Matthew 6.5-6.
Throughout history people
And a regular problem throughout history has been the person who gets up and prays publicly, not because they legitimately
Nothing annoys Jesus like hypocrisy, which is why he tries to discourage his followers from doing this. Although you know some of us do this anyway.
Matthew 6.5-6 KWL - 5 “When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites who enjoy standing in synagogues and major intersections,
- praying so they might be seen by the people. Amen! I promise you all, they got their credit.
- 6 When you pray, go into your most private room with the door closed.
- Pray to your Father in private. Your Father, who sees what’s private, will credit you.”
Standing was how the ancients prayed. They didn’t kneel, bow their heads, and fold their hands; that practice arose in the middle ages ’cause it’s how European kings wanted to be approached, and since Jesus is King it seems appropriate. But the ancients stood, looked to the sky (where
And Jesus notes the folks who prayed in really public places. Like synagogue. Which is not a Jewish church; it’s
“Major intersections” is how I translate
In both cases people were on their way someplace, and wouldn’t have had the time, nor spent the time, listening to this petitioner with his hands in the air. That wasn’t the point anyway. They didn’t care about being heard. Not even by God. They wanted to be seen.
The way we pray nowadays, doesn’t assume the ancient posture. Usually it’s heads bowed, eyes closed. Sometimes hands get raised, if the folks in the group have any Pentecostal influences in their background. But generally we’re not as noticeable when we pray. Unless we get loud… or unless there are a lot of us, like when a bunch of people pray in front of public buildings or around a flagpole.
But in those places, same as with the people Jesus critiqued, the point was to be seen and noticed by other people. Not so much God. And that’s what Jesus objects to.
“But people need to see us pray!”
Back when I taught junior high school, one of our teachers came up with the idea of a “missions trip” to Washington D.C. so we could pray over civic buildings. Supposedly prayers are more powerful when you do ’em at the places you’re praying for… even though
Anyway we’d go to the Capitol, or the Lincoln Memorial, and take five minutes to gather in a circle and pray. A number of kids thought this was a bold, radical idea… but this is the United States, which is full of Christians doing stuff like this, so Washington is totally used to the practice. I saw at least three other prayer groups during our trip. (Including one at the Natural History Museum, loudly praying against the displays which suggested evolution.
Did we need to form circles for prayer? Nah. We could’ve done as I’ve done on missions trips to places where people don’t approve of prayer: Pray silently or quietly, with eyes wide open in case anyone catches us and objects (or, in cities with more criminals, in case anyone takes advantage of all these silly Christians with their eyes closed, and pickpockets as many of us as they can). The point of the prayer circle was to make us feel more bold, more conspicuous, and to somewhat show off that we were praying in public.
And if anyone saw us praying, you’d get the usual two responses: Christians who feel the same way, and approved of our behavior; or people (including fellow Christians!) who feel this is inappropriate, and walk away annoyed.
What about how God feels? Gonna quote Jesus again: “Amen! I promise you all, they got their credit.”
“Credit” is how I translated
Yeah, sometimes we get Christians who insist misthón does so mean “reward”—that when we pray, God rewards us. Kinda like
But when we’re not really praying—when we’re just going through the motions of prayer to show off—we’re not really asking, are we? Are any of those prayer requests legit? Nope. Need God answer any of them? Nope.
Does the hypocrite even care that God doesn’t bother to answer these prayers? Not really. Prayer answers wasn’t the point. Public acclaim was. They were seen praying. That’s all that matters.
Same with some of the folks in public prayer circles. When the high school kids gather round the flagpole for a “See you at the pole” thing, some of them are legitimately there to pray for the school and nation. Others are there only because they want their classmates to know they’re Christian. Or because they’re not all that Christian, but they think Jesus’s “If you don’t acknowledge me I won‘t acknowledge you”
In any event they make the display, get their satisfaction, and that’s the extent of things. That’s as far as their “relationship” with God goes. Which is actually fine with them. They don’t really care to make things more than superficial.
“You’re gonna lose your reward.”
More often the way I’ve heard Christians interpret this passage is to warn one another, “If you pray in public, you’re gonna lose your reward.” If you were hoping your prayers get turned into heavenly Skee-ball tickets which you can later trade for a plush unicorn, watch out, ’cause you won’t win any tickets for public prayers.
Really it’s a demented interpretation, ’cause it reduces talking with God to a earned transaction. As if the only reason we interact with him is to accumulate material goods or power. But y’know, plenty of us Christians are materialistic like that.
Hence I rendered Jesus’s verb
When we’re being hypocrites, it’s usually to give off the impression we’ve already been rewarded. We want everyone to figure we’re blessed; that God’s given us everything we want, and made us prosperous and victorious and wealthy, and supposedly this is connected to the fact we pray at him loudly and proudly. In truth most hypocrites only pray to be seen, and therefore have no authentic prayer life at all… and any “blessings” they have are the ones they paid for, usually with maxed-out credit cards.
When we’re being authentic, there’s no pride involved.
