ALMSGIVING AND PRAYER.
Matthew 6:1-9.
Jesus’ teaching on almsgiving, prayer and fasting in the Sermon on the Mount is replete with the language of the stage.
MATTHEW 6:1. We are not to do our alms in order to be seen of men: to do so is just theatre. For that there is no reward from our Father in heaven.
MATTHEW 6:2. Jesus calls the people who are motivated from such self-glory, “hypocrites” – play actors! Hypocrites like to have their deeds of charity trumpeted abroad.
The hypocrite seeks applause. Never fully content to receive it, he may seek more and more applause: Encore; encore!
“They have their reward,” says Jesus. They want the glory of men; they shall have the glory of men. But that is all.
MATTHEW 6:3-4. Our almsgiving is to be with dexterity, metaphorically speaking, so that we eradicate sinister motives. The deed is done before the all-seeing God. His approval is reward enough in itself.
MATTHEW 6:5. The hypocrites publicise their private prayer for mere appearance sake. To do things for mere appearance sake is just showy, ostentatious, pretentious display. They want to be seen of men, and that is the only reward they are going to get.
We are told of a Pharisee who ‘prayed with himself’ (cf. Luke 18:11-12). This is well said, of course, because he certainly was not praying to God so long as he was only comparing himself with the despised publican. It was not the Pharisee who that day went down to his house justified before God.
MATTHEW 6:6. We have not entered God’s court when we court publicity, so we are challenged into the closet, into the store room where the Father is already laying up our heavenly treasures (cf. Matthew 6:20). Private prayer should be just that: you (singular), alone in the presence of the all-knowing God (cf. 1 Samuel 2:3). The reward on the day of reckoning will be public.
MATTHEW 6:7. In the expression, “When you (all) pray,” Jesus assumes that His disciples (in all ages) WILL pray. A prayer-less Christian is like a man or a woman who does not speak to their nearest and dearest! Can you imagine it?
The word translated “vain repetitions” (K.J.V.) does not forbid repetition, for even Jesus used repetition in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Matthew 26:44). The emphasis must then fall on the word “vain” - perhaps ‘empty phrases’ would be a better translation? The picture then is of somebody heaping up words in an attempt to impress God and gain His attention (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:2-3).
MATTHEW 6:8. “Therefore be not like them,” warns Jesus; “for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask” (Matthew 6:8; cf. Matthew 6:32). All our desire and our sighing is not hidden from God (cf. Psalm 38:9; Exodus 2:23). Before we ask, He has answered, and while we are still speaking, He has heard (cf. Isaiah 65:24). So we need be anxious for nothing but should make our prayers known to God with thanksgiving (cf. Philippians 4:6).
MATTHEW 6:9. Again, repetition is permitted in the presentation of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke’s Gospel: ‘When you (all) pray, say…’ (cf. Luke 11:2). Here in Matthew’s Gospel, however, the Prayer is presented as a model: “In this manner, therefore, pray…” (Matthew 6:9). Both are therefore allowable.
