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Just like the absence of a balcony in Romeo and Juliet, the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught in Matthew 6 does not contain the doxology at the end: “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Jesus would never have disputed the importance of these three activities, but what troubled him was that they were so often done from the wrong motives.
I felt I had the right to hate them. Japanese soldiers had viciously robbed me of my right to grow up under the guidance and tutelage of my father. I was too young to remember him when they murdered him. My hatred, surely, was justified.
For most of my life, I misunderstood Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of heaven to be describing some place like Disneyland. It was the good news of some other place and time, a spectacular place, that could be experienced and enjoyed one day.
Maybe God is trying to slow me down to make it easier to talk to Him. Maybe His instruction to pray at home quietly is a way of getting me to stop running away from praying so He can refocus my attention.
Jesus’ message on the mount is, and must be, Good News. So, what of this warning of adultery, this advice to pluck out eyes, cut off hands and live a celibate life? It may seem doomed to fail.