Fifty-Seven Words That Change The World: A Journey Through The Lord's Prayer

by Darrell W. Johnson

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13

“Jesus, will you teach us how to relate to the one you call ‘Father’ the way you do?” So Jesus teaches his disciples—and us—to pray fifty-seven words that are brilliant in their simplicity. These fifty-seven words change the way we understand God, ourselves, and the world. Indeed, they are fifty-seven words that, when prayed with even a modicum of faith, end up changing the world.

First, the gift frees us from a universal anxiety of the human heart. It frees us from the anxiety about whether or not we are praying in a way that pleases the Living God.

Second, the Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful gift because in it Jesus reveals the heart of the Living God.

Third, the Lord’s Prayer is such a wonderful gift because in it Jesus grants us what the mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal called “the dignity of causality.”1 When we pray, God is granting us the unspeakable privilege of partnering with him in fulfilling his purposes in the world. No prayer has given us that privilege more than the Lord’s Prayer. As we pray the Prayer, we are joining the Living God in bringing about the realization of his heart’s desire for the world.

The point of this episode is that prayer, from the human side of things, moves history. The “movers and shakers” of history are those who pray. As the New Testament scholar George Beasley-Murray (an expert on the book of Revelation) commented: The significance of the picture can hardly be overestimated. No one was more aware than John of the limitations to what individual men and women can do to change the course of history and to bring in the kingdom of heaven, particularly in the face of the cosmic forces against them and the transcendent character of the kingdom itself. . . . But we can pray to him who has almighty power, and it would seem that God has willed that the prayers of his people should be part of the process by which the kingdom comes. The interaction between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of the saints is part of the ultimate mystery of existence. Faith is called on to take both seriously.2

“The dignity of causality.” When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we participate in the transformation of the world.

The Lord’s Prayer encompasses every dimension of our human existence. We are physical creatures so he teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and “your kingdom (of wholeness and health) come.” We are relational creatures so he teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.” We are spiritual creatures so he teaches us to pray, “your name be hallowed,” for we cannot live without knowing the name of him who made us, and “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Furthermore, the Lord’s Prayer encompasses all of time: past, present, future. Our greatest need as we look to the past is forgiveness, so he teaches us to pray, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Our greatest need as we look to the present is sustenance, so he teaches us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” Our greatest need as we look to the future is guidance and protection from all that would threaten to undo us. So he teaches us to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but rescue us from the evil-one who seeks to destroy us.”

The scope of the Lord’s Prayer is everything, every moment, every dimension of life. As the Czech scholar Jan Milic Lochman puts it, “The arc of the prayer spans the whole of cosmic reality with its heights and depth.”

Our Lord’s Prayer can be divided into two halves—petitions one to three, and petitions four to six. The first half uses the pronoun your; the second half uses the pronoun us. Your name, your kingdom, your will. Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our debts. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us. Jesus is teaching us to first and foremost begin praying God’s agenda, not ours.

To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to participate in heaven’s invasion of the earth. To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to participate in a revolution of huge proportions. “O Father, your name is hallowed in heaven; hallow it on earth, in me, in my family, in this city. O Father, your kingdom has come in heaven; cause it to come on earth, in my house, in my neighborhood, in this country. O Father, your will is done in heaven; make it be done on earth, in my work place, in the work places in Vancouver and Seattle and Dallas and Mexico City and Tokyo and Baghdad and Calcutta and Nairobi. O Father, your name be hallowed; your kingdom come, your will be done on Main Street and Wall Street, as it is in heaven!” You can see then that to pray the Lord’s Prayer is to engage in a cosmic act!

Surprisingly, the verbs of the Lord’s Prayer, addressed to the Superior of superiors, are in the imperative. They are commands, not requests. Be hallowed! Be come! Be done! All in the command form. To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to command—not to ask—but to command. Not that human beings are to order God around. Not at all! And yet, the verbs are in the imperative. Now remember that it is Jesus himself who teaches us to do this. He is the one who put the verbs in the imperative. It is Jesus who is telling us to speak to the Father so boldly, so forcibly. He is the Son who knows the Father, who knows the Father’s heart and mind. And he, the Son, the only-begotten Son, the Beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased, tells us to say, “Be hallowed! Your name—Come! Your kingdom—Be done! Your will.”

Only God can do what we are asking to have done. Only God can hallow his name. Only God can bring his kingdom. Only God can do his will. The prayer is not what many believers have over the years thought it to be: the prayer is not, “let us hallow your name.” The prayer is not, “let us bring in your kingdom.” The prayer is not “let us do your will.” The prayer is “Father, you do it! You hallow your name on earth as it is in heaven. You bring your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. You make your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Do you see the difference? It changes the whole tone of the prayer. We are asking God to do what only God can do. We are “commanding” that God do what only God can do. We might be involved; indeed, we want to be involved in the process of the kingdom coming, for instance. But we are not the ones making it come. As D. Elton Trueblood put it, “We mistake the kingdom request greatly if we think we are the chief actors in the drama. We may be needed, but the fundamental work for which we pray is God’s work.”9 Professor Stendahl of Harvard University reminds us that the prayer “asks for the establishment of the kingdom of God, by God for us, not by us for God.”10 “Father, you do it, for only you can do it. You bring heaven down to earth.”

The heavens are the atmosphere in which we live. We live in a multi-dimensional universe. Heaven is one of those dimensions, very close at hand. Jesus is praying “Father in the heavens”; “Father all around us”; and “Father very close at hand.” The clause “in heaven” would also conjure up in the minds of first-century Jews the idea of God on his throne. Earlier in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we read these words, “But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool” (Matt 5:34-35). “In heaven” means “on the throne.” If this is not so, then we are wasting our breath praying the Lord’s Prayer. Sure, it may be therapeutic to pray, but if the one to whom we pray is not on the throne, then we have no real hope that he can do what we ask him to do. At best he can say, “I am doing my best.” Jesus is telling us that there is a throne—all around us—and someone is sitting on it. We can, therefore, dare to hope that when we pray something happens.

“Thank God,” wrote Helmut Thielicke, “that our prayer does not depend on our expressing the correct desires, that it does not depend on our making a correct ‘diagnosis’ of our needs and troubles and then presenting God with a properly phrased and clearly outlined prayer-proposition.”14 The Father knows our needs beyond the expressed needs. He knows our needs contrary to the expressed needs. The Father of Jesus, who by grace is our Father, knows we need bread, sustenance, forgiveness, reconciliation, guidance and protection. He knows we need to experience his name being hallowed, and his kingdom coming, and his will being done. It turns out that our greatest need is the Father himself.

The scope of the prayer is every moment, every issue. The flow of the prayer is your, your, your, us, us, us. The center of the prayer is “on earth as it is in heaven.” The verbs of the prayer are bold and forceful: “Be!” And the reason the prayer works? “Our Father in heaven.” The Father Jesus knows, the Father Jesus loves, the Father Jesus trusts, is the Father who sits on the throne. That is why praying the Lord’s Prayer, and praying it with our whole lives, changes the world.

I will put it more boldly: at the center of Jesus’ being, at the center of Jesus’ identity and mission is his passion for his Father’s name being hallowed.

To speak of someone’s “name” in this sense is a way of referring to their “character,” “personality,” or “reputation.” To know the name of a human being is to know some essential truth about the person’s character. To put it in modern terms, a name gives us “a mini personality profile.” It is easy for us to underestimate the significance of such a profile. We live in a age of police checks and credit ratings. Those living in biblical times did not. They could only go on the basis of the name. No wonder Proverbs tells us that a “good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold” (22:1). To know the name of God is to know some essential truth about God’s character. “God” is not God’s name. “God” is a descriptive word, not a name. God has a name, a personal name, a first name, and many nicknames. “Father in heaven, hallowed be your character, your personality, on earth as it is in heaven.”

God is already holy. God’s name, the Father’s name, is already holy. So in the first petition the verb means, “Your name be treated as holy.” That is, “your name be treated as infinitely precious, your name be highly valued, above all other values.” Thus this verb has the sense of praise, honor, exalt, magnify, revere, glorify.3 None of this can happen unless and until God’s name is known. So “hallowed” has the deeper meaning of being revealed, manifest, made known, or best of all, made real. “Your name, so infinitely precious, be made known on earth as you are in heaven.” “Your name, so greatly to be valued because it is you yourself, be made real on earth as it is in heaven.”

So pull it all together. “Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, on earth as it is in heaven.” “Name” equals character, attributes, personality, glory, fame, reputation. Name means who God is and what God is like. “Hallowed”: holy-fy, treat as holy, honor, exalt, magnify, glorify. Hallowed means reveal, manifest, make known, make real. Thus we might pray, “Father in heaven—Father of our Lord Jesus, our own Father—make real your character and magnify your name on earth as it is in heaven. Father, make yourself real on earth as you are real in heaven; enhance your reputation in all the earth.” Can you think of any more appropriate way to begin to pray?

In the book of Ezekiel we encounter one of the most revealing texts of Scripture. God, speaking to the captive Jews in Babylon, tells his people that he is ready to save them: Therefore say to the house of Israel, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36:22-23)

Praying back the names of God God has manifested his character as El Shaddai—the mighty God, El Roi—the God who sees, El Rophe—the God who heals. It is good for us to pray the names back. “O Father, you are El Shaddai, the Mighty One. Make yourself real as the Mighty One in my life as it is in heaven; enhance your reputation as the Mighty One in my life as it is in heaven.” God is Adonai, our Master. And he’s our Rock. And Fortress. And Refuge. And Holy One. And Cleansing Fire. “O Father, make yourself real to me as Cleansing Fire; enhance your reputation as Cleansing Fire in this place.”

Later on Moses cries out, “Show me your glory!” “Let me see you in all your glory.” God responds, “You cannot see my face,” at least not yet, but “I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.” So Moses hides in the cleft of a rock. And God passes by, and says, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exod 34:6-7). Pray the revelation back: “Father, show yourself in my work-place as compassionate and gracious; enhance your reputation in my office as slow to anger and abounding in mercy.” At the burning bush God says to Moses, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out . . . and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them” (Exod 3:7-8). Pray the revelation back: “Father, manifest yourself in our time as the God who sees our suffering, who hears our cries, who feels our pain; enhance your name as the God who therefore comes down.” He does, and has, come down, in the incarnation. In Jesus of Nazareth, God became (and remains) one of us. Jesus’ name in Hebrew is Joshua, or Y’shua. It means “Yahweh saves,” or “Yahweh to the rescue.” In every word Jesus speaks, in every deed Jesus does, the nature and character of the saving God is being revealed. Pray the events of Jesus’ life back to God: “You welcomed outcasts, you healed the sick, you reconciled the estranged. O Father, make real all of this now in our century as you did in the first...

Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.

I learned that year that to pray the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” is one of, if not the most radical things a human being can do, for it turns out that in this petition we are asking God to bring about the most massive revolution imaginable.

In spite of what felt like confusion and even madness, the Hebrews believed that the Living God is active in history, and is moving history toward its appointed end. That end is the kingdom of God. This unique view of history is reflected in a Jewish prayer, which is similar to what Jesus teaches us to pray. In the Aramaic Kaddish we find, “May God let his kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon.” 2

Rather, “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven” is a way of saying “God is acting as King.” The kingdom of God refers to the dynamic reality of God acting as the King. The Hebrew prophets longed for the day when God would finally impose and establish his kingly-rule over the entire world. They longed for the day when God would intervene once and for all, and rule without rival. In the minds of the Jewish prophets this reign of God would be ushered in by God’s messiah (“anointed one”) on the so-called “Day of the Lord,” the great and awesome Day. The period of time preceding the “Day of the Lord” was called the “end times.” On that “Day” the Living God, “the Father who is in heaven,” would intervene in history in a radical way and completely transform the broken world. God would come to reverse the effects of the fall of humanity.

Jesus means that the kingdom of God, the reign of God, God’s new world order, has “come near.” Does Jesus mean it is just about to arrive, so we should get ready? Or does he mean it is here—so we should grab hold and enter in? As you can imagine there is considerable scholarly debate on this issue and people want to settle on one or the other side of the issue. I believe, following many scholars from the full range of theological traditions, that taken in light of the whole New Testament, the term “at hand” is used in both senses—both “just about to arrive,” and “right here, now.” Jesus is announcing that in him and because of him the future reign of God spoken of by the prophets, the glorious new order of life, is both “just about to dawn on the world” and “is dawning right now.”

Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming, “the presence of the future.”5 In Jesus, “the time before the kingdom is finished, the time of the kingdom has begun.”6 This is why after recording Jesus’ staggering claim, the Gospel writers go on to record a series of Jesus’ mighty deeds. Jesus’ deeds validate Jesus’ claim. Jesus’ miracles demonstrate that indeed the future is breaking into the present, but they do more than validate the claim. They give us a picture of what God’s kingdom is all about.7 Jesus gives sight to the blind—that is the kingdom of God come near. Jesus causes the lame to walk—that is the Kingdom of God come near. Jesus touches and cleanses lepers—that is the kingdom of God come near. Jesus liberates those held captive by demonic powers—that is the kingdom, that is the new order, breaking into the present. Jesus heals the sick—that is the kingdom of God. Jesus befriends prostitutes and one of them comes and washes his feet with her tears—that is the kingdom. Jesus calms the wind and waves—that is the kingdom. Jesus multiplies the loaves to feed the hungry—that is the kingdom. Jesus champions the powerless; he stands in solidarity with the poor—that is the kingdom, that is God’s new world order. Jesus unites people the world divides. In his company are Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector, two arch enemies. One represents an oppressive foreign government; the other, revolutionary insurgency—he’s a terrorist. But in Jesus they become brothers! That is t...

The kingdom of God is already partially here, not-yet completely here. It seems that the tension is “some” versus “all”—already some of the kingdom, not-yet all of the kingdom. To a certain degree this is a helpful way of seeing it. But “partial” versus “complete” misses the good news in Jesus’ “at hand.” The good news is that the “already, not-yet” is a matter of “veiled” versus “visible.” The “already, not-yet” is a matter of “hidden” versus “manifest.”9 The really good news is that in Jesus the new order is already among us, but in a veiled, hidden form. It is not-yet among us in a visible, manifest form. That is the mystery of the kingdom which Jesus taught in his parables (see especially Matthew 13). The presence of the kingdom cannot be separated from the presence of the King. The kingdom is wherever the King is. So right after announcing that the kingdom of God is at hand, Jesus says to four fishermen, “Come, follow me.” He and the kingdom are one. When the King is present, so is the kingdom. Indeed, the kingdom is present only where Jesus Christ is King.

So what is the nature of his “already, not-yet-ness”? Is it a matter of partial versus complete? No. Jesus Christ is not partially here. He is already completely here. But he is here in hidden form. He is veiled, or as I should say, ordinarily veiled. Yet hidden and veiled though he may be, he is really and completely here. The King is here—right where you are—in all his glory, splendor and power: in your home and in your office and in your hospital room. Jesus Christ is at hand, just behind that thin, permeable veil of hiddenness. If God wanted to, he could pull back that veil and we would all be on our knees.

You can see that the term “second coming” is a bit misleading, for he is not coming from some far away place. He is breaking through from behind the veil of hidden-ness. When he does, the already present, but ordinarily hidden, kingdom of God will be manifest to all and will overcome and replace all other kingdoms. So, what does it mean to pray, “your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven”? It means something like “Living God, even before the Day of the Lord, reveal what is invisible, manifest what is hidden.”

“Father, your reign of light and joy and power and justice and wholeness is now veiled. O God, unveil your kingdom here on earth just as it is in heaven! King of Kings, break through the veil of hiddenness and manifest your royal splendor and might and healing and goodness.”

If the Church of Jesus has been given this privilege then why haven’t we exercised it more intentionally? Perhaps it is because we have not understood the privilege. Perhaps it is that we have not wanted to submit our lives to the King. We may have wanted the benefits and blessings of the kingdom but we have not been willing to align our lives with his rule. Or perhaps it is that we know the coming of God’s rule means the end of our rule. Perhaps the church has not fervently prayed for the kingdom because we know it is dangerous to do so; the King just might answer and start turning everything up-side-down!

Will you pray for the kingdom to come in you? “Father, manifest the already-ness of your rule in my life. Break through any darkness; King Jesus, illuminate every corner of my life with your healing light. Father, break through any resistance in my soul; King Jesus, humble me, forgive me, cleanse me. Father, break the bondage that enslaves me; King Jesus, free me, restore me. Father in heaven, break through the patterns of my life that support or perpetuate injustice; King Jesus, give me courage to follow you come what may.” Will you pray for the kingdom to come through you? “Father in heaven, manifest the already-ness of your rule through my life; I am yours, I make myself available to you for your purposes in the world. King Jesus, through me, make yourself real in my part of the world; make me an instrument of your peace.” Will you pray for the kingdom to come in and through your church and the other churches of your city or town? “Father in heaven, make us, your church, a clear and engaging sign that the future is breaking into the present. Grant, O God, that when the city looks at us, it sees you and your new world order. King Jesus, do through us what you did when you walked the earth in visible form. Through us heal the sick, free the captives, reconcile enemies, raise the dead to newness of life.” This—and so much more—is what it means to pray the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Bring it on! Bring on your revolution. Reverse the effects of sin. Restore broke...

As good as it might have been, “my will” was not as well informed as I thought. I like how Helmut Thielicke put it, In the last analysis we know very little about our real needs, about what we lack and what we need. So we often pray for foolish things, when what we need is something totally different. We are naked, and instead of praying for clothing we pray for bonbons. We are imprisoned by certain passions . . . and instead of praying for freedom we pray for a Persian rug for our cell. So often we pray for senseless things that have no relation to our needs. And the reason is that we do not know the deepest wants and necessities of our life at all.1 “O Father, you do know. Your will be done!”

petition in resignation: “I guess I really do not have any other choice, do I?” Still others pray the petition in resentment: “I do not like this at all, but your will be done.” However, if we understand the will of the Father in the way that Jesus does, we should pray the petition in joyful anticipation. The word for “will” in “your will be done,” conveys the fundamental note of goodness. The word is thelema. Thelema has the sense of both purpose and pleasure.2 Thelema echoes the words of God in Isaiah, “My purpose will be established, I will accomplish all my good pleasure” (46:10, nasb). “Your will be done” means “Your purpose and pleasure be done”; “Your design and delight be done.”