Matthew 6:5-8 NIVUK
[5] ‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. [6] But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. [7] And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. [8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
A number of years ago, we were on a cruise through the islands of the Aegean Sea. Our cruise ship made its first ever visit to the Turkish island of Bozcaada. We had been told during the destination presentation on the ship that there was a tour we could do of Bozcaada Castle, but that it would cost £80 each.
We turned it down. It was way too expensive.
We decided we would visit the island anyway and took a small tender boat into its port. The crossing was very choppy. But we reached there, safe and sound, in the same kind of tender boat as our fellow passengers who had booked the expensive tour.
We got out of the boat, looked a little to the north, and saw the castle. We headed straight there. No-one charged us any admission fee. Within minutes we were inside the castle and looking around.
A short time later, we heard the noise of Turkish guides explaining the history of the castle to cruise passengers. It was then that it struck us:
They had paid £80 for very little more than we got for free.
I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m describing a rip off cruise tour in a post about prayer.
Well, you see, I believe there are people who do the same with prayer. They write books purporting to have the secrets to prayer and on how to get God to do what you want. They hold seminars on wrestling with prayer, becoming a prayer warrior, becoming an intercessor.
It’s all nonsense. All of it. Not one bit of it has any shred of Biblical truth.
If you want to learn about prayer, read your Bible. Jesus teaches all you need to know about it.
And in this series of blogs, I’ll tell you all about it.
For free.
You see, a few months ago I was meditating on the Lord’s Prayer – a prayer I have read and studied and prayed on countless occasions for decades – when a new realisation struck me:
This is not a prayer where we beg God to intervene in our situation or bend Him to our will.
No.
This is a prayer of letting go.
This is a prayer where we let go of important matters that could otherwise get in the way of our living the life that He intended.
This is our blueprint for doing what Jesus commanded us to so:
Matthew 11:28-30 NIVUK
[28] ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
This is how we lay our burdens down. This is how we give them up.
This is how we let them go.
In teaching us how to pray, Jesus taught us not how to get our way, but how to let God have His.
And where does it start?
At a very surprising place:
Our reputation.
The whole of the chapter in which this prayer is found is about one thing: not what to rub to get God to act as a genie to get what we want, or the specific words or formula we need to use in prayer, but what true, genuine religion and devotion looks like.
Read Matthew 6 for yourself. See just how contemporary it is. Just how up to date.
Many of the wrongs in modern Christianity are put right in these verses.
Before teaching His disciples how to pray, Jesus teaches them how not to pray. He tells them not to be like two groups of people.
The first are the hypocrites.
The word ‘hypocrite’ means ‘an actor or pretender’. In other words, someone who knows they are not, but who pretends that they are. It is a conscious deception. It is fraud at its purest.
Jesus was referring to the Pharisees, who made a great play of acting out their spirituality before men, but it was false. It wasn’t real. It was fake.
Matthew 6:5 NIVUK
[5] ‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
We need to understand this properly. Jesus was not against public prayer. He Himself does it. For example:
Matthew 11:25-26 NIVUK
[25] At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. [26] Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
John 11:41-42 NIVUK
[41] So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. [42] I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’
So Jesus has no issue with people praying in public.
Jesus’ issue is those whose public piety does now match their private piety; who are all ‘holier than Thou’ when people are watching, but holier than no-one when no-one is watching.
In other words, real prayer takes place when our public and private piety are the same; when we can pray with honesty and integrity because we are who we are no matter who is around.
That is why Jesus tells His disciples to pray behind a locked door, in a closed room, out of sight of anyone else. In that room they can be alone with God. They can be true to themselves. There is no audience for them to play up to.
Private prayer must always be the bedrock on which public piety is based. If you don’t have a private prayer time, don’t bother with public piety, because that would just be a pretence.
I met someone in Romania who was just a colleague for a week or so, but his approach to public prayer rocked and challenged the more conservative Romanian church. His name was Ray. He was a Puerto Rican New Yorker. His Romanian was pretty bad – the whole time he was there, he never learned enough to be fluent. So whenever he prayed in public, he needed an interpreter.
Imagine the interpreter’s shock each time Ray, in his inimitable New York style, prayed like this: ‘Hey, God! How ya doin’? Lovely weather we're havin’ today. Really grateful for that, you know.’
He chatted with God in prayer as if he was talking to a friend. But that was just how Ray was – in public and in private. Traditionalists might baulk at the over-familiarity, but Ray got something dead right that most traditional Christians get dead wrong: who he was in public and who he was in private were the same person.
His prayers had integrity. He was a lot of things, but Ray was no hypocrite.
So Jesus was dead against hypocrites in prayer. That much we understand. But he was also against babblers:
Matthew 6:7-8 NIVUK
[7] And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. [8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The Greek word here is said to have emerged from two people with the same name: Battus king of Cyrene, who is said to have had a pronounced stutter, and Battus, a poet, who was known for his long-winded, tedious poems.
I think the latter is more likely.
I am a veteran of many different types and styles of prayer meetings: all night, 24-hour, traditional, pentecostal, charismatic, meetings where everyone prays at once, meetings were we are all very polite and wait for one another to finish, small groups, large groups, small groups within large groups – I’ve seen it all.
So let me outline different types of prayer that I believe Jesus is saying we should not do:
Aimless theological meandering without any purpose or real meaning? Babbling.
Prayers where we simply use as much Christianised terminology or spiritual sounding language as we can to sound impressive? Babbling.
Long-winded prayers (particularly around food – if I’d wanted gazpacho instead of piping hot chicken soup, I’d have ordered gazpacho!) for no clear purpose? Babbling.
Endlessly repeating the same meaningless word or phrase and claiming that you’re really ‘speaking in tongues’ (when you’re not, as a tongue is a language, and a language has a clear grammar and structure and order and can be interpreted – see 1 Corinthians 14:6-25)? Babbling.
How often have you encountered them?
A lot, right?
I used to have the task of translating petitions to Romanian politicians in the European Parliament, which were basically appeals for their help. Romanians can be fantastically flowery and verbose in their language. You can imagine what these documents looked like: over-long and often beating-about-the-bush so much that I would get to the end of them – bearing in mind they were for incredibly important people – and, after hours of work, would wonder what the writer’s point was.
Our prayers should not be like that.
After all, would you be impressed with someone who talks incessantly, so you can’t get a word in edgewise?
Would you be impressed with someone who constantly talks like they just stepped off the set of a Shakespeare play, or who insists in talking in another language, like Latin or Old Slavonic, or Greek, or Hebrew, or Klingon?
Would you be impressed by a grown person who only says the word ‘Banana’, as if they were a minion from the ‘Despicable Me’ movies?
Of course you wouldn’t!
So why do we think God is at all impressed when we do these things?
And if they don’t impress God, why do them at all?
If you really do want to impress God, you need to do a bit more than pray:
Micah 6:8 NIVUK
[8] He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Hebrews 13:16 NIVUK
[16] And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
James 1:27 NIVUK
[27] Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Why?
Because then your public piety matches your private piety.
Then your religious observance is real and has integrity.
I have a friend who has nailed this down. His name is Alistair. Alistair’s public prayers are brilliant. He raises his voice, prays a sentence or two, says ‘Amen’, and that’s it. No theological flim-flam. No posing or posturing. Just straight to the point and done.
If Alistair gave thanks for my piping hot chicken soup, I would be eating piping hot chicken soup.
You see, public and private prayer should never be done so we can built a reputation for ourselves. That is not at all what prayer is about.
It absolutely was for the Pharisees (see Luke 18:9-14 for another startling example). That’s why Jesus is so scathing in His comments towards Him.
But it wasn’t for Jesus. And it should never be for us.
Because there is no point to it. The person we should seek to impress most of all is God, and He knows what we are really like.
If we are using our relationship with Him as something to boast about, or to improve our reputation, we are like those heartless people who befriend you to get something from you and drop you like a hot coal when they’ve got it.
Being treated like that hurts, doesn’t it? Especially if you value the friendship.
So what possesses us to think we can do the same with God?
The first thing we should let go of, then, in prayer is our own reputation – our desire for our own glory.
We should just be who we are, and let the glory go to God.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I am so sorry for the times when I’ve used my relationship with you to gain a good reputation with other people. I know that’s not what prayer is form. Guide me to use it better, so that my prayer life brings You glory. Amen.
Questions
1. Does your public prayer life match your private prayer life? Why / why not?
2. Which of the two types of people Jesus was against do you identify with the most, and why?
3. What are you going to do to let go of your reputation when you pray?
Comments