A Communion Reflection
Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses, ascending the mountain to deliver a new understanding of God's kingdom. Just as Moses gave the Torah from Mount Sinai, Jesus gives his teaching from the mount—not to replace the law, but to fulfill it and reveal its heart.
Who you are called to be
What will you do with Jesus' teaching?
The Lord's Prayer sits at the center of the center of the center of the Sermon on the Mount.
It is the heart of Jesus' teaching on authentic devotion, which is the heart of his teaching on righteousness, which is the heart of his entire Sermon.
The Lord's Prayer itself has a deliberate structure—seven petitions arranged in a chiasm, a mirror pattern where the center holds the key. At the heart of this prayer is our daily dependence on God, and forgiveness is how God's will becomes reality on earth.
The prayer's heart: dependence and forgiveness working together.
Forgiveness is how God's will becomes concrete in our relationships—the practice that brings heaven to earth.
This was not merely a template for his followers—it was Jesus' own prayer. On the night before his crucifixion, in the Garden of Gethsemane, facing the ultimate test, Jesus prayed the words he had taught.
"Our Father who is in the skies... may your will be done, as it is in the skies, so also on the land."
"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will... Your will be done."
Jesus prayed this prayer three times in the garden. He asked for another way. He wrestled with what was coming. But each time, he returned to the same words: "Your will be done."
The prayer he taught when it was easy, he prayed when it cost everything. The prayer formed him for this moment. It carried him through.
Jesus modeled the prayer's heart:
Trust God with your life, even when you know the outcome will not be in your favor.
The Lord's Prayer calls us to two radical acts:
1. Trust God freely with our lives
Even when we see what's coming. Even when the outcome is not what we would choose. Even when it costs us everything.
2. Practice forgiveness
Not because it's easy. Not because people deserve it. But because this is how God's will is done on earth. This is how heaven comes to earth in our relationships.
Jesus literally prayed the Lord's Prayer from the cross. He trusted the Father's will even in death—still calling God "my God" in his darkest moment. He forgave his debtors in real-time, the ultimate embodiment of "forgive us as we forgive." He experienced the darkness so we could be delivered from the evil one. From Gethsemane to Golgotha, Jesus made this prayer his own.
This is what it means to follow Jesus:
To trust God as Jesus trusted God.
To forgive others as Jesus forgave others.
Even when—especially when—the outcome is certain and not in our favor.
As we take communion today, we remember that Jesus embodied this prayer completely. He trusted the Father's will. He forgave those who killed him. He brought heaven to earth through radical trust and radical forgiveness.
And now he invites us to do the same. To make his prayer our prayer. To make his story our story. To trust and forgive, even when it costs us everything.