Christ Jesus introduced the matter of prayer to us last week. “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” In the previous part of Jesus’ message, He was primarily concerned with hypocrisy. Hypocrisy can be seen in a hundred different religious manifestations – ostentatious fasting and self-congratulatory giving, for example. And it can be seen and heard in our prayers.
But hypocrisy is only one of many sins which can be seen in our prayers. Right here the Lord goes on to expose two more prayerful perversions. The foolish, religious Pharisee has problems with prayer without praying. And the religious pagan, or Gentile, has problems with vain repetition. Then again, there is often a blending of these two groups and these two errors. Hypocrisy is the misuse of the purpose of prayer. Instead of glorifying God in his prayers, the Pharisee glorifies himself in one way or another. If it’s not in his self-important words, like the man in our scripture this morning, then it is the Pharisee who likes to stand on the corner and shout his prayers for everyone to hear.
The other problem which Christ Jesus raises is vain repetition. Repetitious verbosity is the misuse of the nature of prayer. Prayer is supposed to be a personal communion with God – communication with God. But it often becomes a mere recital of memorized words. Thursday, Sahalie asked her mother, “What is communication?” I have no idea where she heard the word; that is not an average word for a four-year-old. But she hear it, remembered it, and later she asked her intelligent question. And she heard an intelligent answer: “Communication is the way that we share our thoughts, ideas and pictures with others. Sometimes we use words; sometimes we use bodily gestures, and sometimes we use physical touch. A hug can be a means of communicating, and so can a pat on the back, or touching someone’s arm.” And prayer is one means of communicating with our Heavenly Father. But why and where has it been changed into useless chorus singing and the repetition of trite phrases?
In order to do the teaching which He needs to do, the Lord Jesus has been showing us various contrasts. He showed us the Pharisee on the street corner with his arms uplifted. That man thought they were lifted to heaven, but it was more like the victory sign of an Olympic runner. After that Christ talked about the humble saint of God in his secret placing communing with his God. And now we have the computer-like memorized speech contrasted by a meaningful vertical conversation.
The Lord ever wants us to be better, reach higher and go farther than others. Christian righteousness is greater, because it flows from the heart rather than from more sensual and temporal aspects of our lives. Christian love is broader, because it includes, not only our friends, but our worst enemies. And Christian prayer is deeper because it is sincere, thoughtful and from the heart – not the tongue.
First, the Lord points out the pagan way of prayer.
“Don’t heap up empty phrases the way the Gentiles do.” The Greek word for “vain repetition” is really quite interesting; it is “battalogeo” (bat-tol-og-eh’-o). This is the only place in the scripture where we have this word. And the Greek experts say that it is extremely rare even in secular literature. That sort of thing attracts the attention of scholars. It means that the etymology of the word is open to debate. Some say that the word comes from comes from Battus, an author of tedious & wordy Greek poems. Some think that it is “onomatopoeic” – do you remember that from your old school days? Onomatopoeia refers to those words which imitate the sound which they describe – “Splash” is onomatopoeic, as are “honk,” “crack,” “snap,” “boom, “cuckoo,” and “meow.” “Babble” is another onomatopoeic word, and that was how Tyndale translated this word in his old version of the Bible. But the more common idea of the origin of “battalogeo” (bat-tol-og-eh’-o) is related to Battus, one of the kings of Cyrene. It is said that the man stuttered – often repeating the same word or sound over and over again before he could move on to the next word in his thought.
Most preachers, and this one included, have usually erred in our emphasis of our Lord’s rebuke. I admit to stressing the “vain” aspect of Jesus’ statement. But it appears that the Greek word that He used stresses the repetition aspect. It is, after all, only one word in the original language. But it is not the repetition in itself which is the sin, because even the Son of God did that in His prayers. In Gethsemane, for example, He prayed three times for the same basic request. Perseverance and even importunity in prayer are commended by the Lord. It’s not the repetition itself which is the problem, it is repetition without thought, heart and consideration. Here He is condemning empty prayerful verbosity – unnecessary wordiness, superfluity, redundancy, grandiloquence, garrulousness, loggorhea and prolixity. And by the way that last sentence was a good example of vain repetition, but it was not without thought.
How does this vain repetition apply to people’s prayers? There are the silly mantras of the transcendental meditational freaks – true heathenism. These are often repeated sounds, not even words, hummed over and over again for various reasons. Some people say that they are praying through their mantras, and some say they are only relaxing. But many of them are willingly or unwilling inviting demonic possession. The purpose of the repetitive mantra is to take a person out of himself and into another state. Sadly that state they get into isn’t Arizona or Colorado, but a Satanic hypnotic state. Then we come to something more common: mindless use of the ungodly Rosary. This is the fingering of beads and reciting of a handful of words over and over again. It is similar to the use of Hindu prayer wheels – it has nothing to do with scriptural prayer. It is completely foreign to the Word of God – there isn’t a hint of that sort of thing in the Bible. Then eventually we come to prayer books, like the Anglican “Book of Common Prayer” which are read and repeated over and over again – often without thought. The Lord Jesus points out that people seem to think that God is impressed by these multiplied prayers. But what kind of God is it who is impressed by only mechanics and statistics? That’s like saying a man is good husband, merely because he constantly says, “I love you” to his wife. Some men tell their wives that they love them, even while they are beating them. There is much more involved than just the repetition of words – even if they are good words.
Don’t be like them, Christ says in verse 8. Why not? Because ours is not that kind of God. On the contrary, our Father knows what we need even before we ask. He is neither mechanical nor ignorant, so neither should we be. Do you pray to inform God of things which He doesn’t know? No, we pray in order to arouse ourselves to seek Him and trust Him. We pray to relieve ourselves from our worries and problems. By faith, when we pray we lay our burdens on the back of the Almighty. And we pray to better grasp the promises that He has already given to us.
Very briefly, here we have an example of Christian prayer.
This so-called “Lord’s Prayer” never was, really, the Lord’s Prayer; it is rather a guide for Christian prayer. And I stress the word “guide” – it is a template for prayer. There is nothing wrong with earnestly and whole-heartedly using these words as the expression of our inner most desire. But I don’t believe that the Lord ever intended us to use it over and over again – as our only prayer.
“Our Father which in Heaven” reminds us that our God is personal and loving. He is also separated by a holy sanctification, but which can be breached by even us. And He is powerful enough to reach from Heaven to minister to us on earth. Here Jesus guides in proper protocol & etiquette in approaching deity – and of course, He ought to know.
“Hallowed be thy Name,” reminds us that the Lord’s concerns must be our first concerns. The Name of God is not a combination of three simple letters. The Name of God is the person of Jehovah himself, and as He told Moses, He reveals Himself by that name. “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there and proclaimed the name of the Lord; and the L passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth.” The name of the Lord must be treated with utmost reverence and respect.
“Thy kingdom come,” reminds us that He is already a King. But His kingdom is filled with rebels. This prayer is that His rule may grow, enveloping the whole of creation.
“Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” says that we recognize that His will is always best. What is best for this planet is what already rules in heaven.
“Give us this day our daily bread” shows us that our personal needs do not have to be ignored. Not to pray about our personal concerns is as much a sin as to only pray about ourselves. The word “bread” is a symbol of everything necessary for our daily lives. But just because we pray for it, doesn’t mean that the Lord hasn’t ordained to supply us through our own labor.
“Forgive us debts as we forgive our debtors” tells us that forgiveness is as essential as food. God doesn’t forgive only because we forgive – that would make forgiveness something to be earned. But true repentance intersects with forgiveness, and repentance isn’t found in one who won’t forgive others.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” shows us that the tyranny of sin never dies. The request is that God will enable us to overcome temptation when comes our way. Even if we never stumble into temptation it will hunt us like a hungry snake trailing a mouse.
And then Jesus gives us an appropriate kind of closing.
There are three basic petitions here and they cover all areas of our lives. There is our material human need – daily bread. God supplies. Then we have our most basic spiritual need – forgiveness. And another spiritual necessity is spiritual victory – deliverance from evil.
Someone pointed out that we have an indirect reference to each person of the Trinity. The Father is the creator and supplier of His children’s physical needs. It is through the Son’s atonement that we have forgiveness of sin. Then it is the Holy Spirit Who guides us in our daily walk for the Lord.
Conclusion:
It is possible to make this prayer become Pharisaical and mechanical. Raised as a Protestant, I heard it over and over again in just that way. But what we are supposed to do is learn the principles behind it. Pray with your heart and mind fully activated. Over the years I’ve heard some really dumb things said in prayer, and probably I am just as guilty as anyone else.
The error of the hypocrite is selfishness – as we saw last week. Concentrating on the Lord will never permit selfishness. And it will also lead us into consideration of the needs of others.
The error of the heathen on other hand is mindlessness, empty babbling. Theoretically, that should be done away as we think about what to pray. And then as we incorporate worship into our prayer, it becomes controlled by the Holy Spirit and ends up entirely different from the prayers of either the hypocrite or the heathen.