We now come to a second “Q” text: Matthew 6:10. If Jesus ever defines kingdom of God it is here:
? ?Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
1. Since this is classic Hebrew parallelism, one can infer that kingdom coming and God’s will being done are complements to one another. So much so that in this case one might say “kingdom” is “God’s will being done.”
2. Anyone who takes the time to compare Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer with Luke’s version of the same knows that only Matthew has the lines about “your will be one on earth as it is in heaven.” Some think Matthew “redacted” the Q saying; most think that extra bit is inherent to the first bit so that is genuinely historical at some level even if it is not verbatim.
3. The crucial element here is not if Matthew added it or if Jesus said it this way on another occasion but this: kingdom, if defined by the “your will be done” line, is about God’s will being “done on earth as it is in heaven.”
4. Kingdom then is future in some sense but it is a future that will be manifest on earth. Kingdom is the earthly manifestation of God’s will. This fits with the Jewish Qaddish prayer that forms the background to the Lord’s Prayer: “May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel, even speedily and at a near time.”
5. Jesus’ vision is kingdom vision.
6. That coming kingdom would mean:
Justice, peace, love, righteousness, etc.
End of oppression
Judgment on the enemies of God
Vindication for the oppressed friends of God
Society encircling Jesus
7. “Brief as it is, no more comprehensive prayer than this can be prayed.” GR Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom of God, 151.
8. This prayer shows that kingdom coming on earth is an act of God.