Pray for the Kingdom: A Sermon on Isaiah 61:10–62:7 and Luke 18:1-8

Why do we pray? And what do we pray for? You will have all sorts of answers to these questions, answers both mundane and profound. But one of the things we need to pray for is that God’s kingdom will come. We need to pray that God’s kingdom will come in all its fullness and glory. We need to pray that Christ the King, God’s Anointed One, God’s Messiah, will return and establish once and for all God’s kingdom of justice and peace. This kingdom is already here in part: the risen Jesus sits at the right hand of his Father in heaven, praying for us, even while God’s Holy Spirit is present among us now as we go about our daily business as faithful Christians. But the kingdom is not totally present. There is more, much more, of the kingdom to come. And so we must pray that it will come in all its fullness.

But this isn’t an easy thing to do. When we see our leaders bickering with one another; when our cupboards and wallets and purses are empty; when our bodies and minds are fragile and broken; when we see or feel all these things, it’s easy to become disillusioned with life and forget that this is not all there is. There is an age to come: not life after death in the sense of our souls floating up to heaven as our bodies decay, but in the sense that God promises to transform this world into something entirely new: the kingdom of God. The kingship of the risen Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s presence among us are evidence that God’s kingdom is growing among us even now. The age to come, God’s kingdom, is already here in part—but there is still more to come. We need not doubt its eventual arrival. But Christ our King calls us to pray that it arrives soon so that God’s justice and peace transform everything.

Jesus knows this is hard to believe, which is why, in today’s Gospel reading from Luke, he encourages us always to pray for the kingdom to come and not to lose heart, or be discouraged, or think that all our prayers are just a waste of time. God is not like the judge in the parable. The judge had to give in to the widow lest she shame him; he was concerned with nothing but his own reputation and feelings. But God is not like this judge. We do not need to badger God or trick God into dishing out true justice. And why not? It’s because God has already resolved and promised to establish the kingdom in all its fullness.

But if God has resolved and promised to establish the kingdom in all its fullness; if the kingdom is guaranteed to come; then why do we still need to pray for it to come? This is where our reading from Isaiah can help us. The theme of persistence in prayer emerges towards the end of our reading, but there is also something of an explanation as to why we should pray in the earlier verses. Let’s look at them more closely.

First of all, let’s keep in mind that today’s passage relates to a time when God’s people had returned to what was left of Jerusalem after decades of exile in Babylon. Many of these people had probably been born after the deportations and so had only heard stories about Jerusalem’s greatness and glory. Many of them had never even seen Jerusalem, let alone Jerusalem at its peak. We can only guess at how disillusioned the people were: they’d heard the stories of Jerusalem’s greatness, but now they had to face a harsh reality that didn’t match what they’d been told. Would the city, could the city, ever again reach the same heights of splendour? Did the people really care one way or the other? Did the Lord himself even care . . . really?

Isaiah’s prophecy here is placed on the lips of God’s anointed one, God’s messiah. Clothed with salvation, covered with righteousness, God’s anointed one is ready to vindicate Jerusalem by transforming the city and its people into beacons of hope for the wider world. The entire world will see what the anointed one will achieve for Jerusalem: all the other countries, all the world’s kings, will see justice done, will see Jerusalem’s glory, will know the city by a new name that speaks of God’s delight in the place. The Lord’s just dealings with the world are concentrated first on Jerusalem. The extended metaphor in Isaiah 62:5 is that of a wedding followed by the bride and groom making love. The Lord consummates Jerusalem in a bridal suite prepared by God’s messiah. The waiting is over! All is right with the world!

“Really? That’s what that verse is about?”

But note that despite all this imagery, the wedding has not yet happened. Jerusalem is not yet restored or transformed—far from it. However, God’s anointed one says he will not keep silent or rest until Jerusalem is vindicated, until God’s justice reigns supreme:

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,

until her vindication shines out like the dawn,

and her salvation like a burning torch (Isa. 62:1).

The promise of fulfilment and vindication is sure: the Lord God will cause righteousness to blossom like a garden, the nations shall see Jerusalem’s vindication, it shall no longer be labelled Forsaken, and the Lord shall rejoice over the city—but at the time Isaiah prophesied, all this was still to happen. Isaiah’s prophecy is a promise of Jerusalem’s completion and fulfilment given at a time when reasons for hope were limited and the dreams of the people were nothing but fantasies.

This is why there are sentinels or watchmen stationed on Jerusalem’s walls. God’s anointed one has posted them there to remind the Lord of his promises to Jerusalem, to remind the Lord that he has promised good things for the city. And the sentinels remind the Lord day and night; just like the anointed one himself, the sentinels are never silent or inactive, and they will remind the Lord of his promises always and always and always and always and not stop ‘until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it renowned throughout the earth’ (Isa. 62:7). God’s promise is sure, but the sentinels’ reminders keep the promise alive in a world of discouragement, futility, and despair.

I hope you can already see where I’m going with this. In the same way that the anointed one in Isaiah posts sentinels to remind the Lord of his promises for Jerusalem, so too Jesus—God’s Anointed One, God’s Messiah, God’s King—calls us to pray for God’s kingdom to come in all its fullness and not to give up praying for this to happen. But this isn’t a case of us pestering God until God gives in to our demands. Rather, God in Christ through the Holy Spirit encourages us to remain faithful in prayer despite the uncertainties and injustices we see all around us and on the news.

Jesus’s parable of the widow and the judge isn’t designed to link God to the unjust judge, but to compare us with the persistent widow. And this challenges us. When Jesus returns—as undoubtedly he will do, one day—when Christ our King returns, will he find us faithful in prayer? Will Jesus find us on our literal or metaphorical knees praying for God’s kingdom to come regardless of whatever else is going on? Will Jesus find us praying for God’s justice to be done and perhaps through our prayers becoming agents of justice ourselves? These are tough and important questions each of us, and all of us, including me, must contend with. But we can do so with hope and assurance, for although God’s kingdom is not fully here, we know it is already here in part. What Christ our King calls us to do is to pray that the kingdom will come, that the kingdom will come quickly, and that the kingdom will come in all its fullness.