Day One

Matthew 6:5-8

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

A problematic young nun named Maria once famously said, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” If you pick up a book to begin reading you may want to start at the first chapter. That would seem a good place to start, however if the book has a foreword or introduction then that might be considered the very beginning, which would be a very good place to start. As we come to consider the Lord’s Prayer the temptation is to dive in where Jesus says, “Our Father” and to focus only what follows from those words but that would be to miss the important context in which Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray.

Jesus begins by exposing the hypocrisy of those who pray only to be seen by other people, instead of truly wanting to talk to God. The problem was a “holier than thou” attitude. These religious hypocrites wanted to appear super-spiritual by making a big display every time that they prayed in public. For them prayer was a performance, just like an actor on the stage.  Since that is how they prayed in public then we can wonder if they even bothered to pray in private when they thought no one was watching? They did not pray in order to give glory to God because they wanted all the glory for themselves.

We need to remember that prayer is a relationship, not a performance. Jesus is not telling us that it is wrong to go to a prayer meeting and that we should only ever pray in private. Shutting the door in prayer does not mean we must go to a quiet room by ourselves, instead it means we shut out all the distractions of the world, all the opinions of other people, and even shut out our own prideful desire for personal glory. Once we shut these things out, we can sincerely come before our Father who sees in secret because His is the only opinion that truly matters. The solution to this hypocrisy is not for us to stop praying but to start praying rightly and the Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful example of how to do just that.

Some people treat prayer like a performance, however another issue that Jesus tackles here is those who think that prayer depends on performance. These people “heap up empty phrases,” that means they prayed extremely long prayers but actually said nothing, or at least very little in those prayers. They seemed to think that by chanting, being repetitive, and using lots of big theological words that God would be more likely to hear and answer their prayers. This type of praying is more pagan that Christian. When Elijah confronted 450 prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, we see how these prophets had been crying out to Baal from morning until noon and even cutting themselves to try and get his attention. Of course, Baal was an idol, a false god who could never answer their prayers, but Jesus is saying here that sometimes the prayers of Christians can sound like the prayers of Baal’s prophets.

What matters most is not how impressive we sound or how long we can pray for, no what matters most is sincerity. When we pray, we come before God our Father and there is no relationship more important than this. Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased (Matt 3:17). That is why we pray in Jesus’ name, because we do not have to try and earn God’s favour by our performance. Sin has made that impossible for us, but we have a sinless Saviour and “through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2;18). Therefore, we can come confidently in prayer to our Father who knows our every need.

A problematic young nun named Maria once famously said, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” If you pick up a book to begin reading you may want to start at the first chapter. That would seem a good place to start, however if the book has a foreword or introduction then that might be considered the very beginning, which would be a very good place to start. As we come to consider the Lord’s Prayer the temptation is to dive in where Jesus says, “Our Father” and to focus only what follows from those words but that would be to miss the important context in which Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray.

Jesus begins by exposing the hypocrisy of those who pray only to be seen by other people, instead of truly wanting to talk to God. The problem was a “holier than thou” attitude. These religious hypocrites wanted to appear super-spiritual by making a big display every time that they prayed in public. For them prayer was a performance, just like an actor on the stage.  Since that is how they prayed in public then we can wonder if they even bothered to pray in private when they thought no one was watching? They did not pray in order to give glory to God because they wanted all the glory for themselves.

We need to remember that prayer is a relationship, not a performance. Jesus is not telling us that it is wrong to go to a prayer meeting and that we should only ever pray in private. Shutting the door in prayer does not mean we must go to a quiet room by ourselves, instead it means we shut out all the distractions of the world, all the opinions of other people, and even shut out our own prideful desire for personal glory. Once we shut these things out, we can sincerely come before our Father who sees in secret because His is the only opinion that truly matters. The solution to this hypocrisy is not for us to stop praying but to start praying rightly and the Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful example of how to do just that.

Some people treat prayer like a performance, however another issue that Jesus tackles here is those who think that prayer depends on performance. These people “heap up empty phrases,” that means they prayed extremely long prayers but actually said nothing, or at least very little in those prayers. They seemed to think that by chanting, being repetitive, and using lots of big theological words that God would be more likely to hear and answer their prayers. This type of praying is more pagan that Christian. When Elijah confronted 450 prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, we see how these prophets had been crying out to Baal from morning until noon and even cutting themselves to try and get his attention. Of course, Baal was an idol, a false god who could never answer their prayers, but Jesus is saying here that sometimes the prayers of Christians can sound like the prayers of Baal’s prophets.

What matters most is not how impressive we sound or how long we can pray for, no what matters most is sincerity. When we pray, we come before God our Father and there is no relationship more important than this. Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased (Matt 3:17). That is why we pray in Jesus’ name, because we do not have to try and earn God’s favour by our performance. Sin has made that impossible for us, but we have a sinless Saviour and “through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2;18). Therefore, we can come confidently in prayer to our Father who knows our every need.