Heaven Come to Earth & Earth Come to Heaven

[This article is cross-posted on my Our Long View blog.]

One night recently, at a church’s regular night of prayer and worship, I noticed the emphasis in what we said, what we sang, and what we prayed touching again and again on the phrase “your kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10 which says,

“Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.”

It resonated with me at the time because just a day earlier I had been journaling through the tail-end of John 17—which is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer for his followers—and I was struck by the way that Jesus prayed for “Heaven to come to earth.” He was praying for the kingdom to come, just not in those words.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:20-24)

While Jesus prayed, it was not only for his disciples at that time…but by extension for all believers down through history…which includes all true Christ-followers today.

This section of Jesus’ prayer is first of all, that we might be one, in perfect relationship with each other. The church has an “invisible” spiritual unity in Christ, but often we lack that visible unity between denominations and congregations that we need to be a convincing witness to the world (v.21). Thankfully, while we have a long way to go, I think this is getting better all the time. I see new trans-denominational partnerships developing. Yet we have to stop seeing others as competitors in a market-driven approach to church growth. We were saved by the grace of God to be one body, woven together like strands in a great tapestry that as a whole testifies beautifully of the love and grace of God in Christ. In order to do this—to be one—we will need to trust in the glory Jesus has shared with us all instead of trying to produce our own. Unity takes humility and an intentional effort most of the time to develop brother/sister relationships with other congregations. Jesus' second prayer for us, in this section, is that we might be with Jesus in heaven to see the shared glory of God and experience that perfect Trinitarian love for ourselves.

Waiting for dawn in Jerusalem

We pray “your kingdom come, your will be done” and Jesus when he prayed for us, told us what the answer to our prayer looks like. He prayed for our unity with each other in the here and now (heaven come to earth) as the evidence of God’s triune presence, and he prayed for our unity (earth come to heaven) with God in the future. That we could be with him where he is in the glorious love of the Father was the longing of our Lord Jesus. God in his shared glory invites us to eat with him in unity at his table (Luke 13:29).

So when we pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God perhaps we should start looking with the wide-eyed wonder and expectancy of a child for the ways in which it is already present in the midst of us (Luke 17:21) and seek to experience it together as “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
 

As we seek to live out heaven’s kingdom convictions on earth, many will see it and desire to “immigrate” in order to worship with us in the Spirit and in truth. May we walk worthy of such citizenship.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:9-11)

 



The Empty Tomb

As we continue through the Lenten season in preparation for our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, perhaps we would make Jesus’ prayer our prayer as well.
 

 Will you join me?