experience with the idea of kingdoms, I think we get a little bit confused about what Jesus is asking for here.
Jesus’ original listeners would have heard ‘kingdom’ and heard ‘ultimate, absolute rule’. A kingdom is a place where what the king wants simply happens – whatever it is! A place where, when the king says “do this” it is done, instantaneously; a place where, when the king says “go there” they go automatically. And for those who have experienced absolute rule, they recognize that who the king is is going to have an enormous effect, therefore, over what the king will do which will translate rapidly into what their lives look like.
So that begs the question, “What kind of kingdom is Jesus teaching us to pray for?”
The Father’s kingdom is going to be an outflow of the character and heart and wishes of the Father.
I don’t presume to know everything about the Father’s character, but Jesus tells us that anyone who has seen him has seen the Father (John 14:9) so we can infer that this king desires things like:
Wholeness over brokenness …
Truth over lies (intentional or otherwise) …
Generosity over selfishness …
Freedom over captivity …
Relationship and reconciliation over separation …
Belonging over shame …
Presence over loneliness …
Love over fear …
Elsewhere Jesus will tell us that we who choose to step up to the plate – we who choose to join into this kingdom story – are going to be the Father’s servants, the Father’s children. Elsewhere he tells us that these prayers that we pray for the Father’s kingdom to come will happen in part because we will start to hear and respond to the Father’s love in us and begin to pass it on to those around us.
And so we begin to get this picture of relationship that is full of love and grace and compassion that then leads us to honour the Father for what he has done and yearn for that kind of a life to spill over into the world in which we live.Journal Questions:
- What do you think of when you hear the word ‘kingdom’? Do you think of a political leader today? Or maybe a kingdom from some past point in history?
- What kind of relationship would you have to have experienced with the Father to yearn for His kingdom to come in this world?
- What would it look like to pray for more of His kingdom in your own life?
- What would it look like to pray for and lean into the expression of His kingdom in the lives of those around you?
