Matthew 6.5-8

5 minutes?  Seriously!?  5 minutes?  That’s how long a guy in my church prayed one Sunday.  I noticed that he had a tendency to pray for a super long time, so I thought I would time it, and it went over five minutes.  Every church has that person who prays super-duper long prayers.  Most of the time, those people have good intentions and a good heart.  But now and then you hear a prayer that sounds like another language and lasts about 20 minutes.  Then you know something isn’t right.

This must have been a problem in Jesus’ day too because in the Sermon on the Mount, he condemns those who pray for show and those who pray with many words.  Was he talking about the same situation we see in our churches?  Or was there something more going on?  Let’s check out the passage and see.

Matthew 6:5-8

⁵ “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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ 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. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

As we’ve seen in the past few days, Jesus is addressing the motives of our acts of righteousness: almsgiving, praying, and fasting.  The tendency for all of us is to want human recognition for the things we do to grow closer to God.  Think about it.  Have you ever been like, “Yeah, this morning I was praying to God for about an hour and I felt like God was telling me..” Sometimes we do this with pure motives but a lot of times we do it just so we can slip in whatever point we want to make and that we are pretty holy.

The Pharisees were like that.  They wore their piety on their sleeves.  Jews kept certain hours of prayer throughout the day.  They would stop whatever they were doing to pray.  Some Pharisees, it seems, had a tendency to make sure that wherever they stopped to pray was in public so that everyone knew that they were holy and pious.  They prayed for show rather than to commune with God.

Jesus calls them out for this and says go into your closet (hence our phrase:  prayer closet).  This is probably a sarcastic statement since most folks didn’t have closets.  But the idea is clear: let your prayers take place in the privacy of your relationship with God, not on show for everyone around you.  This doesn’t mean that Jesus is condemning all public prayer (the Lord’s prayer shows that).  Rather, he’s condemning that kind of prayer which is done for those listening rather than the God who is listening.  So next time it’s your turn in the circle to pray, ask yourself, “Who am I praying to?”

Jesus also condemns those who pray with many words because they think their words will make them heard.  That’s what the pagans (non-Jews) did.  They were like annoying little kids who tag along and think that if they say your name a thousand more times or call you a bunch of names that they will finally get your attention.  But we serve a God who is attentive and on his toes to hear us.  We don’t have to manipulate him into hearing us.  We can simply say, “Our Father who is in heaven” and he picks up the phone. 

So don’t go on babbling, thinking that your many words will make God hear you.  He already knows what you need before you ask.  Instead, lay your prayers before him in trust and faith that he heard you the first time.  And your father who sees you in secret will reward you.

Jeremy Hyde