Jump Start # 371

Matthew 6:5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”

  Praying, but more than that, praying right. The sixth chapter of Matthew, the middle section of the sermon on the mount, deals with three religious themes—giving, praying and fasting. Jesus points out what not to do and then what to do. The hypocrites are the poster children of heartless, meaningless and empty religion. They go through the motions, without any motion in their hearts. Three times Jesus uses the expression, “they have their reward in full.” He uses it here with prayer.

  What is the reward of prayer? Have you ever thought about that? Why do people pray? It’s not just to get things off their chests. The purpose is to reach out to God. They are inviting God into their lives, often times, into their problems. It seems the greater the problem, the greater the prayer.

  The hypocrites, as Jesus defined them, loved to pray in public places. He mentions standing on street corners or in the synagogues. Those places would be crowded with people. This seems a bit odd in our times. Many do like to pray in the public. If they do, they want to pray a silent prayer. Public pray, even in church services, is quite scary for many men. Not the hypocrites that Jesus had in mind. They liked it, in fact, they thrived on it. They prayed in places where people would notice. They wanted people to see that a guy was praying. I tend to think the reaction on the street corner would be different than in the synagogue. The synagogue is a place you’d expect to hear prayers. God’s word would be read there. It is a place for religious activity. The street corner is different. There people are busy about life. Some are to the market place, others to school, and others to different activities of life. It is on the street corner a person would hear noise, commotion, traffic, even first century style. The street corner would be an unusual place for prayer. I expect people passing by a praying man would tend to be quiet or at least whisper softly. They’d notice. They’d be respectful.

  Jesus said that these praying hypocrites received their reward in full. That means, they got what they wanted from those prayers. They sought attention, they got attention. They wanted praise of man, they got the praise of man. They wanted to be noticed and that is what happened. What their prayers did not do, is turn the ear of God. They prayed, not to God nor for God, but for the attention of man. They wanted to be known as a praying people. But they missed the whole point of prayer. Prayer is not to man, but to God. Prayer is talking to God. These people left God out of the conversation.

  Their prayers were empty, lifeless and useless. Why pray if you are not really talking to God? It does not accomplish a thing. That is Jesus’ point. We’d think that anyone praying on a street corner must be some sort of super disciple. We don’t do that. Few do that. They must really believe to do that. No. They are simply pretending.

  Jesus is looking at the motives of praying. Why pray? Because you have to? Because it makes you look good? We could also ask, why do you go to church services? Why be hospitable? Why read the Bible? Why be modest? Why anything? The motive matters. If God is not the reason, then all of it may be an exercise in nothingness.

  The section that follows illustrates how the disciple is to pray, alone, in secret, respectful, and God focused. Just you and God in your closet. No one to impress there. No one to fool there. It makes you honest and humble. Have you been in your closet in a while? Give it a try? It sure beats the street corner.

Roger