Lord’s Prayer: Second Petition

Small Catechism Review

The Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

The first petition, the first thing we ask of our Father in the Lord’s Prayer, is that His name may be hallowed or sanctified among us in two ways: that He would provide parents and pastors who preach and teach His Word purely and correctly, and that He would help us, as the children of God, to lead holy lives, so that His name may be known rightly in the world. The second petition, the second thing we ask of our Father in the Lord’s Prayer, is that His kingdom may come.

Before we consider how God’s kingdom comes, we should define what God’s kingdom is.

We don’t have much experience with kingdoms in our part of the world. America rejected the notion of kings and monarchies when it rebelled against the British empire. There are no kingdoms per se in North America or South America. We have to look across the ocean to the UK, to the United Kingdom, to find a monarchy, that is, a king (or in this case, a queen) with a realm over which he (or she) reigns. Even then, the UK is not actually ruled by the queen any longer. She’s mostly a figure-head, a vestige of a by-gone era when kings and queens were actually the supreme authority in their realm.

In the kingdom of heaven, God the Father is the King, the supreme authority. But He has seated His glorified Son Jesus Christ at His right hand. He is also called the “King.” St. Paul refers to this in the second reading you heard this evening. When Christ comes again and raises the dead, then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

So Christ is King of the kingdom, installed as King by His Father, both according to His divine nature and His human nature. But after the Last Day, when His work on our behalf as Christ the Mediator is fully completed, He will hand over the reign to God the Father, according to His human nature, even as He reigns with the Father forever according to His divine nature.

But what is His reign? What is His kingdom? It’s called the kingdom “of heaven,” meaning it’s not an earthly kind of kingdom. That’s what Jesus confessed before Pontius Pilate. My kingdom is not of this world. The kingdom of Israel was of this world. It was an earthly kingdom, with a visible, defined territory, and identifiable citizens, a standing army, and a king who was the supreme authority over that kingdom. But the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven isn’t a defined territory. Both John the Baptist and Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” And St. Luke records this: When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you,” which can also be translated, “The kingdom of God is among you.” For now, until Christ returns, the kingdom of heaven is invisible, not restricted to any nation or any territory in the world. It’s wherever God reigns in people’s hearts.

So when you pray, Thy kingdom come, you’re not really praying for the Last Day to come and for Jesus to return in glory with His visible kingdom. That may be a small part of the prayer, but not the main part. You’re praying for God’s kingdom to come here and now before the Last Day.

Not that God needs us to ask for His kingdom to come, or else it won’t come. As Luther explains, God’s kingdom certainly comes by itself without our prayer; but we ask in this prayer that it may come to us also. Just as we prayed that God’s name may be “made holy among us also.”

Now the question: How is this done? How does God’s kingdom come? It comes when the heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word, and lead godly lives, here in time and there in eternity. When people think of God’s kingdom coming, they tend to think of the end of the world, or maybe even some sort of millennial reign of Christ where He comes to fix our broken society, defeat evil, and make our life on earth glorious. But as we’ve already said, that’s not how God’s kingdom comes. It comes when He gives us His Holy Spirit, who works through God’s Word to nudge us and pull us and lead us to believe His Word. Where there is faith in Christ, there is also the Spirit of Christ. There Christ reigns as King. There He defends that person against Satan’s accusations and attacks.

And where there is faith in Christ, there is the Spirit of Christ also enabling us and urging us to lead godly lives, lives of love, lives of service to God and our neighbor, lives of devotion to God’s Word. The Holy Spirit reminds constantly that to call Christ “King” means to submit to Him as King, to bow before His authority, to do the King’s bidding. What kind of subject of a kingdom says, “Yes, I have a king. But I don’t listen to Him. I do whatever I like.” No, to have a king is to acknowledge that you owe Him your allegiance, your obedience, and your service. For His part, your King has delivered you from the devil’s kingdom and has freely granted you a place in His kingdom, where He promises everlasting life and protection and glory and honor.

God’s kingdom comes among us as the Spirit brings us to faith and sanctifies us in love. His kingdom has to keep coming to us every day. Faith has to be not only created but sustained. And leading a godly life is not a one-time activity, but a daily activity. As long as we live here in time, we need our Father’s kingdom to keep coming to us, to keep us in His kingdom, so that Christ keeps reigning in our hearts. That’s vital, because the devil’s kingdom is all around us here in time, and the threat is always there of falling back into the devil’s dark kingdom by falling into temptation and impenitence.

But our Father has given us this petition of the Lord’s Prayer as a promise that, when we ask for His help to keep us in His kingdom, He will always provide it. When we pray, Thy kingdom come, we can be sure that it will, and that it will dependably defeat the devil’s kingdom and prevent him from stealing us away.

And then, finally, the King will return and bring His kingdom into the universe visibly and gloriously. And there, in eternity, we will serve our King in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns forever and ever. And so we pray, Our Father who art in heaven, Thy kingdom come! Amen.