For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever (and ever) amen.
This is the final verse in our study on the Lord’s prayer. Compared to some of our other verses, this one has a little less meat, so we’ll spend a little time revisiting the rest of the prayer and then address this final verse.
Remember, Jesus shared this prayer to a large group of people, the context of our passage is as part of the sermon on the mount shared on the side of the sea of galilee. The sermon on the mount is a collection of various teachings of Jesus. They were not just for the disciples, but for anyone and everyone who may have been listening. In it, Jesus shares a critique of those who pray simply to be noticed and heard. He admonishes a posture of humility and conversation directly with God. Then he offers this prayer: Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Jesus offered this prayer to empower us and give us the words to pray. He didn’t give it to be legalistic. He said, “praying in this way” not “praying this verbatim”. So as we’ve studied, we’ve pushed on some of our understanding of the language--trying to get at the spirit of the prayer, not just the letter of the prayer.
Each week I’ve offered some alternative or challenge to deepen our understanding of what we’re really praying as we offer this prayer. We started with Jesus’ choice of the word “father” and leaned into the 1st-century dynamics of father as mentor and teacher, and then claimed God’s power and creativity as the God of the universe, of creation, as bigger and more mysterious than we will likely ever understand. We gave ourselves permission to use another name for God if “father” is too polluted by our earthly experiences. The point is, our relationship with God is close and intimate, it’s dynamic and we are dependent on God.
Then we moved to “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” We talked about how God’s “kingdom” might better be understood as God’s “kin-dom”--one where we are all family, we are loved and included, AND when we pray for the kingdom, we’re praying to be kingdom workers...we’re asking God to help us live like Jesus in a way that brings God’s kingdom to life here on earth. We can’t simply wait for God to pour out the kingdom like rain on the earth. If we are earnest in this part of the prayer, then we must do the work of God.
The next week we focused on “give us this day our daily bread” and how we might understand “bread” as a “single loaf” or a “ration” and that when we pray that way we are praying to be fully dependent on God--each and every day. We are praying that we would have a relationship that underscores and reminds us of our reliance on the divine every single day.
The fourth week we focused on the prayer of forgiveness and looked at the ways our unforgiveness burdens us so we aren’t free to receive what God is trying to offer us. We acknowledged that God’s power and willingness to forgive is not limited by our action or inaction, but instead, maybe the reason our forgiveness is linked to those we forgive is because our hardness of heart and unforgiveness hinder us, distract us, and limit us from being truly open and available, ready to receive what God has offered.
Finally, last week, we focused on “lead us not into temptation”, opening up new potential in this prayer as we understood the heart of the prayer to be one of protection from persecution and our need to resist systems and habits that diminish, abuse, and mistreat those around us.
And now, finally, to today’s verse. If you read the versions of the Lord’s prayer found in Matthew and Luke, you’ll see they are different. The differences are modest, but they are different, and only one contains this line: for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And scholars tend to argue that this language wasn’t part of the original prayer at all--that it was added later.
. Now, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. I just think it’s important when we study the scripture that we look at the whole picture, and the whole picture here is that it probably was not what Jesus taught.
So what is it? In many ways, it’s a doxology--a closing prayer on the prayer--a type of dedication. It does strike at the heart of the Lord’s prayer. It basically brings us full circle back to the beginning...acknowledging who God is and giving God credit where credit is due. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. For all of it belongs to you, God.
When we pray, we want to be in the proper posture. The spiritual posture of submission, humility, and praise. For some of us, when we pray we assume a physical posture as well. Some of us kneel. Some of us bow our heads, some of us fold our hands. We do those things not because they are the way to pray, but because the physical posture reminds us the take the proper spiritual posture.
Here in this verse we acknowledge and claim “God is God and I am not”. We reclaim God’s kingdom as what we want, not a place where we rule and we decide, but a place where God rules and God decides. Where God has the power to provide, to forgive, to lead, and to protect. And where God should receive the glory for each of those things.
In some ways, it’s a reminder not to get too carried away with our priorities. Where we might be tempted to go on and on and start dictating to God what has to happen, we are pulled back in to remember that God is the God of the universe, God sees, and God knows and we should take our lead from God and God alone.
I hope that the Lord’s prayer has become more vibrant and meaningful for you, it certainly has for me. Each time we pray, I pray we focus ourselves on God and surrender to the power of the prayer Jesus taught us. For God’s is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.