Second Key to the Kingdom

The Keys of the Kingdom as revealed in the Lord's Prayer

The second Key to the Kingdom is a companion to the first in that it is a part of the opening line of “The Lord’s Prayer,” and provides what for the disciples of Jesus was a radical departure from their tradition – “Our Father!”

As we have become too casual with regards to God’s awesome power and majesty, so too have we lost the wonder of the impact that these words had on those who first heard it.YHWH, the LORD God of the Jewish and Christian faiths is not Allah, the God of the Muslim faith. Yet, like the Muslims of today, the Jews of Jesus’ day approached the God of their faith in relation to His transcendence, His altogether “other than,” above and beyond anything we are and can relate to. Therefore, to approach The Almighty in an intimate, relational manner as a child addresses his/her loving father was unheard of, borderline, if not outright, blasphemy!

This, however, is exactly what Jesus does. (See Mark 14:36 wherein the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of all mankind in His moment of untold agony, wrestling with the immanence of His torture, humiliation and death on the cross, the cruel instrument of Roman execution, a slow, tortuous death, in the Garden of Gethsemane where He sweat drops of blood, He cries out, “Abba, Father . . . .”) Paul later echoes this term of endearment in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6

He blends the two together. The “abba” dimension of a precious father is conjoined with “hallowed be Thy Name” (holy is Your name). This is the blessing of the Jewish opening line of prayer “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the universe.” There are two different words for “blessed” in Hebrew.

One is transliterated “asher” which is the word used by Jesus in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” et.al. This word literally means “to make straight.” The implication is that if one makes all of his/her ways “straight,” correct, right, when walking with the Lord, that person will be happy in life – blessed.
The other is the work “barak.” This is “to knee as an act of adoration.” You see this in the depiction in the of the shepherds and the Magi in the paintings or models of the Nativity scene when they to worship, to adore the newborn King! To declare that the King of the universe is blessed (baruch, in the imperative used in prayer) is now equated with declaring that the Father is truly “hallowed” (Holy) – the Transcendent, Other-than Reality – God Almighty!

And so we see in Jesus’ instruction to His disciples in how to approach their God in prayer as their Father, He hands them two powerful Keys to the Kingdom. If we do not approach God our Father in the correct way, every other door is barred to us. Conversely, if we approach Him in prayer in an appropriate manner of worship, love, humility and honor, He will open for us every door of the Kingdom for a blessed (happy, fulfilled) life!