One day Jesus' disciples saw him praying, and one of them asked him to teach them how to pray, as John the baptist had taught his disciples to pray. Some of Jesus' disciples had followed John first, and it may be that they wanted to compare one to the other. Or perhaps they simply understood that Jesus was greater than John, and they wanted a better way to pray. Scripture doesn't tell us what the men's motivations were, only that they asked their Teacher to teach them to pray.
We are all familiar with what Jesus taught them. Almost everyone has recited or has heard recited what is now called "The Lord's Prayer."
Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come...
I think all the gospels have it, but the one I read today is from Luke 11. The question that came to my mind is about that last phrase: "Thy kingdom come." After the introductory sentence of worship, asking that the Father's kingdom come is at the top of Jesus' list of what to pray. What, exactly, did Jesus mean by that?
In the natural world, a kingdom is the realm of authority of a king. A lot of times we spiritualize the things that Jesus said to an extent that his words cease to have meaning. But Jesus came in the form of a man. He was one of us. He walked among the people. He talked to common people. Most of his disciples were what we would call today blue-collar workers. They were fishermen and civil servants. None of the 12 original disciples that I know of were educated or wealthy men. So, when Jesus referred to a "kingdom," he was speaking in common terms.
He was talking about a realm of authority of a king... of the King.
A kingdom is a land and the people within it that belong to a king. A king expands his kingdom usually through marriage or conquest. When the Israelites came out of Egypt as a rag-tag troupe of homeless ex-slaves, they had no kingdom. The way they got it was through conquest. They fought and killed, and took the land they'd won, to use as they saw fit and to leave to their descendants. At the beginning, God was their King, but after about four centuries, they tired of that and demanded a human king, to whom God graciously delegated his authority.
TO BE CONTINUED.
We are all familiar with what Jesus taught them. Almost everyone has recited or has heard recited what is now called "The Lord's Prayer."
Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come...
I think all the gospels have it, but the one I read today is from Luke 11. The question that came to my mind is about that last phrase: "Thy kingdom come." After the introductory sentence of worship, asking that the Father's kingdom come is at the top of Jesus' list of what to pray. What, exactly, did Jesus mean by that?
In the natural world, a kingdom is the realm of authority of a king. A lot of times we spiritualize the things that Jesus said to an extent that his words cease to have meaning. But Jesus came in the form of a man. He was one of us. He walked among the people. He talked to common people. Most of his disciples were what we would call today blue-collar workers. They were fishermen and civil servants. None of the 12 original disciples that I know of were educated or wealthy men. So, when Jesus referred to a "kingdom," he was speaking in common terms.
He was talking about a realm of authority of a king... of the King.
A kingdom is a land and the people within it that belong to a king. A king expands his kingdom usually through marriage or conquest. When the Israelites came out of Egypt as a rag-tag troupe of homeless ex-slaves, they had no kingdom. The way they got it was through conquest. They fought and killed, and took the land they'd won, to use as they saw fit and to leave to their descendants. At the beginning, God was their King, but after about four centuries, they tired of that and demanded a human king, to whom God graciously delegated his authority.
TO BE CONTINUED.