“For Yours is the kingdom and the power ..." (Matthew 6:13b)

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen." (Matthew 6:13b)

What does 'Yours is the kingdom and the power' mean?

This final stanza of Jesus' prayer summarizes the position of the Supreme Being compared with our position.

Firstly it describes the simple fact that God owns everything. He is the creator and owner of everything. As such, He is also the rightful enjoyer of everything.

This is communicated by Jesus with the use of the word "kingdom" - which is not referring to a physical 'kingdom' or location as also noted regarding "Your kingdom come."

That reference definition illustrates that the Greek word translated to 'kingdom' actually means "royal power, kingship, dominion, rule" according to Thayer's lexicon. The lexicon clarifies the word is "not to be confused with an actual kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom."

This means that the translation to "kingdom" is quite confusing. A more appropriate translation would be something like "dominion" or "authority."

Aren't we also powerful?

Many of us in the physical world are convinced that this world was created for our pleasure. Many of us believe also that God’s position is to deliver power and authority to us.

Some preach that we should pray to God for anything we want. These teachers promote praying to God for money, a good job, healing my leg, helping my football team win, and any other self-centered thing I am interested in.

While it is good to turn to God when we are in need, it is a perverted form of worship to consider God our waiter or delivery person, so our relationship is based upon Him giving us stuff.

Because this philosophy is seductive, many preach about all the riches we will get - as long as we worship in their church and donate money to them.

Some of these teach that all we have to do is proclaim Jesus die for our sins and we will be healed of our physical problems. And if we want our football team to win we should pray. And if we want more money or a better job we should pray for it.

And some also ask us to pay them to pray for us. Some will ask us to send them our prayer requests (with a check of course) so they will pray for us.

Such teachings are fraudulent. Accept the power of God and Jesus is good. But they are confusing the roles. We are subordinate to God.

Jesus is teaching us that God has the power. He is teaching us that the glory is God’s. God is the enjoyer.

Who serves who?

It is not that God's position is to give us stuff. He is not our servant. He is not our “go-to” guy whenever we want something. He is not at our beck and call, and anything we ask for He fetches.

And this is why many people's prayers go unanswered. People don't get what they ask for unless they deserve it. Unless they've worked for it and their efforts are rewarded.

Yes, sometimes God will do what we ask of Him when the submission is made humbly and sincerely by someone who cares about the Supreme Being.

For such cases, the overall intention is to serve the Supreme Being. So these requests are not the same as those coming from pure self-centeredness.

Why should we pray then?

Certainly, God does love us and He will accommodate us whether we ask or not. This is the ultimate in unconditional love. And certainly, we can know that every benefit we get here in this world, as well as every challenge and lesson, ultimately comes from Him.

But this is not what Jesus wants us to use prayer for. A prayer is a communication. It is like picking up the phone and calling someone. When we kneel or bow our heads to the ground and open the line of communication with the Supreme Being we should not waste that precious communication on asking Him for the temporary things of this physical world, for a body that will soon shrivel up and die, and decompose shortly after.

We should use that precious communication to ask God if we can resume our natural position as His loving servant: If we can resume our loving relationship with Him.

And what does a person do when they want to get closer to someone? They praise them.

And what does a person do when they have gotten closer to someone? They praise them.

And what does a person do when they care about someone? They praise them.

This is what Jesus is advising his students to do: Praise the Supreme Being. This is why he is suggesting they praise God:

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever"

“See that no one knows about this.” (Matthew 9:30)

Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” (Matt. 9:29-30)

Why did Jesus 'warn them sternly'?

The text of Matthew prefaces this statement with “Jesus warned them sternly.” (Matt. 9:30). This means that Jesus was serious about them not telling others about this healing event. Why not?

Jesus did not want to have everyone gossiping about the healing. Jesus was not into fame and recognition.

But isn’t this why Jesus healed people's bodies, one might ask? Actually, not. As we can see from this statement of Jesus, together with the previous one, Jesus was dealing with two particular people who had shown their trust in God’s ability to heal them. Thus the healing event took place between God, Jesus, and these two faithful people.

Jesus was not trying to prove to anyone his ability to heal. His focus was on the service of the Supreme Being, and as part of his service, these two men were healed of their blindness.

Why did Jesus heal people?

Jesus' intent was to bring attention to God, not himself.

But that is not what the Supreme Being wanted. Here is the next verse from Matthew:

But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region. (Matt. 9:31)

Just as the loving servant of God wants to bring attention to the Supreme Being, the Supreme Being wants to bring attention to His loving servants. Jesus confirmed this here:

“If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me." (John 8:54)

Note also that Jesus healed no more than about 27 people according to the Gospels. This is despite the fact that hundreds of people lined up to be healed wherever he traveled.

As such Jesus, being the loving servant of God, was being acclaimed across the country as a healer not because Jesus wanted the acclaim, but because the Supreme Being wanted to bring acclaim to Jesus. Why?

Because Jesus was focused upon serving God and passing out the message of God - the Teachings of the Supreme Being. Jesus confirmed this:

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent me." (John 7:16)

What does this say about Jesus?

We might compare the situation to the ambassador of a government. While the ambassador may be a shy person, the government he or she represents will give them a special office in a special building - the embassy - in another country. 

The government the ambassador represents will also support him and promote him while he is representing the government. Why? Because the ambassador's focus is to serve the government and its people, so the ambassador's government will support those services.

This is similar with respect to God's representative, except for the fact that the position of God's loving servant is not a paid position. It is based upon a loving relationship. God's representative loves the Supreme Being and thus acts on His behalf as loving service. This is how Jesus defined himself.

Furthermore, God has the ultimate ability to empower His representative. He does not need councils and assemblies to authorize His representative. Jesus was an exemplary representative of God. He was God’s confidential servant. Jesus sacrificed his entire life and existence to please the Supreme Being:

He confirmed this in this statement:

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." (John 4:34)

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth because You have hidden ...” (Matthew 11:25-26)

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was Your good pleasure.” (Matthew 11:25-26)

Is Jesus praying to himself?

Those who claim that Jesus is God must not have read this verse, where Jesus prays to God. If Jesus were God then he would be essentially praying to himself. That would make every word of this prayer ridiculous.

This open prayer of Jesus to God illustrates Jesus' loving relationship with the Supreme Being.

"I praise You" is the statement of a devoted lover of the Supreme Being. We see throughout the Scriptures evidence that praising the Supreme Being is an act of devotion pleasing to the Supreme Being.

We also can see from this statement that Jesus enjoys an loving relationship with the Supreme Being. He is understanding that the Supreme Being is in complete control. This is confirmed by his reference to God as:

"Lord of heaven and earth."

This illustrates clearly there are two individuals involved in this statement: Jesus, who is praising the Supreme Being, and the Supreme Being, who is being praised. They are not one and the same as purported by so many ecclesiastical teachers and their institutions.

Rather, it is clear from this that Jesus enjoys a confidential loving relationship with the Supreme Being - one "hidden" from those who think they are "wise and learned." A subservient relationship - confirmed by Jesus' praising the Supreme Being as "Lord of heaven and earth."

Does a relationship require two individuals?

In order to have a relationship, there must be two separate personalities, each making a choice to relate to each other. In fact, this relationship between Jesus and the Supreme Being is a relationship that creates the very oneness that Jesus spoke of - which has confused "wise and learned" teachers and their followers for centuries.

When there is love and devotion between two persons, each will act in a way that pleases the other. This creates a virtual oneness between them - a oneness of purpose and mission: A oneness of objective.

This is the type of oneness Jesus communicated when he said:

"I and the Father are one." (John 17:30)

Many have interpreted this statement by Jesus to say that Jesus is the Supreme Being. Yet they excluded the first part of this statement:

"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (John 17:29-30)

So we can see clearly that Jesus is not saying he is the Supreme Being, as he says, "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all." In order for one to give to another, there must be the giver and the receiver: Two individuals.

Jesus makes other statements that affirm his individuality, yet communicate the oneness of purpose between the Supreme Being and Jesus:

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent me." (John 7:16)

Thus we see the relationship more clearly. The Supreme Being "sent" Jesus - and Jesus is passing on the teachings given to him by the Supreme Being. This creates a oneness between them.

In the statement above, Jesus is praising the Supreme Being for His design of how He hides certain things from those who pride themselves for their wisdom:

"You have hidden these things from the wise and learned"

We might ask ourselves; why would this be? Why would God want to hide the Truth from certain people? Jesus specifies who He hides the Truth from: “the wise and learned.”

What does 'wise and learned' mean?

Now since we can accept that Jesus is referring to wisdom here and the fact that wisdom is being withheld, then Jesus must be referring to those who think they are wise and learned. In other words, those who are proud of their supposed wisdom are not being given the wisdom that Jesus is referring to.

This makes the operator of this statement pride - being proud of our supposed learning. Jesus is referring to the teachers of the temple institution who were essentially envious of him. This is why they criticized Jesus.

Jesus clarifies that while the Supreme Being has hidden certain Truths from those who are proud of their learning, the Supreme Being reveals the wisdom to “little children.”

Now, who are these little children? Are we talking about literal children, who may have young bodies of two or three years old? Children who don't know how to speak yet? Or children who are playing in the playground?

No. Jesus is referring to “little children” metaphorically - as those who are not proud: Those who are feeling humble and respectful, as little children do (theoretically, at least in those times, children were typically more obedient and respectful of their elders) when they are just learning about life and are humble and attached to their parents.

This is the attitude that allows for learning. In this attitude - feeling oneself to be unknowing - we can hear the teachings of Jesus and the other representatives of God and gain wisdom from those teachings. This is the attitude that allows us to come to know God. Those who are proud of being “wise and learned” are not being granted this wisdom because they feeling too full of themselves.

Like a cup that is already full, they are not ready to learn.

Remember that in most of Jesus’ statements, including about himself, he refers to all of us as God’s children. Since we are all God’s children, we are all given an opportunity to hear from God's representative. Some hear and some do not. Those who are humble are being referred to here as “little.” In other words, God’s humble children are able to understand these truths because of their humility and lack of pride.

Who does Jesus want to please?

Jesus wants to please the Supreme Being:

"Yes, Father, for this was Your good pleasure.”

Why is Jesus saying this? While many think of God as some kind of vague force, Jesus clarifies that the Supreme Being is a Person: God can be pleased and experience pleasure.

Jesus is stating that the Supreme Being enjoys revealing Himself to those who humbly want to know Him. This gives Him pleasure. Why? Because being introduced to someone is part of relationships. The Supreme Being enjoys exchanging relationships. Just as we all do. 

Each of us enjoys having a friend or relative that we share confidential information with. When we can bear our soul to our friend and they can bear their soul to us, we both experience a sense of relationship exchange.

This exchange of relationship is what gives the Supreme Being pleasure. Our desire for relationships originates from the Supreme Being's enjoyment of relationships.

And this is the very reason for our existence: To exchange a unique loving service relationship with the Supreme Being. This is why we exist, and the only thing that will truly give us fulfillment.