Our Father Reflection 5: “May what You want be done on earth, as it is in Heaven”

Matthew 6 v 9: This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, …, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…

Matthew 26: 36 - 46

36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."

39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I want, but as you want." 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. 41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
42 He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

44So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? …Look, my betrayer is at hand…"

After teaching us to pray to our “Abba” confidently, Jesus is teaching us the Our Father as the pattern for all our prayer. He is showing us seven things to ask: the first three are all to do with God (“hallowed be your name”, “your Kingdom come”, and “your will be done”), before we ask four things for ourselves.

This week we look at “May your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. “In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our will to that of his Son, so as to fulfil his plan of salvation in the life of the world.” (Catechism 2860).

A “will” is what a dying person leaves behind as a plan for what they want to be done. The Father’s will is what he wants done, a plan that he has formed in Heaven: his plan is to save us. He “wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2 3-4). "He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1: 9-11)
Obedience to what someone else wants is not easy for us. In Hebrews 5 verses 7-9 it says that even Jesus “learned” obedience to his Father: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”.

The Father sent Jesus to be obedient to this plan to save us, so Jesus is our example of obedience. In the passage from Matthew Jesus prays for the strength to be obedient, and shows his love for the Father by obedience in being prepared to die for us.

What a loving Saviour who prays with us that what his Father wants will happen, and obeys! He leads us by example and sends his Spirit to strengthen us. Let’s pray with Jesus that what the Father wants will happen!