‘Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Matthew 6:1 NIVUK
‘Who are these people behind the stained glassed windows?
Have they forgotten just what they came here for?
Was it salvation or “scared of hell”?
Or an expression of a social get-together?
What’s the mission of the preacher man?’
Challenging words from erstwhile Christian hard rock band King’s X.
We might not appreciate them or the means by which they come (I realise that hard rock is far from everyone’s taste), but we need to ask a question that is relevant and pertinent even now:
What is our mission? What are we all about?
Jesus has turned from teaching very much about moral ethics, to now talk about religious ethics. And He doesn’t spare any blushes. This is, without any doubt, some of the most challenging teaching in the Bible, because it isn’t just focused on how we do what we do, but why, and how this manifests itself in our religious acts.
It is critically important to understand these verses correctly. I don’t believe for one second that Jesus is completely ruling out public acts of worship. That can’t be true. Judaism itself is built around them.
What’s crucial to our understanding of this passage is just five words: ‘to be seem by them’.
Jesus is talking here about a religion that is superficial only, and carried out only to attract the respect and admiration of other people – in other words, as fake as a ‘Gocci’ bag or a ‘Nake’ trainer. This is the type of religion that is quick to respond, but also quick to flee when times get tough because it has no root (see Matthew 13:20-21). In times gone past, and still in many countries around the globe, religious observance is something of a badge of honour that brings with it respectability. It is often worn by those who are thoroughly and completely insincere, and looking to attract followers to their cause rather than following Christ.
It is this fake religion that Jesus is aiming at here, and not missing.
The first religious practice that Jesus looks at is giving.
I was once in a church where their practice around giving left me feeling quite uncomfortable. They were soliciting donations for an international youth conference. The whole thing had the feeling of a reverse auction: ‘I’ll give one sack of rice’; ‘I’ll give x amount of money’; ‘I’ll give y.’
Every donation was received with applause, whopping and hollering.
Really?
Jesus tells us that such people will have received their reward in full – and the temporary applause of their peers is their reward.
So by carrying out their giving in full view of the public, that church allowed their givers to forfeit an eternal reward.
Jesus would be one hundred percent against the politicians and companies and NGOs who are very generous when the cameras are around, but mean-spirited when they are off.
But we too have to learn a lesson from this: we must not ever give for the recognition or the reward. Our giving must be in secret.
Jesus then moves on to prayer.
And again, He doesn’t miss.
He takes aim at those who use public ministry to achieve public applause, but do nothing in private to back it up. He takes aim at the exhibitionists, who use public devotion to show off how ‘holy’ they are, how superior they are to other people, how clever they are at using the right language.
I knew a Puerto Rican American chap in Romania who was the absolute opposite of this, and it stirred people up. He would stand in churches and pray, in his thick New York accent, ‘Hey, God? How ya doin’? You know, it’s really a beautiful day today...’
You might laugh or be shocked at his over-familiarity, but you have to give him kudos for one thing: he wasn’t using his public prayer to show off.
Jesus provides us with three pieces of advice to ‘keep it real’ when we pray:
Keep it private. Do it behind closed doors where no-one will see you and you will not be tempted to ‘play to the crowd’.
Keep it direct. The chance of your prayer being answered does not increase in proportion with its length, otherwise we’d all starve to death waiting on prayers of thanks for our food to finish.
Keep it simple. The Lord’s prayer is pretty much the most simple prayer there is.
So let’s look briefly at its components.
It gives God His place as our Father and King.
It gives us our place as dependent on His provision and protection.
Yet it also provides us with our responsibility to forgive, something Jesus is not slow to reiterate.
What an enormous difference compared to the Shakespearean ‘performance’ prayers I often heard while I was growing up!
In case you are still scared to pray, take a look at these two Scriptures...
Prayer is mighty – God takes our prayers and acts on them in power (Revelation 8:1-3).
Prayer is sometimes little more than a moan. You don’t need to find the right words – the Holy Spirit doesn’t (Romans 8:26).
Prayer is at its best when it's used as a means of relating to God directly, not a tool to elevate us before other people.
The final righteous religious act that Jesus mentions is fasting. Fasting is a good thing. It was a legitimate part of Jewish religion (Exodus 34:28-29; Esther 4:16).
It is still a part of many religions nowadays – Christian or otherwise.
When I was in Romania, I noticed something that made me chuckle. There was a specific menu available in McDonald’s during Lent – a ‘Fast Menu’.
It might seem like quite contradiction, but during Lent Orthodox Christians don’t eat milk, cheese or eggs. McDonald’s were simply catering for those who are fasting from these things.
However, long before Jesus day, it had morphed into something unintended – an outward religious observance that had absolutely nothing to do with inward, or even moral, reality (see Isaiah 58:1-9).
Jesus is not saying that we shouldn’t fast. He is saying that when we do fast, we shouldn’t make a huge production of it before other people to make ourselves look good.
In many countries these days, you will make no progress in society if you are not religious. In others, like ours, your progress is often impeded, regardless of how good you are at your job.
Wherever we live, and whatever the prevailing culture, Jesus is clear:
The church is not a showroom or a stage. Our religious acts must come from the heart, not from a desire to win credit from men.
We must get real.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me as I examine the reasons why I carry out my religious acts. Help me do nothing to elevate myself, as if I could steal from your glory, and everything to elevate you. Amen.
Questions
1. How does Jesus say we should give to good causes? How should this affect how and why you give?
2. How can we ensure that any prayers we pray in public are genuine and not a performance?
3. Should we fast? Why should we fast? How should we fast?
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