Friday, 6 March Seeking the Messiah. Matthew 6:5–18
Matthew appears to have constructed this passage carefully: Jesus’ model prayer which we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, is bracketed at the beginning by a passage on how not to pray, (and how to pray), then at the end by a passage on how not to fast and then how to fast.
The two sections on fasting and praying are essentially similar in purpose. Both are introduced by an instruction not to be like the hypocrites. I'm sorry our translations use this word because I think it gives us a false impression of what Jesus was actually meaning. (I know! I'm taking on hundreds of top translation scholars who know much, much more than I do, when I say this. But I think there’s room for a discussion, at least! Let me explain.)
The Greek word in both v5 and v16 is the word hypokritai. You can see that it is an easy translation from that to hypocrites. And indeed, this is where our word hypocrite is derived from. But it’s not that simple, when you dig into it a little.
Hypokritai in Ancient Greece were a well-known profession. They were play-actors. Every town of some size in the ancient world had an outdoor theatre. You may have walked around some, as I have, in Turkey, Greece and Israel. The Greeks and Romans loved their theatre, and students in schools still read some of their works today.
In modern theatre, our actors are mostly identified by their costumes and their accents. If the Director wants to portray a mob gangster, the actor will wear a tight suit, black sunglasses and talk with a thick Chicago accent. ‘Hey, Fat Tony, I wan’ you to take dose schmucks out.’
In the ancient world actors just wore masks to show their character. They generally didn’t change costume, but just carried or wore a mask to show whether they were a god or a peasant or a King. The masks designated the character, and the audience distinguished the character by the mask being worn or carried. The actors were thus called hypokritai, because the word means something like, ‘to discern what is under the covering’. The actors shouted out their lines in declaiming tones, to suit the acoustics of an outdoor theatre.
Jesus did not speak in Greek. He spoke in Aramaic. I have no idea what the word for actors is in Aramaic, but when it was translated into Greek for this Gospel, it became hypokritai. Then, when the Greek was translated into English, most translators have simply used the obvious English word, hypocrites. But, as we have seen, hypokritai in the ancient world meant a play-actor, someone who was pretending, dissembling, using a mask to pretend to be someone that he was not. It didn’t mean quite what hypocrite means to us – someone who really is false-hearted, two-faced, saying one thing and doing another.
Hypokritai were acting, making a big show of pretending. My sense is that the thing that Jesus is really addressing here is not our English word, hypocrisy, i.e. being deceitful, but putting on a show, acting out a role to impress or to disguise who you really are.
That seems consistent with his instruction about prayer: not to do it with fanfare and fancy words; and equally with the instruction about fasting: not to do it while putting some sort of makeup or other sign on their face or clothing that they are fasting, advertising their holiness, when all they are really doing is boasting.
I sense that Jesus is really saying to us about prayer: When you pray in public places, don’t go showing off and play-acting, declaiming with fine and sonorous words and solemn faces. Just speak in your normal tones, using ordinary phrases and ordinary words.
And in regard to fasting, it is the same thing: Don’t put on a fake suffering face to show you are doing without; don’t go telling everyone what you’ve given up for Lent, or how you are very noble because you are not eating today or not drinking alcohol, but praying instead.
Both of these seem to me to reflect accurately what the tone of those two sections is all about. And the reminder is useful for us; perhaps more useful than telling us not to be hypocrites, which may not actually be a big temptation to most of us.
You may have heard someone putting on their special praying-voice, or using ‘specially holy’ phrases. People often seem to pray differently in a cathedral from how they pray in a suburban church. (Just listen to the difference in pronunciation between ‘the Wholly Spirit’ in the suburban church and ‘the Hooly Spirit’ in the Cathedral.)
You may have seen preachers, especially perhaps on TV, using their prayers as an opportunity to shout at God, or to use very holy language. Some try to increase the likelihood of a miracle answer by shouting some special formula at the end, such as ‘in the name of JEEEESUS!!! HALLELUJAH!’ Perhaps it’s not so common nowadays, but when I was growing up, the skill of knowing how to use Thee or Thou, and their matching forms could make a prayer especially noteworthy. God apparently understood old English better than modern. We beseech thee, O God, that thou wouldst grant thy tender mercies unto us…
It’s also possible to go in the other direction, of course. We can try very hard to sound ‘real casual-like’, in an effort to sound more ordinary than perhaps we really are: Yeah, well, anyway, God. It’s been a bewdiful day and we’re real thankful. Yeah. Amen. Or we work at being politically-correct, using special gender pronouns or avoiding Our Father…
Or perhaps there is a special kind of clothing that a preacher or a church leader can wear to demonstrate that they are especially holy, or that their prayers are more special than the little old lady in the third row who doesn’t understand a word of Greek, but who loves Jesus faithfully and quietly. I don't just mean high church robes, either – there are definite fashion uniform standards amongst the coolest, hippest pastors (and their wives!).
I think that I am reminded today, not to try to promote myself when I'm praying, especially in public, but perhaps also in private, by any of these special effects. Special effects belong in Hollywood, because that is where the actors are.
I think that Jesus is encouraging me today to just bring myself to him, as I am. Why pretend? Why put on a mask of special words or a holy face? Why try to impress? He knows exactly who I am, much better than I do. I am to seek him with a genuine heart – not a false or self-seeking heart. I can talk to him, in my daily ordinary talking style.
We can't fool God by putting on an act, and it’s him we are talking to in prayer. So why try to fool the others who are just listening in – unless we are just being play-actors?
Prayer: [Empty Space] (I can't fill this prayer in for you today. It would just be my words. So you'll have to use yours. God will be delighted to hear your voice and your words. Don’t try to pretend. Just remember that he is God, and we're not.)
