Escalator Down Prayer (The Lord’s Prayer, Part 3)

Escalator Down Prayer. Today Pastor Kyle Madson continues our series on the Lord's Prayer.

Luke 18:18

You may remember the account of Jesus being approached by a young rich man who desperately wanted to apprehend eternal life. So he asked Jesus this very concerned question:

Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 18:18)

Concerned young man wanted a good thing. He wanted the right thing. He wanted it though the wrong way.

He wanted it on his own dime. He wanted it by the sweat of his own brow. He wanted a ladder by which he could climb his way right into eternal life. The problem was this was an eternal life that was without Jesus. And that’s no eternity at all.

That’s hell.

Instead Jesus gave him the real eternal life, he held it out for him to have. He held out himself. He held out he who is the salvation of the world.

When Jesus teaches us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, he held out not a ladder but instead he taught us to pray for an escalator down. An escalator down by which Jesus the God of Heaven and Earth Made Flesh comes down to earth and rescue us who would never be able to make it up to him.

In Jesus, heaven comes down to us, escalator down. So that his dying for us comes to us, so that his rising to life again comes down to us. Jesus comes when His word is attached to water and we are baptized into his family. Jesus comes down to us says that word of forgiveness is declared on the lips of another for our benefit. Jesus comes down to us eternal life comes to us when what looks merely like bread and wine is in fact given to us as Jesus body and blood.

Eternal life right there. Escalator down prayer: Thy kingdom come. Amen.

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Kyle Madson
Kyle Madson

Pastor Kyle Madson currently serves at Norseland Lutheran Church, and Norwegian Grove Lutheran Church in rural St. Peter, Minnesota.

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