DAY FIFTY-SEVEN: 

The Sermon on the Mount- Part 2 

Matthew 6:5-7:29 

The lilies of the field.

Yesterday we left off with Matthew 6:4. Jesus was teaching on true spirituality vs. a piety that's merely for show. He said that if we draw attention to ourselves when we give we have already received our reward in the acclaim of men. Instead, He said, we should give secretly so that God is glorified, not us.

Today we pick up with Jesus' teaching on prayer. First He taught us how NOT to pray, and then how TO pray. Like giving, praying is something best done in private. Jesus spoke of the hypocrites who stood to pray in the synagogues and on the street corners in order to be seen praying. Their prayers are not communication with God but a pretense, and they already have all the reward they will ever receive. Jesus said that we must shut ourselves up in our rooms and seek the Lord in secret. It is in our prayer closets that we truly commune with God. He hears and takes note. He will hear our sincere prayers.

Jesus also told His listeners to pray simply. He pointed to the gentiles, who thought that their gods would hear them if they prayed over and over again. Our God hears us the first time- He assures us of that. Further, He doesn't need us to tell Him what we need. He already knows. 

After how not to pray, Jesus went on to teach His audience how to pray. He gave them what we call The Lord's Prayer. He said, "Pray then like this." The Greek words indicate that Jesus does not intend a slavish repetition, which He's already warned against. He said to pray like this, in this manner. The Lord's Prayer provides us with an outline that we can follow as we pray. Let's look at each of the six petitions.

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." Jesus taught us to address God as our Father. Yes, God is great, infinitely great beyond anything we can imagine. And yes, we are less than ants, even less than atoms, in the vastness of God's universe. Yet He cares for each one of us as a father cares for his children. He loves us and is delighted to commune with us. He is our Father in Heaven, unseen yet so very real. We pray that his name might be hallowed. That means that His name, which reflects His character, be praised and exalted. We praise Him for who He is- He is holy, perfect and pure in every way. We praise Him because He is worthy. As we saw earlier, our word worship comes from the word worthy. He is worthy because of what He has done. He created everything and saw that it was all good. And He is worthy because He redeems His people. He saves us from our sins and assures us of eternal life. Though our praise will always be a faint shadow of what it should be while we're this side of heaven, God nonetheless enjoys our worship.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Both of the verbs in this sentence are in the imperative. That means our desire for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done is so strong that we are practically ordering God to make it so! We long for His righteous reign and His loving presence. God's will is carried out perfectly in heaven. Not a thing is out of place there. We can't say the same about our sin-scarred world. As we long for the coming of the Kingdom of God we must also work toward its coming. 2 Peter 3:12 says that we must "look for and hasten the coming day of God." We ask first and foremost that God's will be done in our own lives. We give Him our hearts and bend our wills to His. Then we pray for His will to be done in others' lives. We pray for healing and provision of needs. We ask Him to draw our loved ones to Himself. We pray for our leaders as Paul commanded us to do in 1 Timothy 2. We pray for the whole world to know Him.

"Give us this day our daily bread." We ask Him to give us what we need for this day, our food and whatever else we need. In the next chapter Jesus teaches us how to live day to day trusting in our Heavenly Father. We get into trouble when we worry about more than today. He promises that He will take care of us, so we can go day to day with Him.

"...and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Let's deal with a minor matter first before we delve into the meat of this phrase. Debts or trespasses? Really the answer is both. In verse 12, the actual prayer, Jesus used same word that refers to owing money. But then in His explanation of this petition He uses a word that means to go off the path, or trespass. Presbyterians take their version of the Lord's Prayer straight from the King James Bible, while Methodists, coming out of the Anglican (Episcopal) tradition, uses the language of the Book of Common Prayer. A minor issue, I know, but I've had lots of questions over the years.

Forgive us, as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. As I said, this is the only petition that Jesus elaborates. "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (6:14-15) Our forgiveness is conditioned on our forgiving others. When we accept the forgiveness of our sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we forfeit any right to withhold forgiveness from others. Jesus expanded on this because this might just be the hardest thing God asks of us. It's hard to forgive someone who has really hurt you, and maybe you just can't do it. That's OK. Jesus will help you. I've had to pray "Lord, I want to obey You and forgive _____, but I just can't. Please help me to do what I must but cannot do." There's an old saying that's really true: "Not forgiving someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." Forgiveness is far more for you than for the one who has sinned against you.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The word temptation is literally trials or ordeals, like Job's time of testing. Jesus told us to ask God to spare us from trials and temptations. He does protect us from many, maybe most, of the temptations that the devil could throw at us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." We will face temptation, however, and we must resist it with all the resources God gives us. If we fail, however, He assures us that He will not cast us aside, and we can ask for forgiveness and start over again. The last phrase, "but deliver us from evil," reads literally, "rescue us from the evil one." That's Satan, of course. As Martin Luther noted in his great hymn "His craft and power are great/ and armed with cruel hate/ on earth is not his equal." Satan is far stronger and smarter than us. We can't take him on alone. But we don't have to! We have a champion, Jesus Christ! Just like David took down the giant Goliath, so Jesus crushed Satan's power over us.

You'll notice something missing in the English Standard Version's translation. Here's the explanatory footnote: "Some manuscripts add For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen" I think they understate the case for that last petition. Yes, the very oldest manuscripts don't have it. But there are a few who are nearly as old that do, and the petition has always been in the majority of the Greek manuscripts. I believe it to be part of what Jesus taught. We end the prayer by praising Him and recognizing that He is Lord of all. That's a good thought to carry with you through the day! He is Lord, and He is in control,

After teaching the crowds how to pray, Jesus turned to the subject of fasting. That's something most of us don't do. To fast means to abstain from food for a designated period of time. Fasting tells our flesh, which wants what it wants when it wants it, that it's not in charge. God rules our lives. Fasting was a common practice in Jesus' time. Again He warns of external devotion that's just for impressing others. Jesus said to clean yourself up and keep the fast between you and God.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal." The wealth of this world is fickle and fleeting. Fortunes are made and lost. Proverbs 23:4-5 says, "Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven." Jesus told us to put our true riches in heaven, where they will be safe when we arrive. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." What you value most will have your heart. Choose God and His kingdom rather than rely on this earth's treasures. There are no pockets in shrouds- we'll all leave behind whatever worldly goods we have. But we can never lose our riches in heaven.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" The urologist who diagnosed my father's prostate cancer was Chinese, and much of his technique was intuitive. He would take my father by his shoulders, square him up and look into his eyes. He said that told him more than anything about the patient's condition. The eye is a window that lets us see out but also lets others see into our beings. We've all known people whose eyes sparkled. You didn't need to see their mouths to know that they were smiling. And we've all known people whose eyes indicate something dark within them. You've heard the expression "cast an evil eye." I've known people who do just that. Their glance sends chills down your spine. May the love of Christ shine from our eyes and light up this dark world!

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." As they say down south, now Jesus has quit preaching and gone to meddling. He's getting personal. We don't like to talk about money in church. It's true that we cannot serve two masters. That's why the same lawyer can't represent two defendants in a criminal trial. He might sell one out to save the other. We can't keep a balance between the two. Jesus said we can't serve both God and money. I'm sorry that the ESV didn't use that wonderful King James Version word, mammon. It's an ancient word, going back at least 4,000 years. It refers not just to wealth, but the confidence that people put in wealth. I haven't seen the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, but I've seen the trailer. The main character is a man obsessed with money. His life revolves around it. He decided to go all in with mammon, and there's no hint that he acknowledges God except to take His name in vain. You can't serve both God and the wealth of this world. You must either choose God and give Him control of your wealth, or choose mammon and make your own decisions. Choose life! Choose Christ!

Jesus finished out this discussion of material resources by telling us not to worry about them. God takes care of the lilies of the field. I've seen them. They pop up every spring with the bright red flowers that you see in the picture at the top of the page. But no picture can do them justice- they almost glow in the bright sunlight. Jesus was right that Solomon, the richest man who lived, couldn't compare even in His very best clothes. They don't work, and neither do the birds. Yet God takes care of them. Jesus said that likewise our jobs, our work, aren't really the things that provide for us. God is the one who provides all that we need. He uses our work, and He provides for us apart from our work. There's no point in worrying! That's a lesson I have to learn over and over again. God has always met my needs. Someone once said, "God is always on time, but seldom early." He likes to take us to the brink sometimes before He provides for us. That teaches us to depend on Him. If we're not supposed to worry, then what should we do? "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,and all these things will be added to you." Keep your eyes on Jesus! Walk with Him as a disciple and learn from Him each day. And don't look too far down the road. Concentrate on today. God holds the future.

This has ended up being a long post, and we haven't looked at chapter 7. I'm going to post this now and pick up the rest of the Sermon on the Mount in another post this afternoon. I leave you with one of the first choruses I learned as a young Christian in college: