Looking for a Reward
Matthew 6:1-18
Have you ever heard of the
humblebrag? Listen to this explanation, courtesy Tim Challies, pastor of Grace
Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario. “Of all the words coined in response to
the realities of this digital world, of all the words recently added to the
dictionary, humblebrag must be among
the best. According to the Macmillan
dictionary, a humblebrag is “a
statement in which you pretend to be modest but which you are really using as a
way of telling people about your success or achievements.” It is bragging in
the guise of humility, putting a thin veneer of humble over a clear expression
of proud. And it seems to be an integral part of an effective social media
presence.”
Here are some excellent methods of humblebragging:
Tell others what you own. “When I bought this Ferrari no one warned me I’d get
pulled over all the time.”
Make sure they know who you know. “Bumped into my dear friend Tom
Hanks at the Academy Awards tonight. He’s awesome.”
Remind them that you’re popular. “Preached the worst sermon of my
life but still got a sore hand from signing all those Bibles afterward.”
Hide it in a question. “Is anyone else going to be at the White House tonight? It
would be great to meet up…” Or, “Does anyone know if you can claim a yacht
as a home office?
Declare your humility. Try beginning a conversation with the words, “I’m humbled
that…” and follow it with your milestone or accomplishment. Example: “Humbled
that my album hit the Billboard Top 100.”
Feign embarrassment or awkwardness. “That awkward moment when you
ask Jim Gaffigan to sign a book…and he asks you to sign yours.”
GrumbleHumble. Try wrapping your brag in a grumble, using a complaint
to let people know how awesome you are. “I hate it when you get profiled on 60
Minutes and they mispronounce your name.”
We all know that Jesus expects his
followers to be humble, but if we don’t toot our own horns, who is going to
toot them? And especially if we have a social media presence and we need to let
everyone else know how good we are and all the good things we have done, but we
know that we’re supposed to be humble, the humblebrag presents a perfect
solution. Brag about it, all the while trying to pretend that we’re not
bragging.
Two weeks ago, we read from earlier
in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where Jesus called us to be the light of the
world, a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. Jesus said (and I quote), “In the same way, let your light shine
before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in
heaven.” (Matthew 5:16). How can we effectively light the world if the
world doesn’t see what we’re doing? In fact, Jesus went so far as to tell his followers to do their good
deeds in public. What good deeds would those be? In Jesus’ time, there were
three basic aspects of Jewish piety: almsgiving (in other words, giving to the
poor), prayer, and fasting. These were the three most basic things that were
expected of God’s people. So if you were a good Jew, and consequently, if you
were a good Jesus-follower, these were the most basic good deeds that it was
expected that you did.
And if you didn’t do these basic good
deeds, one could even infer from your refusal that you weren’t really one of
God’s people. This is what James was getting at in the Book of James, chapter
two, you know, the “faith without works is dead” chapter. James says: Now someone may argue, “Some people have
faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if
you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
(James 2:18) So there it is – if you want to prove your faith, do good works.
Of course, those good works would start with almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.
So we have precedent for not only
doing good deeds in public, but for doing them specifically for others to see.
And in this same context, then, we hear Jesus beginning a new section by saying,
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of
righteousness’ in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have
no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)
Now, there is a reason why Bible
translators have included a paragraph break between verses 1 and 2. That is
because this verse provides the context and the guidelines for all three of the
following sections. In fact, I was planning on doing a three-part mini-series
on this section, one part on almsgiving, one on prayer, and one on fasting,
but, much like last week’s installment, where all of Jesus’ teachings on “you
have heard it said…, but I say…” are related to heart attitude as opposed to simply
avoiding the outward sinful behavior, these three sections are joined by Jesus’
command. Furthermore, contextual evidence backs this up; Jesus repeats these
phrases: “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward,” and “your
Father, who sees what is done in secret.”
So Jesus is saying, “When you do the
basic things that good Christians do, if you do them in front of other people
to be seen by them, God won’t reward you.” You might say that he’s saying, “If
you do what I told you to do, God won’t reward you.” And that’s almost right. Because Jesus is taking on
hypocrisy here. The previous section was less concerned with following the
letter of the law and more concerned with the condition of the heart of the
follower, and now Jesus is taking it another step. Later (in Matthew 15:3 and following),
Jesus confronts the Pharisees about their religious acts and traditions that they
used to justify disobeying God’s commands. He quotes Isaiah 29:13 at them: calling
them hypocrites. “You hypocrites! Isaiah
was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are
merely human rules.’” (Matthew 15:7-9)
The term “hypocrite” came from the
Greek word for stage actor. Unlike today’s culture of celebrity actors, the
Greek stage actor was not considered a proper public persona. In other words,
you didn’t want people to know you were a stage actor, because the inference
was, if you wore a mask as your occupation, pretending you were who you really
weren’t, then how could you be trusted elsewhere? So Jesus here is dealing with
the motives behind so-called Christian actions…
The big question Jesus is asking is: what
is your motivation? It’s not about doing good deeds in public, it’s about the
motivation behind it. Why do you do it? There have been times when I have been
motivated simply by my office or position. “What is a pastor supposed to do?”
or “I’d better do this, because if I don’t, it will reflect poorly on me or on
my church.” That sounds like decent motivation, but it’s really driven by
people-pleasing. What it comes down to is that when I get into that pattern of
thinking, it’s that I want the recognition that comes with doing good things.
Many Christians give for the
recognition – otherwise they might not want
one of those little plaques saying they gave it. Others give for the tax
write-off.
Jesus addresses these Pharisees who
sound the trumpet so everyone notices their good deeds, those who pray loudly
so everyone sees them, and those who brag about their fasts so that everyone
knows they are fasting. This raises the issue: there are times when doing
Christian charity is not enough. Later
in this same sermon, Jesus will address those hypocrites who claim to be
Christians but do not do his will, “Many
will say to me on that day, ‘Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform
many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me,
you evil-doers!’” (Matthew 7:22-23)
What Jesus is saying is that, while
obedience is important, our motivation is even more important. Do we do all of
this for the recognition that comes with it? Sometimes we act as if God is
bound by magic rules – in other words, if we do all the right things, then we
force God to act. This isn’t Christianity; it’s magic. It’s saying a spell or
performing an incantation. And that, plain and simple, is not Christianity.
This is why Jesus blasts the way the hypocrites pray: they think if they use
all the right words, God will be forced to answer their prayers. I remember as
a child, there were people who prayed and people who prayed. The ones who used King James English in their prayers… they
had to be holy. I remember hearing another
kid my age praying, “beseeching” God, using “Thee” and “Thou” in his prayer –
man, he had to be holy. God would have
to answer him.
Jesus is saying there is no magic
formula to pray. Even the Lord’s Prayer isn’t a magic formula; it should inform
and teach us how to pray – I’m not
going to go into the specifics of the Lord’s Prayer today, because that is at
least a five-week sermon series. But here, Jesus is talking about our motivation
for prayer. What he isn’t talking about is whether or not we should pray in
public. I’ve heard people invoke this scripture when we celebrate the National
Day of Prayer in the community, claiming that Jesus says we shouldn’t pray in
public. That’s not what Jesus is saying, though. Jesus is saying, “Don’t pray
in public to be seen by people.”
There’s a big difference.
If you do your righteous acts “to be
seen by people” then being seen by people is your big reward. And what kind of
reward is that really? I mean, if I’m picking out a reward, having people know
that I can pray is a pretty sad one. Having people think I’m so righteous is a
lame reward.
Jesus never says we should abandon
these righteous acts. Just because we shouldn’t give to charity simply for the
human recognition or tax write-off doesn’t mean we don’t give. Just because we
don’t pray in public for the recognition doesn’t mean we don’t pray – like when
they took out mandatory rote prayer in schools, that doesn’t mean that Christians
can’t or shouldn’t pray in school! In fact, it probably means you should pray
more in school! Just because you shouldn’t brag to everyone how you are fasting
doesn’t mean you should not fast.
The honest truth is that our
motivation is naturally incredibly selfish. We want people to know that we are
good at praying. There is something flattering to our egos when people come to
us with “your prayers really work” – but it’s not about that. One of my
favorite prayer stories was from another church, where we had a special service
focused on healing, and we ended with healing prayers. I was the associate
pastor, and the senior pastor asked me to pray for him. He had a whole lot of
aches and pains, especially from an incident where he’d slipped on the ice and
landed on his shoulder. So I prayed for him. The next Sunday, he told me that
my prayers didn’t work, that I didn’t have the gift of healing. His shoulder
hurt more than it had before I’d prayed for him. But then he mentioned in his
sermon that he’d been out digging fencepost holes all day Saturday… I still
think that was pretty funny. But this is what I took from that incident: I’m
glad not to have the gift of healing;
now, if someone is healed after I pray for them, the glory goes to God, not me.
Which leads me to the next point.
Jesus is not only talking about almsgiving, prayer, and fasting here. These are
the examples he uses because they were considered to be the basic acts of piety
for Jews of his time. But Jesus is talking about everything. What is your motivation for singing in the choir? Is it
because you know everyone needs to hear your voice? I know a church where they broadcast
their services live on the radio, and this one woman knew where the
congregation microphones were and she would go sit right under that mic so her
voice would go out over the air during congregational singing.
In our Sunday School class, we’ve had
multiple discussions about how we best honor the Sabbath – but do we honor the
Sabbath just so people see us not
doing whatever, or do we honor the Sabbath to glorify God and to enjoy his presence?
Would we still give our tithes and
offerings if we never got a tax statement? Would we give to others if nobody
else knew about it?
So here’s the next issue: many in
this church are not this type. Most of you would rather walk out than parade
your good deeds in front of the church or the community. The sad thing,
however, is that many Christians aren’t even doing these acts of righteousness.
So instead of avoiding doing them for the wrong reasons, they end up not doing
them at all. The Bible does not tell us not
to give to the poor, not to pray, or not
to fast. In fact, Jesus is inferring that we will do all those things; he says “when
you give” and “when you pray” and “when you fast” not “if.”
But again, what it all comes down to
is motivation. What is the motivation for giving to the needy? Jesus says that
there is a way to give that ensures that our Father will reward us.
Do it in secret.
What is the motivation for prayer? Certainly
not to be seen; we pray to develop our relationship with God, and so we pray in
secret. We don’t babble or use stilted language. We ask God to supply our needs,
even as God already knows what we need. We ask for God’s guidance and
deliverance. We ask for the power to forgive and for forgiveness.
What is the motivation for fasting? It
is all about our relationship with God. Many times we get distracted by all
kinds of things – food, drink, our TV shows, social media and so forth. When we
fast, we give up something that has a significant place in our lives in order
to concentrate on God. But when we do it, do it in secret.
God is most interested in who you are
when no else one is looking. So, who are you? Do you even know? Have you been
just doing what is expected for so long that you don’t even know who you are? And
is the person you are worthy of God’s reward? If not, then it’s time for
transformation. The good news is that if the Holy Spirit lives within you, you
have the means for that transformation.
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