Luke recounts an occasion when Jesus was invited to attend a dinner at the home of a Pharisee (Lk. 14:1-24). During the meal, the subject of banquets came up, which prompted a fellow guest to make the comment, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (v. 15). Jesus recognized that the man’s comment was based on the assumption that he, and the other notable religious figures at the dinner, would be in attendance at the heavenly banquet, and he told a parable to help them understand that they should not assume their presence at the heavenly banquet was a shoo-in just because of their religious connections.
I can’t help but wonder if we make a similar faulty assumption when we pray the Lord’s prayer and say, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” looking forward to the heavenly feast we will enjoy when Jesus returns, and the eternal joy we will share with him. Our eternal hope is certainly included in the Lord’s prayer, but Jesus instructed us to ask not only that God’s kingdom will come, but that his will would be done on earth, just as it is in heaven. The thing is that God’s will is done perfectly in heaven. There is no resistance to his will at all in the heavenly realm.
On earth, however, it is a different matter. Not only is there great resistance to God’s will in the “world,” but if we are honest, we would have to confess that there is resistance to God’s will within our own hearts. That fact adds another important dimension to our prayer for God’s kingdom to come, because what Jesus instructs us to ask for is not only that God’s kingdom will come some day out there in the future, or even that his kingdom will advance in this sin torn world, but that his kingdom would be advancing in our own hearts. It is a call for us to examine our hearts and consider what “territory” we still claim for ourselves, and what territory we have surrendered to his authority as our Lord and King. That process of surrendering to his lordship in our lives is what Paul calls us to when he instructs us to live by the Spirit, that is in God’s power within us by the Holy Spirit, rather than by the “flesh,” in our own strength and following our own authority (Rom. 8:5-8).
Wherever God’s will is done, his kingdom is advancing, but the means by which God has determined that his kingdom will advance in our world is through the obedience of his people, as they make their daily decisions about what is important, what causes they will get behind and how they will conduct their daily lives and relationships. We can’t hope for God’s kingdom to advance and his will to be done in the world, then, if his kingdom is not advancing and his will is not being done in us first, as the people of God.
May we be seekers of his kingdom as Jesus has called us to be; not only a kingdom that will come someday in the future when he returns in glory, but recognizing that the kingdom of God has already come, and it makes demands on our hearts and lives. So may his will be done in us so that, more and more, through us, it will be done on earth, just as it is done perfectly in heaven.
Pastor Jon