Our Father: Pt II

II. THE ANTICIPATION

Because of the freedom we have in Christ, the declaration “Our Father” should mean as much to us today as it did to the Jews under the tyranny of the Romans. It simultaneously recalls a past deliverance and looks forward in hope to a new era where Messiah sits on a throne in the here and now. But is this only a future reality?

This world suffers greatly from the tyranny of the Devil even though it is ultimately under the reign of God. We only need to open our papers, watch the CNN ticker, or read our RLS feeds to see that the Devil is alive, and well, and active in our midst. Recently I received word from a friend of mine in SE Asia that painfully reminded me how much this world needs the freedom of Christ. Every single day this man and his wife struggle against the powers of this age and the powers of darkness. The more I observe these forces (natural and supernatural) the more I see them working hand in hand, at least by default if not by design (cf. Is 14).

On the lips of a first century Palestinian Jew, “Our father” was the longing for a new and different world. For Christians behind the iron curtain it was a longing for the fall of a government that forbid the most basic expressions of faith. For Christians in China, it looks to a day when evangelical churches will be able to come out from the underground. To those in the Sudan and elsewhere, to a day of freedom from fear of their children’s lives being taken because of their faith. Likewise, the rulers of the ancient near east often referred to themselves as fathers, as benefactors, but at bottom they were tyrants. Jesus told his disciples that God was their Father, their benefactor. In “our father” we are reaching toward that Second Advent.

However, we must continue to declare “Our Father”, not as a child chanting to themselves, “I’m not afraid of the dark! I’m not afraid of the dark!”; but as a declaration into and against the darkness that “Help is not just on the way, but He is already here!” It is for us, and for all who have ears to hear. The Jews were looking forward to a final Exodus. We look to the Second Advent. This is when the Kingdom will come into its full inauguration. Heaven and Earth will become one with the New Jerusalem as its principle city. Tyranny of all kinds will flee and fall before the only true King.

“We live between advent and advent” The whole of the Christian life is lived in the tension between the first and the second coming. As we pray this prayer as believers, we look forward from the first advent to the paruosia, the Appearing. But until then, we beat back the darkness with the declaration of our adoption and hold out the hope of Christ to all who will receive the good news.