+ Lent Midweek 2 – February 28th, 2024 +
Luke 22:24-30
2nd Petition of the Lord’s Prayer
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen.
We say the Lord’s Prayer so often that we forget just how odd the second petition is, how different those words are to what we experience. Thy Kingdom Come.
For Americans this is a peculiar part of the Lord’s Prayer. We don’t live in a kingdom. We don’t have a king. Americans threw the king’s tea into Boston Harbor. Fought the king’s armies. Traded the crown for a republic.
We tour castles on vacation. We watch movies about brave knights rescuing the princess. We read about Arthur and Aragorn and other great kings of history and story. The world of kings and kingdoms is the stuff of legends for us.
So when it comes to this part of the Lord’s Prayer, we might wonder what are we praying for here?
Think of it this way. What makes a kingdom a kingdom? It isn’t the land or a set of borders drawn on a map. It isn’t a place full of fields and mountains and streams. It isn’t all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. It isn’t even the laws or culture that makes a kingdom.
What makes a kingdom a kingdom? The law was the law because the king made a decree. The armies fought in the king’s name and by his command. The culture was the way of life because the king protected it. The borders were drawn on the map because the king ruled over it. What makes a kingdom a kingdom? The man with the crown. What makes a kingdom is the king.
And that is what we find at the heart and center of the second petition: a king and a kingdom. The Lord’s Prayer is a castle and the King who rules on the throne of this prayer is Christ Jesus.
But He is no ordinary king. He is not a self-serving king in name only, like Herod was. He is not a tyrant like Pharaoh and so many of the Roman emperors were. Not senile and jealous like King Saul at the end. No, Christ has all greatness comes in weakness. A king lying in a stable and laid in a manger. Christ who is almighty God takes on human flesh and weakness. Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords is crucified under Pontius Pilate for you. Christ the King says to his arguing, confused, self-centered disciples… I am among you as the one who serves.
This is totally unexpected for us…just as it was for the disciples. When we hear the word “Kingdom” and we think knights, kings, emperors, castles, dungeons, and dragons. We hear the word kingdom and we think greatness. Great historical figures doing great things.
The disciples thought the same. Luke tells us that A dispute arose among the disciples, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. You can hear the lyrics of the Lion King song playing in their ears and ours… “Oh, I just can’t wait to be king!”
That’s the way our old sinful flesh thinks. We’d much rather pray this petition: “My kingdom come.” Within each of us there is found not a loyal subject but a tyrant. We want the power. The glory. The control. We want to be king of the hill. King of our lives. We want God’s kingdom to come on our own terms.
But all of that gets stripped away when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Our old Adam is dethroned. It turns out that we’re not royals; we’re rebels. King nothings. Emperors without clothes sitting on an empire of dirt…and despair…and death. There’s only room for one King. The crucified King who came to save you on the cross.
This is why we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Why we pray “Thy Kingdom Come.”
The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.
We don’t come to the kingdom of God…the Kingdom of God comes to you…because the King has come to save you.
The King God foretold to David, whose throne would endure forever…wears a crown of thorns and is enthroned on the tree for you. The King that was promised by the angel, born of Mary, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and laid in a manger was also the King was crucified, died, and was wrapped in burial cloths and laid in the tomb for you. Here is the Kingdom…it comes in Jesus crucified. Here God’s power…hidden in weakness, suffering, and pain. Here is God’s glory…in the wounds and words of Jesus, the King and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world for you.
Above his throne, the King of Calvary’s hill, the sign read… Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. Behold, your King. Crucified for you.
Remember…what makes the kingdom is the king. And a king is known by what he says and by what his hands do. The word of Christ the King save you. And the hands of Christ the King are the hands of a healer.
When the king comes so does his kingdom. How does Christ’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our 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.
Jesus’ word and the Spirit…His grace and promise: those are the decrees and gifts Jesus the crucified and risen King gives you. Christ the King has issued his solemn decree: be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven. Christ the King has ended your rebellion, and instead of drawing his sword, yelling “off with your head,” he leads you beside still waters. He kneels you down and he knights you as loyal, faithful, subjects and heirs in by water and word. Christ the King calls us to his banqueting table. A feast for you in his royal hall. King’s bread where Christ is present for you. You drink from the King’s cup where his blood is poured out for you. You eat and drink his pardon and promise.
What we pray for in this second petition, Jesus gives us in the second article of the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,
that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.
This is most certainly true.
Long live the crucified and risen King.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
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