The now and then Kingdom

THE Lord’s Prayer is probably the most memorised part of the Bible. Daily, millions of Christians implore: ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’ (Matthew 6:10 New International Version). But what does it mean?

In the teaching about prayer that Jesus gives his followers, he sets out a pattern for prayer (Matthew 6:9–13). The prayer starts with God –‘Our Father’ – the Creator and King of the universe.

So how does God the Father’s Kingdom come? In one way, the answer is in the subsequent lines – ‘your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’. When everyone acknowledges, attunes themselves to and adopts the divine will in their every action and attitude, it will be Heaven on Earth.

Through word and deed, Jesus spreads the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven. His teaching is that the Kingdom ‘has come near’ (Matthew 4:17), but he also knows that the Kingdom has not fully come and will not fully come during his earthly ministry. There is more for him to do. There is yet a future stage when, as the promised Messiah, he will come to the Earth ‘in his glory, and all the angels with him’ and ‘he will sit on his glorious throne’ (Matthew 25:31).

There is, therefore, a now-but-not-yet aspect to the Kingdom. Praying ‘your Kingdom come’ can be a valid short-term request, such as a prayer for peace in a war-torn region, or a longer-range aspiration, such as: ‘Come, Lord Jesus, establish your spiritual reign here on Earth.’

The arrival of ‘Heaven’ to ‘Earth’ denotes different realms. Jesus also teaches his followers to pray that God will ‘deliver us from the evil one’ (Matthew 6:13). In doing so, he points to there being a different ruler of the earthly realm. The annihilation of evil is at the heart of Jesus’ coming. As one early Christian writer says: ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the Devil’s work’ (1 John 3:8). When that happens, God’s Kingdom will have come to Earth.