By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Religion, Samford University
A Prayer of Surrender
Matthew 6:10–11a; James 4:6–10,13–17
One of the most intriguing aspects of the New Testament is the fact that the Gospels give us four pictures of who Jesus is rather than just one.
One of the important results of having four pictures of Jesus is that we can see how one Gospel places emphasis on a particular message while another emphasizes something different. We see this especially in the way Mark and Luke preserve Jesus’ teaching on the end times.
When Jesus prepared to ascend to heaven in Acts 1 the disciples asked, “Is this the time when You will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
The disciples had been devastated by Jesus’ death. They had been shocked to see Him raised again. Now they wondered if the time had come for Jesus to finally bring God’s kingdom to earth.
Mark’s Gospel tends to share the outlook expressed in the disciples’ question. Writing just before the time when Rome would come and destroy Jerusalem, Mark naturally felt that it must be the crisis moment that would lead to the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. Luke’s Gospel approaches matters from a somewhat different angle.
Writing in the years on the other side of Rome’s destruction of Israel, Luke had come to understand that Jesus would indeed return, but it would be a while before He did. This led to the important question, “So how should we live now?”
For Luke the answer was simple: We should live now as if God’s kingdom were already here among us. While we wait for Jesus to return and establish His physical kingdom, we should start living out now the values of His spiritual kingdom.
Pray with a heart of surrender and submission to the Lord. (Matt. 6:10–11a)
It is just this sentiment that Jesus expresses in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven.” He instructs them to pray that the values of God’s heavenly kingdom will begin to flourish on earth in the same way they are exercised perfectly in heaven. As Jesus expresses it, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Humbly surrender to the lordship of Christ. (James 4:6–10)
Living out God’s kingdom here on earth requires first and foremost humility on the part of those who claim to be His followers. The values of God’s kingdom revolve around notions of submission to God and treating other people as being more important than ourselves.
We cannot love God with all our hearts, souls and strength, nor can we love our neighbors as ourselves, if we are concerned primarily with our own pride of place. This is why James insists that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” For God to extend His kingdom through us, we must humbly surrender our own pride.
Humbly surrender your plans to God’s plans. (James 4:13–17)
When we surrender to God, our hearts and hands will become ready instruments for living out God’s kingdom.
Instead of looking out solely for what we want, we will begin to internalize the aspects of God’s law that urge us to put others first and serve others.
Like Jesus, we will begin to seek out the stigmatized and oppressed, the sick and the poor, and we will begin to extend the embrace of God’s love to them in the same way God extended His love to us.
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