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The Second Petition Just as God’s name is already holy, God’s kingdom has already come. It was established by God when He sent His Son into the world. Why then do we pray, “Thy kingdom come”? We are praying that this kingdom would come among us--that we would become and remain members of God’s kingdom. What kind of kingdom has God established? Many view Jesus as the kind of ruler who places hard demands on His followers. They have forgotten Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Jesus came among His people and served them by suffering and dying for them. He is a kind and generous Lord who delights in giving good things to His people. However, when we become Christians, we face many dangers. The devil does not want us in Christ’s kingdom. He comes after those who hear God’s word to lead them astray, and we would be lead astray if our Lord did not prevent this. We pray that Christ would rule over us because we know that if we rule we will get ourselves into trouble. How does the Lord rule over us? How does His kingdom come to us? As Luther answers in the Small Catechism, it happens when God “gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His Holy Word and lead a godly life, here in time and hereafter in eternity.” The Spirit takes the great truths we learned in the creed and plants them in us. It is only through His work that Christ’s work for us becomes rooted in our lives. Through the Spirit, we trust that Christ is our kind and generous Lord, who has redeemed us and brought us out of the devil’s kingdom and into God’s. In this prayer we are concerned not only about ourselves, but also about others. We want God’s Spirit to be among us so we would remain connected to Christ. But we also want many others to come to faith and remain in that faith. We want this marvelous salvation that God has revealed to us to spread to our neighbors and throughout the world. This kingdom we pray for has two aspects. It begins now and it continues on into eternity. It begins now when the word is preached among us and we come to faith in that word. And it comes to its fulfillment in eternity when Christ returns and reveals to all His victory over sin, death and the devil. These great treasures are so marvelous that we would be afraid to ask for them if God had not commanded us so to pray. Luther compares God to a powerful and wealthy ruler who tells a poor beggar to ask for whatever he wants. If the beggar asked only for a bowl of soup, this would be a great insult. Likewise, we should not be so timid as to ask God only for trifles, but should boldly ask for and expect to receive the great riches that Christ has won for us. |
