
- AMEN
ɑ.mɛn, eɪ.mɛn exclamation. Utterance of support or agreement.
Custom is, we gotta finish our prayers with amen. Or the popular incantation “
As you know, some Christian customs are more than just traditions: We gotta do them. They’re virtually commands. If you don’t end a prayer with amen, it confuses people. Wanna really throw off your prayer group? Next time you lead prayer, don’t bother to “hang up.” Just start speaking to them as you ordinarily would, and watch ’em get all agitated: “You didn’t say amen. You gotta say amen.” As if God ever gets confused. As if he thinks we’re still speaking to him unless we “get off the phone,” so to speak.
No, we don’t need to end prayers with amen. You realize even
But this insistence on capping our prayers with amen, misses the entire point of the word. What’s amen mean again? True. Why would you say “True” at the end of a prayer? Because the rest of us are listening to it, and agree with its content: “What you said is true. What you requested is good. So be it. Amen.”
This being the case, having “all God’s people say amen” at the end of a prayer is appropriate. It’s not just the prayer leader trying to get recognition: It’s consensus. Do you agree with what was just prayed? I’d hope so. (That is, I’d hope the prayer leader didn’t pray anything inappropriate. It’d suck not being legitimately able to mean amen when we say it.)
This also being the case, do we need to cap our own prayers with amen? Seems a little redundant to agree with ourselves. Yet we do it anyway… ’cause it’s unthinking, brainless custom. You know, dead religion.
When did Jesus say amen?
Jesus says amen in the gospels all the time. And you probably never noticed it, ’cause bibles don’t translate it “amen.” They use other words.
- KJV. “Verily.”
- ESV, NIV, NRSV. “Truly.”
- GNB, NJB, NLT. “Truth.”
- NKJV. “Assuredly.”
Because Jesus uses amen to declare what he’s about to say is absolutely valid, as good as a promise. Not end his prayers. Here’s five instances from
Matthew 5.18 KWL - “Amen! I promise you all: As long as the heavens and earth exist,
- not one yodh nor one penstroke will ever be taken out of the Law till it’s achieved.”
Matthew 5.25-26 KWL - 25 “Be quick to cooperate with your opponent—whoever you get in the way of—
- lest your opponent turn you in to the judge, the judge to the bailiff, and you’re thrown into prison.
- 26 Amen! I promise you: You’ll never come out of there
- till you work off your last quarter.”
Matthew 6.2 KWL - “So whenever you do charity, don’t toot your own horn,
- like hypocrites do in synagogue and on the street, so they can be praised by people.
- Amen! I promise you: They got their wages.”
Matthew 6.5 KWL - “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who really like standing in synagogues
- and the corners of the main streets, praying so they might be seen by the people.
- Amen! I promise you all: They got their credit.”
Matthew 6.16 KWL - “When you fast, don’t be like the sad-looking hypocrites
- who conceal their faces so they look to people like they’re fasting.
- Amen! I promise you all: They got their credit.”
Jesus prefaces his statements with amen (or “amen amen,” two of ’em, in John) because he wants it clear he’s making a statement we can utterly depend on. It’s why I translate these statements, “Amen, I promise you.”
Hence we should get the idea amen isn’t a word to be thrown around lightly. As so many
Inappropriate amens.
See, amen means we agree. In responsive churches, like my Pentecostal church, whenever the pastor says something people agree with, you’ll hear people in the congregation say (or shout) “Amen!”
In fact there are certain Christians whom you can count on to say amen to pretty much everything their pastor says. Whether he makes any sense or not; whether she’s
From what we’ve seen of the amen corner’s
The rest of the church says amen when we actually agree. But not always. Too often we’re hypocrites too: We say amen when we oughta agree, but deep down we don’t necessarily.
Or we wanna look like we were paying attention. We say amen to some long-ass prayer we weren’t really listening to; meanwhile our minds were wandering, and we spent the last 15 minutes debating with ourselves whether to have Mexican or Chinese for lunch. ’Cause we like Chinese, and it’s less expensive; but the kids always want Mexican; but the kids have no taste, and all they ever order is quesadillas anyway, and that’s just cheese and tortillas and barely counts as Mexican food; and I’m the adult here dangit… oh wait, did they just say “In Jesus Name all God’s people said”? Gotta say amen now!
Not only should we never say amen to any prayer we don’t agree with: Sometimes we need to speak up. Sometimes the prayer leader needs correcting. Hopefully that’s very rare. But it can happen, and when it does, us saying amen to it means we’ve vocally agreed to a rotten prayer. Bad example for fellow Christians, and doesn’t honor God any.
I know; people don’t wanna make trouble. Which says all sorts of things about their lack of courage, or
And privately get this stuff sorted out. Have an honest relationship with one another.
