Chip Shots

It is appropriate that we conclude our weekly meditation on the Lord’s Prayer just a few days following Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead. For the events of Easter provide a poignant witness to the revolutionary power of Jesus’ prayer, and to its uniquely Christian approach to kingdom, power and glory. “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever,” Jesus said. What audacious words these are! At the time Jesus prayed this words, who was it that represented the kingdom, the power and the glory? The Romans, of course. Their empire covered most of the known world, and the Jewish people in particular. Jews hated the Romans, and a variety of political movements erupted both before and after Jesus’ time seeking to free them from Roman oppression. All of them were violently squelched. Rome did not take kindly to other kingdoms claiming their subjects' allegiance. Clearly then, when Jesus closed his prayer with this stirring affirmation about God’s kingdom, he was n...

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." When Jesus taught us to pray this, he knew what he was talking about. His ministry began with a direct encounter with the tempter in the wilderness. His ministry ended with a gut-wrenching prayer in the Garden. In each case, he was tempted to step outside the Father’s loving care and direction, and to take his future into his own hands. In many ways, this is at the root of all temptation. Whatever the specific temptation, the thing beneath the thing is the continual battle to live in humble trust and obedience to the Father. Will we surrender our appetites, our aspirations, and our identity to him? Or will allow these good things to become our master rather than our servant? Jesus faced all these temptations in the desert and the garden. After forty days of prayer and fasting at the beginning of his ministry, the enemy attacked him in all three of these vulnerable areas: appetites, aspiration, and identity. Woul...