Matthew 6: 5-6 “Also when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full already. But when you pray, go into your most private room and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open.”
Well! That temple in Jerusalem certainly must have been noisy! As if it weren’t enough that big donors were advertising their donations with fanfares of trumpets, the ultra – religious people were standing in front of everybody in the synagogues and even on street corners, showing off how well and how loudly they could pray! And Jesus saw this and warned his followers that this kind of prayer was noisy but useless. Jesus was advising that we should find the most private place that we could, away from other people, and close the door, so that others would not hear us. Only after withdrawing from others, were we to pray to our Father, Who is in secret. Sadly, many church prayer meetings appear to turn into competitions to see who can pray the loudest and fastest. How can you hear the Lord if you continue to make noise?
For an in – depth discussion of hypocrisy, see http://blog.adw.org/2012/02/what-does-jesus-mean-by-hypocrisy-its-deeper-than-you-think/ The term hypocrite came from a Greek word referring to an actor on a stage who would change his character to fit the role he was playing. Jesus was warning us that God is not interested in displays but in the attitude of our hearts. Later in the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story of two men who went to the temple to pray. (Luke 18:10 – 14) The one man was a Pharisee, who “took his stand ostentatiously and prayed thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men – extortioners, swindlers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain.” The poor tax collector stood off in a corner and didn’t even lift his eyes toward heaven but kept striking his breast, saying, “O God, be merciful to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am!” How surprised some of Jesus’ hearers must have been when Jesus advised them that it was the tax collector who went home in right standing with God, rather than the Pharisee. You can imagine that some of the poorer people listening to Jesus were probably elbowing their neighbors and saying, “See! I always knew there was something wrong with those Pharisees!”
If you want to chat with a friend, you don’t stand in front of him and start proclaiming things as loudly and as rapidly as you can. If you did something like that, your friend would correctly think you were crazy. Conversations involve two people and each one takes turns listening and speaking. But many times, our praying seems to be much more like that of the Pharisee than that of the tax collector. Mother Teresa is quoted as having said, “God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen. And then we speak from the fullness of our heart, and God listens. And this listening and this speaking is what prayer is meant to be.”
PRAYER: Father God, please forgive us for our arrogant prayers! We have tried to impress you, when you know us better than we know ourselves. Lord, forgive us for our presumption. Help us to approach you, knowing that you love us and want to share your heart with us. And give us hearts and minds that are open and ready to receive what you want to tell us. In Jesus’ precious Name. Amen.
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