As we continue our series on the Lord's Prayer, we arrive at the crucial phrase, 'on earth as it is in heaven' which only appears in Matthew. No other biblical author talks about Heaven more than Matthew. But what he has to say may come as a surprise.

We continue working our way through the Lord’s Prayer, line by line, to see if we can decode the meanings that are hidden in the original text. Jesus taught his followers to pray, 'let your kingdom come'. He didn’t come with the intention of setting the Jewish free from the rule of foreign oppressors. He didn’t come to re-establish the political independence of Israel and to rule from Jerusalem. He came to change peoples hearts and their way of thinking. The kingdom that Jeus proclaimed was a characterized by righteous living, victory over Satan, and the restoration of the human heart. He taught that when Israel’s love for the Father and for one another was restored, then God would be their king once again. This was the kingdom for which they were to pray.

He also taught them to pray, 'let your will be done.' This is not a declaration that somehow God's will is always accomplished on the earth. As it is constructed, this petition does not say “God is sovereign, he will do what he will do,” as if the role of the person praying is merely to recognize his supremacy. Rather, “let your will be done” is a petition asking God to act. The person who prays in this way is inviting him to bring about the doing of his will on earth.

Has the meaning of the LP been deliberately hidden? Was the author of this text trying to limit the understanding of this prayer only to those who could decipher his secret symbols? My answer to these questions is No. However, the Lord's Prayer is full of hidden meanings. This was a prayer first formulated about 2000 years ago. We hear the words, and we can explain what they mean today. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve discerned what they meant when first spoken. If we want to unlock the full meaning of the Lord's Prayer, we have to decipher what the codes meant within the historical context of early Judaism.