The Lord's Prayer: Submission

Matthew 6.10

Introduction 

When I was a kid I loved professional wrestling. My guy was Stone Cold Steve Austin. One of the most famous matches in the history of professional wrestling took place at WrestleMania 13: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret “the hit man” Hart in a submission match. This was the match where Stone Cold solidified his place as the toughest wrestler of his time. After a hard fought battle Bret Hart got Austin into the sharpshooter submission hold and Austin lost the match, not because he tapped out, but because he passed out. He would pass out before he would submit.

What a snapshot of our contemporary American worldview. Modern western society has a staunch aversion to submission. A few years ago I was preaching a family wedding and received a stern rebuke from a family acquaintance during the reception. The rebuke was for reading Ephesians 5 in the ceremony, where the Bible commands wives to submit to their own husbands. Submission is a curse word in our self-exalting culture.

We live in a culture that worships self. You are encouraged to “live your truth” and “cancel” anyone who you deem to be “toxic.” You can’t do that if you have to submit. We shouldn’t be surprised though; it’s in our DNA. Especially as Americans, as a nation we were literally born out of refusing to submit to Great Britain. We hate submission. The modern mindset is “my will be done.” The greatest fear of 21st century folks is to pray your will be done.

And yet as Jesus is teaching us to pray, he moves from adoration to submission. This is only logical for when we adore God; we must submit to him. Adoration gives birth to submission. And so as we continue to journey through the Lord’s Prayer we see Jesus calling us to abandon what seems best to us – self-exaltation – and to follow his example in submission to God.

Submission in God’s Kingdom

The Lord’s Prayer is structured similar to the 10 commandments. The first portion is about God and the 2nd about man. We see the greatest expression of this in the two great commandments that Christ gives – love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. The first half of the Lord’s Prayer is all about God, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Notice all of the second person singular pronouns: your name, your kingdom, your will. Before we get to ourselves in prayer, we must start with God, adoration for God and submission to God.

It’s hard for us to get our minds around Jesus’ second petition, your kingdom come, because we live in a democratic republic. And so we’re given to two presuppositions: (1) kingdom sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings; it sounds like fairytale language. And (2) we’re almost predisposed to assume that form of government is intrinsically wrong. Because the American system is what we’ve experienced, it’s easy to assume it’s right and everything else is wrong. What’s more, we’re not quite sure what to do with the language of Christ because we’re so used to the separation of church and state. And Jesus uses political language in the Lord’s Prayer, your kingdom come.

Many do hermeneutical gymnastics to try and fit Jesus’ petition to our mentality. Some view the language of kingdom as merely spiritual. It’s about your heart and has nothing to do with what’s actually going on in America and the rest of the world. Jesus’ kingdom is spiritual, but it is not merely spiritual. The kingdom of Christ is not about escaping this world. Others slice and dice the Sermon on the Mount and argue that this only has to do with the nation Israel either in the future. That certainly is not the case. First, we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew’s Gospel for the church in every age and so it is applicable to Christ Community Church in 2020. Second, it was not until the late nineteenth century that Christians have interpreted the Bible this way. For most of church history the church has applied the Sermon on the Mount to the life of the church.

So how should we think about your kingdom come? Vaughn Roberts gives a helpful definition of the kingdom of God in his book God’s Big Picture. He defines God’s kingdom as, “God’s people in God’s place under God’s blessing and rule.” And so as far back as Eden we see God’s kingdom in Scripture. In the garden Adam and Eve were the kingdom of God, God’s people in God’s place under God’s blessing and rule. Noah and his family on the ark were God’s people in God’s place under God’s blessing and rule. Abraham in Canaan, Israel in the Promised Land, God’s kingdom has taken different shape over redemptive history, but has always existed.

Not only has this been reality, but God’s people have always been self-aware of their kingdom identity. In Eden Adam was commanded by God to subdue and take dominion (Gen 1.28): kingdom language. When he’s about to die Israel blesses Judah with these words:

Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Gen 49.8-10).

In his covenant with David YHWH promises that his kingdom and throne will be established forever (2 Sam 7.16). 

When Jesus of Nazareth arrives on the scene Scripture declares, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1.14-15). There’s a sense in which the kingdom of God is already. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the kingdom of God has already come; it’s already fulfilled. When Jesus prays your kingdom come he’s actually answering the prayer himself through his sinless life, substitutionary death and saving resurrection. All of the promises of God find their yes in him (2 Cor 1.20).

There’s another sense in which the kingdom of God is not yet. There’s a reason Jesus is commanding us to pray your kingdom come. This is where we must remember that the kingdom of God is both spiritual and spatial. Spiritually, when we pray your kingdom come we’re praying for conversion. Mark 1.15 doesn’t just say the kingdom of God is at hand, but follows with repent and believe in the gospel. We petition God that his kingdom would come through the salvation of sinners. That our children and neighbors and friends would hear the good news of Jesus Christ and that they would repent of their sin and trust in him alone. We pray that even now for those in the room who are dead to God, Father may your kingdom come right now through the Word and sacrament. Open the eyes of sinners and make them saints through the power of the Holy Spirit; your kingdom come!

But the kingdom of God is also spatial. We pray your kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven. In Greek it literally read, “as in heaven also upon earth.” Though it’s not yet realized Jesus Christ will return to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. The kingdom isn’t about escaping earth for heaven, but about heaven coming to earth. Christ will rule the new earth in time and space. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so even now the gospel beckons hearers to submit to Christ, for one day all people will submit whether they love him or not. Jesus will literally physically return to reign as king of the world and so when we pray your kingdom come, we’re praying come quickly Lord Jesus!

Submission to God’s Will

Jesus goes on to pray, your will be done. What does this mean? In Greek, γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, probably more accurately translated, “let your will be.” The Westminster Catechism defines it this way:

Acknowledging that by nature we and all men are not only utterly unable and unwilling to know and to do the will of God, but prone to rebel against his word, to repine and murmur against his providence, and wholly inclined to do the will of the flesh, and of the devil: we pray, that God would by his Spirit take away from ourselves and others all blindness, weakness, indisposedness, and perverseness of heart; and by his grace make us able and willing to know, do, and submit to his will in all things, with the like humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy, as the angels do in heaven.

So as we think about how to pray your will be done between the two advents, we must do so in light of the mandatory and the mysterious. The mandatory is easier to understand, that which God has explicitly revealed. 

We pray for justice in the world, for God is just. We pray for peace in the world because the God of peace will soon crush Satan. We pray that churches would be planted all over the globe so that God’s name would be hallowed on earth as it is in heaven. CS Lewis notes that thy will be done reminds us that there’s things that we need to do. As we pray for the will of God it should shape us to do the will of God.

It becomes more difficult to pray your will be done in light of the mysterious. This week I stood in the hospital rooms of Mabel Mcpherson and Bill DiTrapani and with tears in my eyes prayed your will be done. The old hymn calls us to “trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus then to trust and obey.” The mandatory is where we obey, but the mysterious is where we must trust. And often with tears in our eyes pray your will be done.

Where do we find the strength to pray this prayer? The problem started in a garden and so we had to go back to a garden to resolve it. Jesus prepares to reverse Adam’s curse by going back to a garden. In the garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus is preparing to die on the cross, he prays, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done (Luke 22.42). Jesus prays your will be done as he prepares to bear the wrath of God for our sin on the cross.

Think about it, what is the worst thing that could possibly happen to you? You could have to endure God’s justice for your sin in hell. Jesus knew that he was going to do that, and not just for one person, not just all of the wrath that Alex was owed, but all of the wrath that all of the elect are owed in hell, God poured that out on Christ on the cross. Every single bit of hell that every believer since Adam deserved, Jesus experienced on the cross. I can’t even imagine the wrath for my sin alone, but for every saint ever? Jesus knew that was coming and he prayed your will be done. He did that so that we don’t have to. When you see that, when you see what he did in your place, it is only then that, in spite of anything, you can pray your will be done. 

Conclusion

Refusal to submit may be a good quality in a professional wrestler, but it’s not for a disciple of king Jesus. To pray like Jesus is to pray in submission. George McDonald said there are two kinds of people in the world: those who say to God “thy will be done” and those to whom, at the judgment, God says “thy will be done.” That’s what hell is – all of the desires of your fallen heart and no grace, no forgiveness of sin. If the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, hell is a forever where there’s no glorifying and no enjoying. It’s an eternal existence where you can’t do what God created you to do. Look to Jesus Christ who submitted to the will of God for you and in turn enables you to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.