We move now to look at Jesus’ teaching on prayer. I’ve decided to break this up into more than one post, since I think there is a lot of useful teaching for us here.
This week’s post will look at the first section of Jesus’ teaching: how NOT to pray.
Let’s read Matthew 6:5-8
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The first thing to note here is that there were two positions Jesus told his listeners to avoid when it came to prayer.
First, the ‘hypocrites’ who liked to put on a show of prayer to be seen by others.
Second, the ‘pagans’ who offered long prayers using excessive words, thinking this would make their prayers more effective.
The ‘pagans’ in this context were probably Gentiles, in other words non-Jews, so in this instance Jesus pointed to bad examples of prayer from both within and without the Jewish religious community he and his listeners would have been part of.
Hypocrites
As before, the ‘hypocrites’ Jesus had in view were likely the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, those who were regarded as religious superheroes by the ordinary Jewish people. With such a reputation to maintain, they no doubt felt a strong desire to be noticed and admired when giving prayers.
As I argued last time, here Jesus was most likely referring – at least primarily – to prayer as a religious observance rather than prayer in a general sense (though there is no reason we cannot apply on a more general level the principles he taught). This would mean prayers which were offered at a prescribed time of day, rather than prayers offered ad hoc when a person felt it necessary to speak to God about a specific concern in their lives.
He gave two examples of places these hypocrites might go in order to ensure that their prayers were witnessed by a great number of people.
Firstly the synagogue, an obvious location which would naturally be full of people at the time of prayer. While Jesus taught no prescribed posture for prayer (within the Bible prayers were variously offered standing, sitting, kneeling and even lying prostrate), he probably singled out standing in this instance because that would be the posture most easily visible to the admiring crowds.
Secondly the street corner, a public setting which would allow for excellent visibility of the one doing the praying. Leon Morris in the Pillar NT Commentary even suggests: it was not beyond the ingenuity of some to order their affairs so that they were in a public place at the time of prayer and thus “compelled” to pray where they would be seen.
This kind of prayer is unacceptable to Jesus and, by extension, to God.
Why? Simply because prayer should never be seen as an opportunity to look good in front of others. Prayer, whether as a prescribed religious observance or an ad hoc communication, should always mean coming before God in gratitude and in humility, closing your eyes and mind to your immediate surroundings and focussing on the holy one to whom you are speaking.
That’s why Jesus suggested going somewhere private, ensuring that you cannot be seen and will not be disturbed, and then concentrating all of your thoughts on God while you speak to him.
Again, there is some question over how literally he meant that. Most people in his culture had small, shared living spaces and would be unlikely to have access to a private room to which they could go in order to be alone whenever they needed or wanted to pray.
And for you as a Christian, there may be situations in which a prayer isn’t a private thing between you and God. You may be asked to give a prayer to God on behalf of other people – the simplest example might be offering a prayer of thanks for a shared meal at home. Or you may need to offer a prayer on behalf of the congregation during a church service.
In situations like these, the overall principle is “don’t try to impress others with your praying”. Don’t think about how your prayer might come across to other people listening. Focus entirely on God.
Craig Blomberg in the New American Commentary writes: …prayer ought not to be used to gain plaudits, summarize a sermon, or communicate information to an audience but should reflect genuine conversation with God.
That isn’t an easy thing to do on behalf of other people, yet putting your focus on keeping your attitude right before God, rather than worrying about what your human listeners think, should hopefully make it a little easier.
Pagans
As I said earlier, by ‘pagans’ Jesus was probably referring to Gentiles. Given that most Jewish people at that time and place wanted almost nothing to do with Gentiles or their religious practices, it’s debatable whether he was referring directly to Gentiles per se, or whether he was trying to make a point that some of his fellow Jews were praying in exactly the same way that Gentiles often did.
It’s important to note first of all that there are two things Jesus was NOT teaching in these verses. Morris explains: Jesus is not, of course, forbidding long prayers; he himself on occasion could pray all night (Luke 6:12) and on one occasion he taught his followers “that they should always pray and not grow weary” (Luke 18:1). Nor does he forbid repetition, for in Gethsemane he repeated his prayer (Matthew 26:39–44). It is prayer based on the view that length will persuade God that he discourages.
The issue at stake here was not length or repetition, but the attitude with which the prayer was offered. While the hypocrites’ mistake was to try and impress other people with their prayers, the pagans’ mistake was to try and impress God, to think that God needs to be convinced or even manipulated into giving us what we ask for.
In many non-Jewish religions it was common to see humanity’s relationship with the gods as purely transactional. The gods did not care very much about human beings or seek any sort of relationship with us, but their favour could be secured by following certain rituals or making certain offerings. That is, of course, not what Jesus taught.
R T France in the New International Commentary on the New Testament sums it up thus: …instead of trusting a Father to fulfill their needs, they think they must badger a reluctant Deity into taking notice of them.
Michael J Wilkins in the NIV Application Commentary adds:
God is always ready to listen, but he cannot be manipulated through ritual prayer. “Babbling” to get God’s attention and to manipulate him to get what we want is foolish, because the Father is aware at all times of his children’s needs even before they ask.
In his Tyndale NT Commentary on Matthew, France observes: Prayer in the non-Jewish world was often characterized particularly by formal invocations and magical incantations, in which the correct repetition counted rather than the worshipper’s attitude or intention.
Again, it’s uncertain whether Jesus was referring literally to Gentile habits of prayers or to the way in which they may have begun to impact the Jewish community.
Either way, the point is that prayer is not an exercise in impressing God either with the length of your prayers or the cleverness of your arguments or the style of your rhetoric. None of those things can sway him into giving you what you want. The only thing that matters is the attitude of your heart.
What else?
These verses contain only Jesus’ teaching on how NOT to pray. Sometimes in order to teach a good practice or a good habit, it’s necessary to first unlearn bad habits that we already practice or witness from those around us.
Jesus didn’t teach us to favour any particular rhetorical style or outward form of prayer. Those things can vary provided our attitude is one of humility and gratitude before God.
But what ought we to pray FOR? What is appropriate to pray about and what isn’t? What are the most important subjects to include in our prayers? How should we balance praise to God with asking for things or thanking him for things or confessing and repenting of our sins?
Next time we’ll begin to look at what we call “The Lord’s Prayer”: the model prayer that Jesus taught his followers, one that’s still used all over the world today.
Nihilist to Christian 