The street-corner show-off.

Matthew 6.5.

Since I’m going through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and these next passages have to do with prayer, I’m gonna discuss them in lieu of my usual posts on prayer. Beginning with the first of Jesus’s teachings on the topic, in chapter 6:

Matthew 6.5 KWL

“And whenever you pray,

you’ll not be like the hypocrites,

because they love standing up to pray

in synagogues and street corners

so they might be seen by people.

Amen! I promise you this

is the compensation they receive.”

Throughout history, people have prayed publicly for various reasons. Some noble, some not. Today, Jesus gets into the not. They’re not legitimately trying to speak with God, nor publicly calling upon him for help and inviting everyone else to join their prayers. (And even these prayers can be done hypocritically.) This is purely so they can be seen praying. They wanna look religious. Usually more religious than they actually are.

Nothing annoys Jesus like hypocrisy, which is why he tries to discourage his followers from doing anything which smacks of hypocrisy. But you know some of us do this anyway.

Now the way the ancient prayed, typically, was standing up, heads and eyes and arms and hands raised to the sky, and praying aloud. They didn’t kneel, bow their heads, fold their hands, and pray mentally but not audibly. That practice arose in the middle ages. That was the posture European kings demanded of those who approached them—and since Jesus is King, people figured it’s appropriate. But the ancients faced the sky where they imagined God is, lifted their hands to get his attention, and spoke with him. This posture made it really obvious they were praying. Don’t need to get loud; just assume the position.

Jesus singles out the people who prayed in really public places. Like synagogue. Which is not a Jewish church like it is nowadays; it’s a Pharisee school. You went there to hear rabbis teach, and ask ’em questions. Prayer times took place throughout—before, after, and during the lesson—and they’d be short. But often people would stand right outside the building and make a public display of prayer, “getting right with God” before they went in. Or similarly praying this way after the lesson, ostensibly to thank God for the wisdom they just received… or maybe to ask him to straighten out some wayward rabbi. Whatever; the point was they were making it nice ’n obvious they talked with God. Presumably a lot.

Jesus also brings up ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν/tes yoníës ton plateión, “the corners of the [wide] streets,” the most important busy intersections in town. Plenty of people walking past; plenty of people to witness you praying, nice and loud so God could hear you over all the other noise. (As if he’s in any way hard of hearing.)

In both cases, people might not have had the time, nor interest, to listen to the petitioner with his hands in the air. That wasn’t the point anyway. It’s not about being heard—not even by God!—but seen.

The way Christians pray nowadays, typically doesn’t assume the ancient posture. Usually our heads are 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, around a flagpole, or in Congress.

But in these 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. She believed, same as many Christians believe, prayers are more powerful when you do ’em at the places you’re praying for. (I know; Jesus makes it obvious this isn’t necessary. You could be miles away.) I went because I’d never been to Washington and wanted to check it out, and I approved of an educational tour of the capital. But since our “mission” didn’t include any evangelism or ministry (apart from a few hours playing with kids at an Anacostia church’s VBS), I didn‘t bother to call it a “missions trip.” Field trip.

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. Daily. Go to Washington, and you’ll constantly find Christians praying over buildings and the government. Washington is totally used to the practice. I saw at least three other school prayer groups during our trip. (Including one at the Natural History Museum, loudly praying against evolution. Yeesh.)

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 lest anyone catches us and objects (or, in cities full of criminals, lest anyone takes advantage of all these silly Christians with our 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 this is the compensation they receive.”

“Compensation” is how I translate μισθὸν/misthón (KJV “reward”) which refers to what you properly oughta get for your time and trouble. A reward isn’t always that. When you work, you’re not rewarded for your time; you’re paid. When you hold a position or public office, you get a stipend. When you pray, you’re typically petitioning God for something, and God’s response is our compensation. Including when he tells us no, because God’s “no” is always the right answer to questions which should be answered with no.

Yeah, sometimes we get Christians who insist misthón does so mean “reward”—that when we pray, God rewards us. Kinda like we’re racking up good karma whenever we pray. Do it often enough and we’ll have a vast storehouse of merit, ’cause God’ll owe us big-time for praying so much. But this mindset warps Jesus’s meaning. We are God’s kids, who have access to everything. We don’t need to be rewarded; we inherit his kingdom!

Now, when we’re not actually praying, but assuming the posture of prayer so others can see us and think we’re religious, we’re not truly asking God for anything, are we? Are any of our prayer requests legit? Nope. Need God answer any of them? Nah.

Does hypocrites even care that God doesn’t bother to answer their prayers? Not really! Prayer answers were never 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 their 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” Lk 12.8-9 means he’s threatening them with hell if they don’t make public displays… so clearly they don‘t have the sort of relationship with him where they know better than to resort to grand but empty gestures.

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 cash in for a unicorn plushy, 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 an 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.

But again, the issue isn’t public prayer; it’s the point of our public prayers. Are we trying to show off, or not? If showing off isn’t the point, it isn’t a concern. It’s an earnest prayer, God’s listening, and he’ll answer yes or no as he sees fit. These aren’t rewards for fulfilling our prayer obligations: He’s being our Father and taking care of us.

When we’re hypocrites, we usually strive to give off the impression we’ve already been rewarded. We want everyone to figure we’re blessed, that God’s granted 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. We’re in our closets, talking to God privately, sharing everything, being honest, being humble. We don’t need to show off our blessings, ’cause anyone can see them. We don’t need to show off our good example—the usual excuse people have for public prayer—’cause that’s likewise obvious for anyone who’s looking. God satisfies our needs, and there’s far more trust and comfort in our relationship with him. That’s what Jesus wants us to pursue. Not the noise of people who don’t want us to notice the real messes of their lives, but the steadiness of those whom God satisfies.