The Subversive Prayer Of The Sons Of The Father: Heaven On Earth…YHWH’s Transcendent Morality, And His Imminence With Humanity

Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.] (Matthew 6:9-13)

I suggested in last week’s post that, in this prayer, Jesus was drawing upon the theme of God’s spacial and authoritative transcendence in service to His ethical and moral agenda. I believe that He and the Pharisees would have stood firmly in agreement about the fact that God was totally other and distinct from, as well as authoritative over, the nation, as well as the rest of the Gentile world. It was YHWH alone who had the prerogative to set the parameters for proper ethics and moral behavior in the world of humanity; and perhaps especially, in Israel, His chosen people. The following two sentences in the prayer focus in upon the desire of God’s people for Him to draw near to them; in other words, the emphasis draws us towards categories of imminence. Again, as I began to note last time as well, Jesus also desired to use the theme of God’s imminence in service of his ethical and moral agenda. Let us begin to think about how these two seemingly paradoxical ideas come together in Jesus’ prayer. There was first the recognition that God existed in a place called heaven; and He was literally separated from His creation. Next, Jesus prayed for God’s heavenly kingdom to come to the land of Israel, which He further defined as God’s will being done in Israel, as (apparently) it is always done in heaven. I believe that Jesus was here expressing the common Jewish hope that YHWH would restore the nation to their land, and the kingdom to Israel.

Beyond that was the related recognition of the need for Israel to return to the purpose and intent of YHWH in the Torah. The Torah was, of course, a reflection of God’s will for the nation. Now of course, recognizing that I have decided (not only here, but also in the Beatitudes) to translate the Greek word gē (usually translated earth) as land, I want to be sure that I am not confusing my readers. The Jews were called to be salt and light, and as God’s elect people, they were certainly concerned to see the will of God, as expressed in the Torah, spread over the face of the entire earth. That said, the Israelite people, who at this point in history, were living under the oppressive rule of the Roman empire, and considered themselves to have been living in a state of perpetual exile, were principally concerned with the re-establishment of the Davidic kingdom, and the return of the rule of the land of Israel to YHWH (through the Torah), and to the Jewish people themselves. I am persuaded that it is more likely that the Jews were primarily focused upon the return of the rule of YHWH to the land, the nation of Israel itself; even though, in a secondary sense, the re-establishment of the kingdom in Israel would most definitely have signified the re-institution of their role and mission as God’s elect people on the earth, and to the nations. To summarize this point, it seems that Jesus’ prayer reflects the desire of the Jewish people, to see the sovereign rule of YHWH, revealed in the Torah, returned to the land of Israel.

Another important aspect of this Jewish hope was the return of YHWH Himself to dwell in the holiest place of the Temple; the occurrence of which, of course, would signify the forgiveness of Israel’s sin of rebellion against YHWH, which had gotten them cast into exile and captivity and the first place (I spoke some more about this here). Once more, if you will, allow me to attempt a simplified summary of the Jewish hope which Jesus’ prayer was an expression of. They longed for YHWH to forgive their sin of rebellion against His will expressed in Torah; a forgiveness which would take the form of YHWH’s return to dwell in the midst of Israel (imminence), the return of Israel from exile, the re-establishment of the kingdom of David, the re-institution of the Torah as the law of the land, and the restoration of Israel to their role and mission as God’s elect people. I think that it is quite obvious that matters of ethics and morality are intricately intertwined with each and every aspect of this hope. The transcendent YHWH, who was imminent in Israel, had become distant from them, as a result of sin. It was the defilement brought about by Israel’s sin which established their need for cleansing and forgiveness; a necessary prerequisite to YHWH’s return to, and life within, Israel and the Temple. Israel’s release from their current bondage under Roman captivity would have signified a new Exodus, the introduction of a new covenant, and the return of God’s chosen people to the land of promise.

For Israel, the re-establishment of the kingdom would have meant that, once again, the son of God was seated on the throne of David, ruling the people of God on behalf of YHWH. At the center of both the covenant and the kingdom was to be the Torah, which was a way of living (ethics and morality), given by YHWH, in order to direct His people so that things might go well with them and their sons forever; so that they might posses the land, and prolong their days in it. Finally, Israel’s role as God’s elect was to manifest, through their adherence to the way of life prescribed by YHWH in the Torah, the ethical character and moral qualities of their God; which stood in opposition to the more or less typical modus operandi of the Gentile world, and all sinners. As I have said from the start, I do not believe that there would have been one ounce of disagreement between Jesus and the Pharisees up to this point. So what was the problem? Again, as I said last time (and really, since we began looking at the Sermon), the real issue between these two would have been with regard to their perspective definitions of a Torah-centric school of ethics. Yes, God’s morality was transcendent; but what exactly was so different about the ethics of YHWH, in comparison with those of the world? Yes, God was imminent with, in, and through His people Israel; but how was the fact of God’s imminence to impact Israel’s relations with both Gentile and Jewish sinners? I believe that these are the questions at issue in Jesus’ prayer.