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The Gospel of the Messiah
according to Matthew |
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Chapter
6
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1"Beware of
practicing your righteousness before men to be
noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward
with your Father who is in heaven. 2"So when you
give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before
you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and
in the streets, so that they may be honored by
men Truly I say to you, they have their reward
in full. 3"But when you give to the poor, do not
let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing, 4so that your giving will be in secret;
and your Father who sees what is done in secret
will reward you.
In Jewish thought, giving to the poor is among
the most righteous things a person could do, so
over time the word "tzedakah"
("righteousness") came to primarily mean
alms-giving. Likewise, the English word
"charity" originally meant "love" but because
giving to the poor was among the most loving
things a person could do, it now primarily
refers to alms-giving. When giving to the poor,
the Master would have us be careful, making sure
to be discreet. Notice verses one and two:
practicing your righteousness before men is
parallel to giving to the poor and sounding a
trumpet while doing it. These are a description
of how the hypocrites of the Master's day gave
alms. There has been a lot of speculation as to
what Yeshua meant by "do not sound a trumpet
before you." Some have suggested that people
would nosily place their coins into shofar
shaped receptacles, thus letting everyone know
that they were giving charity. Regardless of the
exact meaning of the phrase, the Master's point
is clear: the giving of charity should be for
God and not to be seen to be pious. To give
charity to be seen by others does result in
receiving honour in the eyes of men but,
according to the Master, that is the full
measure of reward for those who give charity
with such motives. Disciples of Rabbi Yeshua are
called to a higher standard and we must give
charity for God's sake. When we give to the
poor, our left hand is not to know what our
right hand is doing, which is to say that we
should give in such a way so as not to make it
evident. Secretly giving to the poor, as opposed
to openly giving so as to be seen by others,
will garner reward from God.
5"When you pray, you are not to be
like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and
pray in the synagogues and on the street corners
so that they may be seen by men Truly I say to
you, they have their reward in full. 6"But you,
when you pray, go into your inner room, close
your door and pray to your Father who is in
secret, and your Father who sees what is done in
secret will reward you.
Like giving alms and fasting, the Master's
teachings on prayer were given in a Jewish,
religious context, so He assumed we would be
doing these things. Also like giving alms and
fasting, for disciples of Yeshua, prayer is to
be done with the right motive and not for the
sake of being seen by others, to display how
pious we are. To "stand and pray in the
synagogues and on the street corners" is to pray
the Amidah (the "standing prayer") at the
appointed times of prayer in the morning and
afternoon. Notice that the Master is not
repudiating praying set prayers at set times,
especially since it was something He and His
disciples engaged in on a daily basis. It is
praying for the sake of being seen by others
that the Master is teaching against. To
illustrate the heart motive that His disciples
are to have in regards to prayer, Yeshua
instructed that we should pray in our inner
rooms with a closed door. This does not mean
that we cannot pray in public or with other
people but it does mean that in the same way
that our heart would be focused on God in
private prayer, we pray with the same attitude
when praying in front of others.
7"And when you are praying, do not use
meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for
they suppose that they will be heard for their
many words. 8"So do not be like them; for your
Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
In addition to being focused on God when
praying, we are to also be cognizant of the
words we are using. The Master specifically
cites the meaningless repetition prayed by pagan
Gentiles as the type of prayer that we are to
avoid. The Greek behind the phrase "meaningless
repetition" is "battologeo" which is a
compound word made up of "batta" and "logos."
The word "batta" is onomatopoeia for
nonsensical speech and the word "logos"
refers to speech. The pagans think that with
their mantras and ecstatic utterances they can
manipulate their deities to action. This is not
how disciples of Yeshua are to pray; we should
be praying with meaning and intention. God is
sovereign, so prayer is really about connecting
your heart and will with God's heart and will.
We would do well to get out of the mindset that
we can direct God's hand simply because we've
prayed the right formula. God knows what we need
before we even ask Him, so we should praise Him
for who He is and pray in accordance with His
revealed will.
9"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is
in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10'Your
kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it
is in heaven. 11'Give us this day our daily
bread. 12'And forgive us our debts, as we also
have forgiven our debtors. 13'And do not lead us
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For
Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever. Amen.]'
In the Master's time, it was common for rabbis
to provide their disciples with a short prayer
that summarized the general themes of the
regular synagogue and Temple liturgy. The
Master's prayer shares much of the language and
themes found in the Amidah and the
Kaddish, prayers that are staples of the
daily prayers services of Judaism. Some have
postulated that the Master’s prayer is not to be
said liturgically but rather it should serve as
a guide for our own personal prayers. However,
we have evidence that even by the late first
century, believers were praying this prayer
liturgically three times a day, at the
traditional set-times (see The Didache,
Chapter 8). This does not diminish the fact
that this prayer, like all liturgical prayer,
can provide for us a structure to pray our
personal prayers to God; certainly, the Master's
prayer can teach us much on how we should pray
to God in our own words.
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your
name.
Like in the first prayer of the Amidah,
the Master's prayer first addresses God Himself.
The use of "our" signals to us not only that
this prayer can be said in a communal prayer
setting but also that no matter where we are, in
prayer, God's people are united. To address God
as Father is not unique to the Master, since He
is addressed that way both in the Tanakh and
also in the prayers of the synagogue as well.
For example, the fifth prayer of the Amidah
begins this way: "Lead us back, our Father,
to Your Torah..." The full phrase "Father
who is in heaven" serves as a circumlocution for
the name of God and conveys to us that though
God is as close to us a father, He is also above
and beyond us. The word "hallowed" is simply the
old English way of saying "sanctified," which
refers to that which is set apart. For God's
name to be sanctified is for God to be known
among the peoples for who He truly is. In this
way, when praying for God's name to be
sanctified, we are asking for God to reveal
Himself but we are also taking upon ourselves
the responsibility of expressing God to others.
When we live out God's commandments, we reveal
godliness to the world and God's name is
sanctified. This sentiment is expressed in the
Kaddish prayer: "May His great name be
sanctified in the world which He created,
according to His will, and may He establish His
Kingdom..." In the coming Kingdom, which
will be ushered in when the Messiah returns,
God's name will be fully sanctified, since He
will be revealed for who is truly is.
Your kingdom
come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven.
Another way of asking for God's name to be
sanctified is to ask for His kingdom to come. We
tend to think of a kingdom in terms of geography
and while God's kingdom does include a
geographical location, the Land of Israel, it
mainly refers to rule and reign of God through
His people. When praying for God’s kingdom to
come, again, like asking God to sanctify His
name, we are asking God to fully reveal Himself
but we are also placing a responsibility upon
ourselves. If we truly want God’s kingdom to
come, we must ask ourselves what we are doing to
make that a reality. In like manner, for God's
will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, is
for His kingdom to be fully realized on the
earth. Though it is common for people to wonder
what God's will is for their life, the truth is
that God's will has not been lost; God's will is
not something that has to be searched for. The
will of God is revealed in His commandments to
His people. God's will being done on earth as it
is in heaven is just another way of saying that
we want our lives to reflect His perfect pattern
of life, the pattern He revealed to us in the
Torah and in the Messiah. Of course, this prayer
is also asking God to usher in the Messianic era
and therefore echoes the words of the fourteenth
prayer of the Amidah: "To Jerusalem
Your city, return Thou in mercy and dwell in her
midst as Thou hast spoken, and build her
speedily in our days as an everlasting structure
and soon establish there the throne of David.
Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the builder of
Jerusalem."
Give us this day our daily bread.
Like the Amidah prayers, the Master's
prayer first addresses God, focusing on His will
and then moves on to petitions. In Matthew
6:33, Yeshua said: "seek first His kingdom and
His righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you." Once we realize our role and
responsibility in God's kingdom, we can then
trust God that He will provide for our daily
needs. Some have attempted to spiritualize the
bread referred to here but this is unnecessary
since there is nothing unholy about food that
has been sanctified by the word of God and
prayer (cf. 1 Timothy 4:4-5). Indeed, the
blessings said before and after meals fully
express the heart behind the petition of asking
God for our daily bread. Before partaking of
bread, we recognize that it is HaShem who has
brought forth bread from the earth. Similarly,
in the grace after meals, we petition God to "not
let us rely upon the gifts of flesh and blood,
nor upon their loans, but only upon your hand,
which is filled, open, holy and wide..." By
asking God to supply our daily needs, primarily
in matters of sustenance, we remind ourselves
that we exist because of His sovereign
provision.
And forgive us
our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
Just as we ask for food to sustain ourselves
physically, we ask for forgiveness of sins to
sustain ourselves spiritually. Debt is used here
to metaphorically refer to sin, since in the
same way that unpaid debt results in bad
standing with the lender, sin results in a bad
standing before God. Interestingly, the prayer
does not ask for help to forgive others as God
has forgiven us but for God to forgive us as we
have forgiven those who have "debt" with us.
Praying such a prayer obligates us to freely
forgive others when they wrong us, since we
surely want God to forgive us every time we
wrong Him. Once again, we see how prayer is a
way we can connect our heart with God's, since
in reality all of our sins have been taken care
of through the death of the Messiah. It is not
that we must constantly be afraid that God will
not forgive us of our sins since we may have
some unresolved dispute with someone, it is that
we should be seeking to resolve all disputes we
might have with people, for this is the very
heart and will of God.
And do not lead us into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.
The life of believer is marked with a constant
struggle against sin and temptation. If not for
God’s strength and deliverance, we would not be
able to overcome our sinful inclination and the
wiles of Satan. This prayer does not suggest
that God is the one that leads us into
temptation but rather that He is the one that
delivers us from evil. Jacob, the brother of the
Master, taught that “…God cannot be tempted
by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is carried away
and enticed by his own lust” (James
1:13-14). In the Greek text, the word “evil”
has the definite article, so some have argued
that text should be translated as “the evil
one.” While it is certainly true that Satan is
the tempter, it’s more likely that the Master
had our sinful inclination in mind; it is our
sinful inclination that tempts us and entices us
to sin on a daily basis. This is echoed in a
prayer that is found in the morning prayers of
the Siddur: “Do not bring us into the
power of error, nor into the power of
transgression and sin, nor into the power of
challenge, nor into the power of scorn.” In
regards to overcoming temptation, the Apostle
Paul brought words of hope when he said: “No
temptation has seized you except what is common
to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you
be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when
you are tempted, he will also provide a way out
so that you can stand up under it” (1
Corinthians 10:13).
For Yours is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
This concluding doxology is not actually in the
original manuscripts of Matthew but does appear
to be an early and fitting addition, since it is
included in the Didache. It’s an
adaptation of 1 Chronicles 29:11, which
says: “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and
the power and the glory and the victory and the
majesty, indeed everything that is in the
heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O
LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.”
We should always end our prayers with the hope
that the God we serve is Most High God, for
from Him and through Him and to Him are all
things. To Him be the glory forever!
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14"For if you
forgive others for their transgressions, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15"But if
you do not forgive others, then your Father will
not forgive your transgressions.
The Master then reiterated the need to forgive
others, elucidating what was meant by the prayer
of verse 12. How do we reconcile these words
with the truth that through Messiah there is now
no condemnation (cf. Romans 8:1)? Quite
simply, if you don’t have the ability to forgive
others, you are demonstrating that God has not
giving you the regenerating work of the Spirit.
Disciples of Yeshua must be known as people who
love and forgive others, even if the people who
wrong us don’t deserve forgiveness. God did not
wait for us to love Him first; He first loved us
and had the Messiah die for us while we still
sinners (cf. 1 John 4:19, Romans 5:8). We
must hold these truths in tension, God has
graciously forgiven us of our sins apart from
any good work we might offer to Him and yet it
is our responsibility to forgive others,
otherwise God will not forgive us. The Master
said in Mark 11:25: “Whenever
you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything
against anyone, so that your Father who is in
heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”
16"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy
face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect
their appearance so that they will be noticed by
men when they are fasting Truly I say to you,
they have their reward in full. 17"But you, when
you fast, anoint your head and wash your face
18so that your fasting will not be noticed by
men, but by your Father who is in secret; and
your Father who sees what is done in secret will
reward you.
The Master then turned His attention to fasting,
which like giving alms and praying, was
something He assumed we would do in the course
of our normal religious life. Though the there
is only one Biblically commanded fast, that of
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), there
are several minor traditional fasts throughout
the year, as well as a full fast day on the 9th
of Av. Fasting allows believers the
opportunity to deny our flesh, giving us the
ability to better focus ourselves in prayer. The
hunger that comes from fasting allows us to feel
a measure of the gravity of how our sin affects
our relationship to God. According to the
Master, however, fasting for the sake of being
seen, so that people can think you are
spiritual, is hypocritical. If you alter your
appearance to make it obvious that you are
fasting, then you can be assured that any
accolade you receive from people will be your
only reward. If, however, your reasons for
fasting come from a pure heart, you should make
sure that your appearance does not make it
obvious that you are indeed fasting. Fasting in
and of itself has no merit before God but if we
do fast and our heart is in the right place, God
will give His approval and will reward us for
it.
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. 20"But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not
break in or steal; 21for where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
Moving on, the Master gave us instruction on how
His disciples should manage their resources,
especially in the area of finances. Firstly, He
provided us with these maxims which emphasize
the need to invest our resources in matters that
will affect eternity. The word "treasures" could
be a reference to general resources but since He
went on to specifically teach on matters of
wealth and generosity it's likely it simply
refers to matters of finance. The dichotomy of
earth and heaven should not be understood in a
spatial sense but rather the contrast is between
things that are temporal as opposed to things
that are eternal. While one could use their
financial resources to acquire possessions, the
fact is that those possessions will either
degrade or be stolen. Instead, disciples of the
Messiah should be those that use their resources
to build God's kingdom, a kingdom that will last
for eternity. In regards to ourselves, we should
use our finances for the necessities of life,
using what remains towards matters that will
enable people to embrace God and the ways of His
kingdom. Where you invest your financial
resources indicates where your heart is; what we
do with our money shows what's important to us.
As evidence that a true heart change has
occurred, to demonstrate that their treasure is
in heaven, some may need to sell all but the
necessities, as the Master said in Mark 10:21:
"One thing you lack: go and sell all you
possess and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
22"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then
if your eye is clear, your whole body will be
full of light. 23"But if your eye is bad, your
whole body will be full of darkness. If then the
light that is in you is darkness, how great is
the darkness!
In ancient Jewish thought, to say that someone
had a "clear eye" was to say that they were
generous. Conversely, to say that someone had a
"bad eye" was to say that they were stingy (cf.
Proverbs 28:22). In this way then, in
these sayings, the Master was simply further
commenting on which type of people His disciples
should be in regards to finances. Here the
Master used a lamp to illustrate the difference
between a generous and a stingy person. In the
same way that light spreads and illuminates, a
person with a giving heart will obviously be
generous in their actions. On the other hand, a
person who is selfish, stingy or greedy will be
like a light source that gives out darkness. If
the very source which is supposed to bring light
actually brings darkness, it will only result in
utter darkness. In other words, if a person has
heart that is self-serving, the inevitable
actions of such a person will likewise be
self-serving. Once again the Master's teachings
cause us to examine our hearts, making sure they
are in-line with God's will and wisdom.
24"No one can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will
be devoted to one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and wealth. 25"For this reason
I say to you, do not be worried about your life,
as to what you will eat or what you will drink;
nor for your body, as to what you will put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothing?
With matters of finance in mind, the Master
taught that no one can serve two masters, with
the word "serve" more accurately being
translated as "be a slave to." The very concept
of a slavery demands that the slave shows
nothing but full, unbridled devotion to their
master and no one else. In this way, when it
specifically comes to God and wealth, we must
show absolute devotion to God alone. Wealth in
and of itself is not bad, but when one is
consistently concerned about building their
finances for purposes not related to things of
God, that person is being a slave to money
rather than God. Further to that, since you
cannot serve two masters, the Master commands us
to not be worried about life, specifically in
regards to matters of food, drink and clothing.
It is not that we should not think about how we
will acquire these basic necessities of life;
it's that we shouldn't be anxious about them. If
our lives are filled with anxiety over how we
will be fed and clothed, we are no longer
trusting in HaShem to provide for us; our prayer
for God to give us our daily bread will not have
been from a heart of faith. Life is about
displaying godliness not about concerning
yourself over what to eat or wear.
26"Look at the birds of the air, that they do
not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet
your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not
worth much more than they? 27"And who of you by
being worried can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why are you worried about clothing?
Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they
do not toil nor do they spin, 29yet I say to you
that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed
himself like one of these. 30"But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive
today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace,
will He not much more clothe you? You of little
faith!
The Master then gave several illustrations on
how ensure that we do not get caught up in being
anxious over the necessities of life, so we can
focus on serving God. Firstly, birds do not have
to labour for food but sure enough, whenever a
bird looks for food, because of God's provision,
they find it. How much more so should we as
those who are God's very children be confident
that God will always provide for us. The Master
is not saying that we should become lazy and
simply wait around for food to show up. Indeed,
a method of God's provision is giving us the
ability to work and to cultivate the resources
He's given us to produce food. The point,
however, is that we should always trust that God
will provide us the food we need each day, no
matter what the method. Secondly, we shouldn’t
think that there are things we can do to
lengthen our life span. Surely there are things
we can do to increase the quality of lives but
being anxiously concerned with things that we
think might enable us to live longer is not in
line with the life of faith. Thirdly, in regards
to clothing, the Master would have us consider
flowers, how they do nothing to be clothed and
yet they are more beautiful then even the most
lavish king of all history. If something as
temporary as flowers is clothed with such beauty
how much more so will God clothe His own
children. Put quite simply, being anxious and
devoting our energy to worrying about the
necessities of life is a demonstration of little
faith. Once again faith is not simply a matter
of belief but it is borne out by our actions;
one who says that they have faith in God and yet
does not trust Him to sustain us is deceived or
a deceiver. It's only when we live our lives
with concern over the things of God rather than
things which God has promised to provide for us
can we be known as people of true faith.
31"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we
eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we
wear for clothing?' 32"For the Gentiles eagerly
seek all these things; for your heavenly Father
knows that you need all these things. 33"But
seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you. 34"So
do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will
care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own.
Since God takes care of birds and the lilies of
the field and since human beings are more
important than those things, we should never
question whether or not we will eat, drink or be
clothed. It is those who are
completely
outside of the faith, those who do not know God,
who concern themselves to the point of anxiety
with the necessities of life. Not so for
believers, for Paul says that “if we
have food and covering, with these we shall
be content” (1 Timothy 6:8). God
knows that we need those things and He will
provide them for us, leaving us to concerns
ourselves with building His kingdom and living
out His righteousness. The phrase “seek first
His kingdom and His righteousness” is a
present-tense, continuous imperative which means
that we must always place the things of God
before our own needs. God’s kingdom and His
righteousness is nothing less than living out
God’s commandments and enabling others to do the
same. In this way, the Master is reiterating how
we can be great in the kingdom of heaven (cf.
5:19) and in addition to that, we have this
promise that if we do devote ourselves to
keeping and teaching God’s commandments, all of
life’s necessities will be provided for us.
Since that is the case, we should never be
anxious over our future in regards to sustenance
and clothing. The fact is our future is in God’s
hands, so we should focus on what He wants us to
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