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“On Earth As It Is Heaven”

These Words are for those who accept that  two thousand years ago, Jesus lived and taught us about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of man. If you are not in that group, these words will not be very significant— but you should pay attention anyway.

There are few sections in the Gospels more familiar than the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew; 5, 6, & 7) and fewer passages in the Sermon more familiar than the Lord’s Prayer (Mt. 6:9-13), but the Prayer does have some lines that require a second look. Think of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven.”

Think about this. Is Jesus really saying in these lines that God’s will and His Kingdom should be the same in earth and Heaven? The same things existing where we are and also where Jesus is, in this life and the other? Sounds absurd. What could it mean? 

But there is a way to think about it that makes sense. Consider, first, the  idea of ‘kingdom’. A kingdom is not a democracy, not an aristocracy, not even a modern monarchy. A kingdom in the old sense is the time and place where everything belongs to the king who has absolute authority and control. The King rules everything. Remember some of those old stories you read when you were young? The king said, “Go. Attack that castle,” and everyone went.  The King said ”Go. Kill the dragon.” Everyone went. The king said “Off with his head.” The head was off. That’s the way a kingdom worked. The king’s will was the subject’s will, and the kingdom was where the king did what he wanted to do,  and the subjects wanted it that way.

A Kingdom, then, is where the will of the king prevails, and the Kingdom of God is where the will of God prevails. Now whatever else that might mean, it means that whatever the nature of those in heaven, whatever heavenly beings are like, their wills, their thoughts, and their actions will harmonize with the will of God. It is a kingdom beyond our imaginations. Humans cannot understand a non-human reality. Maybe for a few, a mystic experience once in a while will get past material dimensions, but not likely for you or me. We can’t even guess.

Yet while we limited, self-centered mortals may have trouble imagining what that Heavenly reality might be like, we can get an idea of what our earthly thoughts and actions ought to be like.  Our mortal lives ought to be shaped by, ought to be guided by, in thought, word and deed,   the words of Jesus, and those words are in the rest of the Sermon on the Mountain.

Go to chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the Gospel of Matthew, any translation, words said two thousand years ago and written down by Matthew maybe around forty to fifty years later. (No one knows for sure, but that is a common guess.) See for yourself what God’s Kingdom on  earth would look like if we aimed for God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven”.  It would be a different world top to bottom, beginning to end, start to stop.

But don’t spend too much time thinking of what the world would be like, of how things would improve, if other people aimed to follow the teachings of Jesus. Think of what you would be like! Now of course we are not devils or monsters. Our culture has a long history of being influenced by the Sermon, but there is a long way to go. Look around. Look at the Sermon and look at yourself. That’s where the trouble is. For one reason or another, entirely following the teachings of Jesus is difficult, probably impossible, I think we can even say impossible for anyone—on earth.  But we can try.

Start anywhere. Start with the idea that getting angry is comparable to murdering someone (5:21-22). Start with loving your enemies (5:44). Start with the idea that you should keep quiet when you do something good (6:1). Start with the idea that you should not criticize other people (7:1-5).  Start anywhere. Start with wanting and trying to make your part of this soiled earth and your less than perfect heart “as it is in Heaven.”