Gospel Prism

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

(Luke 11:1-4)

Introduction

This past week, Justin sent me an article from CNN.com on the movie Avatar entitled, “Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues.”[1] The article expressed the emotions of some moviegoers who were leaving the movie theatre depressed and disillusioned.  One Avatar fan noted:

I wasn’t depressed myself.  In fact the movie made me happy.  But I can understand why it made people depressed.  The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth.  I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.

Another moviegoer said:

When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed … gray. It was like my whole life, everything I’ve done and worked for, lost its meaning…It just seems so … meaningless. I still don’t really see any reason to keep … doing things at all. I live in a dying world.

When Justin sent me this link, he had in his subject line, “A generation expressing its desire for heaven and need for Christ,” and I think he described the situation well.  Everyone is looking for something better, something or someone that gives them meaning and purpose to life.  Which is the very reason why so many people escape from ‘reality’ through entertainments: movies, TV shows, video games, shopping, etc.  These things seemingly make our lives better, make them appear to be better than they truly are.  Voyeurism will always be a human pastime because we want to vicariously live through the lives of celebrities, and it’s this very reason why reality shows are still the top money-makers on television.  We want something more for ourselves.

Thus, human beings will always long for something more because we were made for something far greater.  And this is exactly why Augustine stated these famous words in his sermon from Job 28:1-28:

Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.[2]

And this is also why Jesus tells us to pray for the Father’s Kingdom to come.  All of humanity longs for more.  But how much more then do the Father’s children long for the presence of their Kingly Father to come fully and restore the Kingdom and all that was supposed to be?  This should be our prayer.  And so when we pray, ‘Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,’ we are praying that we proclaim the Kingdom, that we seek after the Kingdom, and that we yearn for the Kingdom.  So I’d like to talk about these three desires that flow from a ‘kingdom come’ prayer.

Proclaim (Mark 1:15; Luke 17:21; Matt 21:5)

When we pray to the Father, ‘Your kingdom come,’ we are acknowledging that His Kingdom has been proclaimed to all the world already.  It is a statement of what has already taken place and we see this throughout the Gospels.  When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He proclaimed these words in Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”  The kingdom of God was not something far away, it had begun with Jesus.  In Luke 17:21, Jesus says the same thing to His disciples when He says: ‘…for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  And by this, He was speaking of Himself.  Christ’s life, work, and ministry was a sign to the world that God’s Kingdom has come.  And finally in Matthew 21:5, when Jesus entered into Jerusalem and all of the people laid palm branches down declaring that the King had come, Matthew comments that Jesus’ coming was in what Zechariah prophesied: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

Thus, praying the Lord’s prayer that the Father’s Kingdom come, is nothing short of a Christ-exalting, majestic kingly prayer that proclaims Christ as Lord of all the earth and the center of all things.  My friends, did you ever realize that when you say the Lord’s prayer, you are making a proclamation to yourself and to those around you that you have a king, a sovereign upon wish you want to honor and cherish and obey?  And whether people realize it or not, people long to worship and honor somebody, even as they might cringe at the thought of such an idea.  This is why there are even celebrities in the first place.  This is why people worshipped Michael Jackson or zealously campaigned for President Obama or stand on line overnight for anything Steve Jobs thinks of.  People love to adore heroes, love to cheer on the good guys in movies, love to cherish country and flag, love to fawn over new toys, cars, houses.  People look for role models to follow and others to admire.  We can even become obsessed over a new relationship as boyfriend or girlfriend, or over-effusive in our love to our spouse catering to his or her every whim, or succumbing to the wishes of overbearing parents, all because we long to place our hope, our love, our loyalty, our fealty in something or someone.  As long as human beings live, there will be such longing.

Thus, when we pray ‘your Kingdom come,’ we are making a bold statement to our souls and to all who could hear that NO ONE is deserving of the love, worship, and honor that the King of Kings, Jesus Christ deserves.  He becomes our first priority, the filter upon which we view life.

And we must never forget what it took to usher in this kingdom.  John records for us Jesus’ conversation with Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who would sentence Jesus to his death.  In addressing the Jewish leaders’ accusations against Jesus as a self-made king of the Jews, Pilate asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?… Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” (John 18:35)  And then Jesus responds with this telling statement: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”  In other words, for the Kingdom of Christ to come, Jesus would need to make sure that no one would fight for Him in the way the world generally fights for a kingdom.  It’s for this reason that Jesus stops Peter from fighting those who were trying to arrest Him (John 18:10-11).  Isaiah prophesied as to how the King would usher in His Kingdom: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isa 53:7).  Jesus’ Kingdom was not of this world because the world and its ways (self-righteousness, envy, physical power, revenge, boasting) could never save anyone and never bring lasting joy.  But it would be through the death that Jesus would die for our sins, that would be the means by which Jesus’ Kingdom would come and peace between the Father and sinners would reign eternally.  Or again, as Isaiah so beautifully describes: “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa 53:5)

So when we pray, ‘Your Kingdom come,’ we’re praying, ‘Lord, use me and mold me as your loyal and loving subject.  I want to follow you wherever you will go.’  If you have ever watched a movie where a king or leader leads his battle into war, from Braveheart to Return of the King to Kenneth Branaugh in Henry V to the movie Elizabeth, they always have that one scene where the king is on a horse in front of the frightened, weary band of soldiers.  And the king gives a rousing speech and suddenly you see the spirit perk and heads begin the lift and backs straighten.  Suddenly the ragtag band looks like a vibrant army ready to follow their king even to their death, because they so believe in the power and strength and dignity of their king.  Well, to say ‘Your Kingdom come’ is a declaration that you understand who Jesus is, what He has done for you by saving you from sin, and your desire in light of that reality, to follow Him wherever He should lead you, even if it means as we learned in Luke 9:23 to bear your own cross.

Yearn

Also, when we pray to the Father, ‘Your kingdom come,’ we are expressing what is at the core of our hearts, that we yearn for the Father and His Kingdom above all else.  And imbedded in this prayer is the idea that though we believe the kingdom has been established through Christ, it has not been fully completed.  We are still longing for the Kingdom to come so that Christ is exalted before all as Paul tells us in Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  He reminds us also in Rom 8:22-23 that what we have now is not how it will be: “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”  And so we yearn for more.

For example, when you look at the pictures of the earthquake victims, or you consider the poor around the world, or perhaps there is suffering in your own life, or any difficulty at all, do you ever pray, ‘Your Kingdom come.’  Do you ever pray or think, “Lord, please come back now, if only you would return, then all things would be made new.”  The groanings of creation, the sin, the suffering, the tragedies, the hardships, the sinfulness of others, the sinfulness  your own soul, doesn’t that lead you to want it all to end?  For Avatar viewers, they want it to end and so they consider suicide assuming that is better than what is here and now.  But for Christians, we have a living hope as Peter reminds us.  Or as Paul asks us to consider in 2 Cor 4:17: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  To pray, ‘your Kingdom come,’ is to be a yearner for this eternal weight of glory beyond comparison.

But something keeps us from yearning, and it is the settling for personal, little kingdoms.  It is determining that I am the king of my little kingdom and everything in this world, my spouse, my friends, my parents, my siblings, my boss, my colleagues, fellow church members, the grocery clerk, dmv personnel, etc., all have a job, and that is to serve me.  And so my natural inclination is to maintain my kingdom and if any usurpers (people who ask me to change my schedule, difficult people to deal with, different types of people in the church, a spouse who is ‘demanding’ of me to change, etc.) come my way, they are banished from my kingdom.

And of course, like any kingdom, there are the enablers of kings, ‘subjects’ who coddle the king to make him feel he is deserving.  When I was growing up my mother did everything for me.  She washed, ironed all of my clothes.  She made my lunch every time.  She laid out the clothing that I should wear, almost all the way through high school.  And when I was sick, she would make my favorite foods while I put my feet up.  And I accepted it.  In fact, I felt entitled to it.  Well, after I married Shua, guess what?  I was still the king.  My wife was not my helper, she was my servant.  If my mom should serve me as I believe I should be served, shouldn’t my wife.  And so one day, when I was sick, Shua, being the gracious person that she is, made me a soup to care for me.  When she put it out on front of me, I said to her, “Honey, this looks great.  But you know, my mother makes this really great soup for me when I’m sick.  Do you think you could call her to get the recipe?”  Let me just say, deservedly so, it was a long and quiet night.

This is just one story of so many, that perhaps many of us have.  We believe that we are entitled to and deserve respect and worship.  We believe that we are entitled to comfort and a life free of trouble and that when trouble comes, God must be punishing us because of our sins (the very argument Job’s friends wrongly made towards job).  When we think this way, we cannot pray, “Jesus, Your Kingdom come.”  We don’t want God’s Kingdom.  We want our own.  But oh how dreadful our own kingdom truly is.  How lonely?  How dreary and drab?  It’s a life of abuse and entitlement and self-centeredness where joys are utterly fleeting. Because the more you live as the king of your own kingdom, the more you force people to love you and care for you and make you their king, the further you push people away from yourself, and the more isolated you become.  No one likes to talk to a person who only talks about his accomplishments and goals and dreams.  We become a person of burned bridges and broken relationships.  This is the very reason why as people grow older, as they age, they have less friends around them.  Entitlement and the personal kingdom mentality becomes even more entrenched.  There comes the strong feeling of, “Ok, I’ve served people my whole life, now it’s Me-Time.”

Thus, no one enjoys a cantankerous old man or woman.  No one No one enjoys being around a child who throws tantrums regularly, where the parents give in to his every whim each time.  No one enjoys the beauty queen who can’t stop looking in the mirror.  No one enjoys the man who can help but spout off all of his accomplishments, while degrading others.  Being the king of a little kingdom is a very lonely place.  C. S. Lewis tells the story of Eustace Scrubb in the book The Voyage of the Dawn Trader.  He was a difficult boy, one that most of us would veer far away from simply because of his narcissistic tendencies.  He refused to work and help out when everyone else was busy working.  One night he found a great treasure in a cave.  Dreaming of how he would spend his new wealth, he fell asleep.  When he awoke, he had found himself turned into a dragon.  Lewis notes, “Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.”[3] It’s what Adam and Eve started in the Garden long ago.  They thought their personal kingdom would be better than what God offered them.  But as Eustace Scrubb also came to see, Adam and Eve woke up and suddenly realized that they were naked and they felt ashamed.  They saw that they were alone and empty and they were terribly and tragically lacking what they had, joy in God.  May you yearn for what you can never lose when you are in Christ or as what missionary/martyr Jim Eliot so beautifully wrote: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”  And so my friends, yearn for the Kingdom.

And there is no greater expression of such yearning for the Kingdom to fully come than prayer and fasting.  Prayer teaches us that we trust the Lord in all things.  That salvation and our lives and anything else is best left in His hands.  After all, if Jesus Himself who is God prays to the Father and makes it His priority to do so, how much more should we do the same.  We pray not just because we need things from Him to make it through each day.  We pray to Him because we long to see Him come to make all things new.  We pray to Him because we long to be with Him.  Jesus says in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”  Notice that we pray because we love Him, because we love abiding in Him.  Prayer is a natural outcome of wanting to be with Him.

Also, fasting is a further expression of what prayer’s longing for Christ and His Kingdom.  It reminds us that living for our own little kingdoms is terrible futile and meaningless.  John Piper describes this sentiment well:

If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestations of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied.  It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world.  Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.  God did not create you for this.  There is an appetite for God.  And it can be awakened.[4]

It creates not merely hunger to food, but hunger for God, a homesickness for where we are meant to be eternally.  And so Jesus Himself told all who listened to Him in the plains: “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” (Luke 6:21)

And so, as we consider fasting and praying the last week of January, may you remember this prayer, “Your Kingdom come!”  Paul and John remind the church to have this same prayer always so long as we live in this world:  May you love the Lord’s appearing: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (2 Tim 4:8) and may along with John, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

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[1] http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html

[2] http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/621/Our_Heart_is_Restless_St_Augustine.html

[3] Quoted from Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 122.

[4] John Piper, Hunger for God, 23.