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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Alleluia, “Praise the Lord!”, indeed! Our Lord’s resurrection that we celebrate this day is arguably the most important thing that He accomplished for us. If there was any doubt before His resurrection, there should not be any doubt after: He is the Son of God, His teaching is true, His sacrifice for us was accepted by God the Father, and all believers in Him will rise to eternal life. For His resurrection and what it means to us, He well deserves our praise and thanksgiving. As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, His “is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” This Easter Morning, we appropriately‑enough consider that “Conclusion” to the Lord’s Prayer, wrapping up our special‑services Lenten sermon‑series on the Lord’s Prayer in light of the words and deeds of our Lord’s life and ministry, especially those words and deeds of His Passion and Resurrection.
Some of us have had the experience of praying the extended “Conclusion” to the Lord’s Prayer, only to find that others around us said “Amen” immediately after the Seventh Petition! Different religious traditions or liturgies, including some in the Lutheran Church, omit “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.” Their omitting those words reflects the fact that the manuscript evidence is against those words’ originally being part of the model prayers Saint Matthew and Saint Luke recorded our Lord giving. That the manuscript evidence is against those words’ originally being part of the Lord’s Prayer is not to say, however, that the disciples or our Lord Himself did not use those or similar words. Ending a prayer as abruptly as the Lord’s Prayer would end without them is hard to imagine! The usual custom—long before Jesus’s time, at His time, and still today—is to end prayers with a conclusion of some sort: either a fixed ending or a free ending. Jesus and His disciples may have ended the model prayer with a free ending, or they may have used the fixed ending that has come down to us. The “Conclusion” as we have it has both Old Testament precedents (for example, 1 Chronicles 29:11-13) and New Testament evidence (for example, 2 Timothy 4:18). That fixed ending (or variations of it) were added early on to some manuscripts of the Gospel accounts and recorded in other writings of the early church, such as the Didache, already by the end of the first century.
In the sixteenth century, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small and Large Catechism did not mention “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever”, but instead the Small and Large Catechism focused on “Amen.” Dr. Luther wrote how “Amen” means that we should be certain that the petitions are pleasing to our Father in heaven and are heard by Him, for He commanded us to pray them and has promised to hear us. Although not discussed by Dr. Luther, the longer “Conclusion” gives reasons why we both ask these things and know that God is able to grant the petitions, namely: He alone rules His kingdom and has all good gifts in His control; He alone has the power to grant the petitions; and He has all glory and is worthy of our praise. As the resurrection of our Lord proves: truly, the kingdom and the power and the glory are His forever and ever!
Do you and I always believe that the kingdom, the power and the glory are His? Do we sometimes think that the Devil too much rules this world or has the power and that evil gets the glory? Do we sometimes think that we rule over our lives, that we have power in spiritual matters, and that we deserve glory and praise? Or, do you maybe think that your petitions are not pleasing to God because you are a sinner, that your works and worthiness matter in God’s answering your prayer? Or, do you doubt that your prayers are heard and granted according to God’s will? (Our Midweek Bible Study on prayer resumes this Wednesday night at 7 o’clock and considers the related question whether prayer changes God’s mind.) Or, do you and I make other excuses and so perhaps not pray as we should or not pray at all? Reflecting on the “Conclusion” to the Lord’s Prayer this Easter morning certainly leads us to recognize our sin, and so it also leads us to repent: to turn in sorrow from all our sin, to trust God to forgive that sin, and to want to do better. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. He forgives our sin related to prayer; He forgives all our other sin; and He even forgives our sinful nature. He forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
Apart from Jesus—apart from His death and His resurrection that we celebrate this day—“the kingdom and the power and the glory” really have no meaning for us! God’skingdom comes on the cross (Matthew 16:28; 26:64). God’s power is shown in weakness on the cross (2 Corinthians 12:9; 13:4). And God is glorified on the cross (John 12:20-36). Our Lord’s resurrection shows those things are true! In the crucified and resurrected God-man Jesus Christ, all the promises of God are fulfilled, and so we glorify God and say “Amen!” (2 Corinthians 1:20). In the days of His flesh, Jesus prayed to Him Who was able to save Him, and He was heard (Hebrews 5:7), and so we likewise pray to Him Who is able to save us and are heard. We are heard only for Christ’s sake, and, as today’s Second Reading (1 Corinthians 15:51-57) said, through Him, God gives us the victory over sin and death. Our “Amen” expresses our belief and trust in Him, and, through that faith, we are saved by the forgiveness of our sins.
For the forgiveness of our sins, we do not go literally to the cross or the empty tomb, but we come to God’s Word in all its forms. In preaching, Baptism, Absolution, and Communion we receive the benefits of Jesus’s death and resurrection. For example, Holy Baptism gives us the birth from above by water and the Spirit (John 3:1-8), and so Holy Baptism makes us forgiven children of God who can pray the Lord’s Prayer to our Father in heaven with all boldness and confidence. Similarly, in the family meal of Holy Communion, when we are offered the bread that is the body of Christ given for us and the wine that is the blood of Christ shed for us, we say “Amen!” and affirm both Christ’s real, physical saving presence for us and that we are receiving the promises He thereby offers. The forgiveness of sins through God’s Word and Sacraments is the focus of His Church, His Kingdom, even if its true power and glory are presently hidden.
Not by sight but by faith we live every day knowing that “the kingdom and the power and the glory” are His forever and ever. We live every day in a manner worthy of God, Who has called us into His own kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12). We live every day with repentance, for when we fail to live in that manner worthy of God, and with faith, that God forgives those failures for Jesus’s sake. We live every day praying our Father in heaven all the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and concluding that prayer with the ascription of praise that has come down to us and a firm “Amen”. Our “Amen” confesses our faith that God, Who has commanded us to pray and promised to answer our prayers, will hear and answer them according to His will.
That same faith looks forward to the Last Day, when God’s Kingdom will come visibly with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27). Unlike Peter and John in today’s Third Reading (John 20:1-18), who at first did not understand the Scripture, that same faith says, with Job in today’s First Reading (Job 19:23-27), that, after our skin has been destroyed, yet in our resurrected flesh we shall see God. Then, in our bodies buried in dishonor but raised in glory, buried in weakness but raised in power (1 Corinthians 15:43)—then, the “Conclusion” of the Lord’s Prayer gives way to the eternal praise of the heavenly Kingdom, like that recorded in the Revelation to Saint John (Revelation 5:12-14): “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
And all God’s people join the four living creatures and say: Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +