Throughout this section of Sermon of the Mount, Jesus is speaking to His disciples about the difference that grace in the heart makes, how it is the key to a deeper righteousness than the Pharisees ever had, indeed than they could even understand. They saw the doing of good works, things like prayer and almsgiving as the key to righteousness, while Christ explains that true religion is exactly the opposite way round. Righteousness is actually the key to good works and that it is only through being united to Christ by faith that we could have the true righteousness that makes a man truly blessed.

“Teach Us to Pray”

In Chapter 6 of Matthew, Jesus teaches His disciples much about prayer, in Matthew 6:5-8 He says:

5 ” And when you pray, you shall 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 men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
7 “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

Do you regularly pray? I hope you do because Jesus assumes that his followers will pray regularly. You’ll notice that He started out talking about prayer by saying, “when you pray” not, “if you pray” and then He went on to discuss the key to true prayer, which isn’t to be found in the place that you pray, or the way that you pray, or the length of your prayers, but in the disposition of the heart of the one praying.

Throughout this section of Sermon of the Mount, Jesus is speaking to His disciples about the difference that grace in the heart makes, how it is the key to a deeper righteousness than the Pharisees ever had, indeed than they could even understand. They saw the doing of good works, things like prayer and almsgiving as the key to righteousness, while Christ explains that true religion is exactly the opposite way round. Righteousness is actually the key to good works and that it is only through being united to Christ by faith that we could have the true righteousness that makes a man truly blessed.

But what is prayer? There are lots of answers to that question. Many think of prayer merely as a required duty, others think of it as something that makes them feel better, some others see it as a kind of magical incantation designed to get us what we need, but Jesus explains that true prayer is none of these things. Prayer is a familiar way of speaking to God by someone who is intimately acquainted with Him. One could almost describe it as a conversation with God, but that would be to make it too informal. I appreciate the way Westminster Shorter Catechism answers this question:

98. What is prayer?
A. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

Jesus is eager that we would pray but He doesn’t want his followers to pray in the empty and fruitless way that so many do. The first thing He emphasizes, therefore, is for us to remember who true prayer is to be directed towards. Why would He need to do that? Because most people get it wrong. The heathens pray in vain to the wrong God, but even people who believe in the true God, often aren’t speaking to Him when they pray. The Pharisees, for instance, frequently prayed to be seen and heard by people, not God. You see observant Jews prayed three times a day at set hours, Psalm 55:17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice. That was how, for instance, Daniel’s enemies knew they could entrap him, they knew Daniel would always pray to Jehovah three times a day regardless of his circumstances.

So in Christ’s time, if the hour of prayer came and you were on the street, you would stop what you were doing and pray. Now the hypocrites somehow managed to always be found someplace VERY public when it came time to pray, and they made a great show of their prayers because their desire was to impress others with their holiness and piety.

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