The Mountains Are CallingSample

Abba Father: Mt. Eremos

On a mountainside in Galilee, Jesus taught his first sermon. It was there on the mountaintop that he introduced the disciples and surrounding crowd to a new perspective of God, a groundbreaking revelation, through what we now call the Lord’s Prayer.

Those listening to Jesus teach were quite familiar with prayer. Prayer was foundational in the Jewish culture. The people practiced prayer in the local synagogue and in their homes. But Jesus wanted them to understand the true nature of prayer. He wanted to make sure that his followers avoided two extremes when it came to praying. First, he did not want them to make prayer a public spectacle, like those he labeled as hypocrites. Second, he wanted to make sure that their prayers were not mechanical, that they were something more than the monotonous repetitions of the Gentiles. 

Jesus emphasized to them that prayer was not to be a mindless ritual or an exercise of piety on a public platform but rather the means to a relationship with him. Jesus wanted the crowd to know that God wasn’t distant. He was near, he was concerned about their needs, and he wanted to provide for those he considered his children. 

His sermon on Mt. Eremos left the people with this impression: God wants a familial relationship with us. He is not like other gods, those fickle taskmasters ready to judge and punish. He is a loving Father ready to receive his children with open arms. The point of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount was to fundamentally change the people’s notion of God. 

But like always, God’s desire was also to change the people’s notion of themselves. He wanted them to see that they were dearly loved children. He wanted to show them that by childlike faith, they might enter a relationship with him that came with all the rights and privileges of blood.

Every son and daughter of God has roles and responsibilities within the kingdom of God to bring about the King’s will and desires. In teaching this prayer, Jesus was giving his listeners an action plan for their lives. In teaching them to pray for his kingdom to come, he was giving them purpose and meaning, and offering an invitation to participate in his eternal, global enterprise. 

Do you find it easy or difficult to believe that God wants a familial relationship with you? Why?