JESUS’ TIMELESS SPIRITUAL PROGRAM
“Teach us to pray…” or, tell us what should be our living relationship with God. His followers were asking Jesus for spiritual advice. They wanted to relate to Jesus’ Father the way he did.
The Our Father: Jesus’ own spirituality, a basic blueprint leading to the ultimate goal for his listeners and all the whole world to follow: A PASSIONATE LOVE OF GOD HIS FATHER and LOVE, JUSTICE AND HARMONY among humankind. This was the good news, God was a Father to them and all.
Our Father to be the center of their lives; Who art in heaven, their Creator, as they had been taught from infancy when they recited the Shema Yisrael prayer twice daily:
Hallowed be Thy name, the name of the principal OTHER of this sacred relationship: Jesus reminded them to be faithful Jews who had lived and breathed God since childhood; he showed them HOW by his whole nights communing with his Father, pointing him out and the Spirit in the birds and lilies of the field, active in curing their sufferings, and above all in his devotion to his calling; he wanted them to “… be compassionate just as your father is compassionate.”(Luke 6.36),
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven, God had come from his otherness to proclaim his Kingdom on earth, the Kingdom the Father wanted for them: “’The time has come,’ he said,’ and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’”(Mark 1: 15). “Strive first for the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6.33; Luke 12.31), and for this Kingdom he gave up his life on the Cross.
THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF GOD’S KINGDOM HERE ON EARTH: our life with God for others; “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.(Mark 12:28-31)”
Give us this day our daily bread we plead and work for sustenance with dignity for ourselves and others, there is no way men can be happy, when hungry and anxious, and be able to HALLOW God’s name,
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” we pray and work for harmony among ourselves and all men: that means, we have to forgive; forgiveness is the hallmark of his followers who are all sons of one Father
And lead us not into temptation, his temptations in the desert: material goods beyond what God wants for us, the possession and use of power over others, and the use of God for our own ends, all incompatible with the harmony of God’s Kingdom,
But deliver us from evil, violence against others and God’s creation: the footprint of the Pax Romana imposed by savage force,
For Thine is the Kingdom and the Honor and the Glory forever and ever amen. All these “hallow” God’s holy name.
“Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.(Mark 12:32-34)