Up There. Down Here.
In the most famous prayer ever taught – commonly known as the “Lords Prayer-” there are some profound insights in one of the first sentences;
Matthew 6:11 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus invites us to ask for something “up there” to come “down here.”
“Your” means God.
“Kingdom” is that something that belongs to God. It is commonly referred to in Scripture as the kingdom of God. God has his own empire, his own kingdom in which he alone is the king. His kingdom is the realm where he rules. In his kingdom he is the perfect king who reigns in perfect love and exercises perfect power directed by his perfect knowledge.
“Come” is the heartfelt longing of the Jesus follower. We desire for something from above, the kingdom from above, to burst through space and make its presence here, where we are.
“Your will be done” is the climax and the ultimate purpose of the king. This may seem threatening to the proud pagan, but for those who know the king, this is the highest and best intervention that could be asked for. The will of God is tied to the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God is always about accomplishing the will of God. The will of our king is saturated in love for those he created. Calling for the will of our king to be done and calling for our divine ruler to reign in any given circumstance is calling for something from above to intervene in something below.
“On earth as it is in heaven” is nothing less than asking for a supernatural set of events to come from a heavenly realm and rescue what is messed up in the earthly realm.
Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom. Jesus demonstrated the kingdom in his teachings and in his action. He told us to seek the kingdom (Matthew 6:33), he said that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36), he cast out demons by the power of the kingdom (Matthew 12:28), and he also said that to enter the kingdom a person would have to be born again (John 3:5).
Ultimately the desire of a Jesus follower is that we want more of what’s up there to come down here. We want that heavenly kingdom to be in our heart and to extend through us to others. We want to talk like we have a king, we want to walk like we have a king, we want to live like we have a king, we want to love like the king, and we even want to do politics like we have a king.
This earth could use a little bit more of what’s up there coming down here.