# On the 4th Sunday of every month, Pastor Mizuguchi gives a lecture of reflections upon, “The Sermon on the Mount.” This session today, is the ninth of the series and the lecturing text is taken from Matthew chapter 6.

1. Charities, Prayers, and Fasting

Today’s passage consists in a sandwich-like structure and its core is the verses known as the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15). We are only focusing today on Matthew verses 1-6 and 16-18. The portion of scripture regarding the Lord’s Prayer will be contemplated on another occasion.

Among the first 6 verses the most essential is: “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

For Jewish people of that era “acts of righteousness” included essentially charities, prayers and fasting. And Jesus teaches how those acts should be practiced, in comparison with those who act in a hypocritical way. As we progress, more will be revealed about hypocritical conduct.

1) Charities: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:2).

2) Prayers: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:5).

3) Fasting: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:16).

The word “Hypocrite” reminds us first of people who pretend to be good and kind by concealing their malicious thinking or malevolent conduct. However, its original meaning was not exactly so. The word which is translated into ‘hypocrites’ is hupokrisis in Greek, which means ¡Æacting out a theatrical part,¡Ç to some extent meaning ‘actors’.

Actors play various roles on the stage drawing appreciation from the audience. Their prior concern is how spectators evaluate their performance. And those who seek before anything else appreciation from others, tend to live their life as if they were actors, playing a role on the stage.

Jesus called such people, ‘hypocrites.” Meaning, if we are always worrying about what other people are thinking, our personality and conduct, we could easily be characterized as a ‘hypocrite.” Although these teachings of Jesus were originally directed to the Jewish people, they could easily apply to anyone. We must wonder if there has been times in our lives when we too acted hypocritically. If so, we will fully comprehend and understand these lessons today.

Matthew 6:2 tells about gifts offered seemingly benevolently but with a hypocritical purpose. Jesus criticized those people who acted hypocritically, whilst portraying themselves “to be honorable men.” The description “do not announce it with trumpets,"means do not draw attention to yourselves for doing good. In Japan, some temples and shrines have a public list of names of all who donate. In some instances, they even show the amount of money given. Their goal is to encourage charitable acts by people who seek to be recognized for their good deeds.

But Jesus says, “Don’t behave like they do. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4).

He teaches us also to free ourselves from complacency or self-consciousness. Indeed, the path to faith has traps which might catch us in a mood of complacency. Sometimes we feel arrogant satisfaction through the compliments of others. There are those who might do a favour for someone. Even though no one is told about it, sometimes the person secretly hopes the good deed will ultimately be revealed to their friends.

Moreover, if one does not express thankfulness as we imagined they might, we become disappointed, and even angry. We look for appreciation from others for our favourable gestures. But Jesus criticizes severely that kind of conduct: “to give to the needy, they announce it with trumpets in the synagogues and on the streets” (Matthew 6:2).

In contrast, Jesus compels us to seek real appreciation, the rewards given by God our heavenly Father. Those who seek public recognition and rewards through ostentatious methods are compensated with social appreciation. But such rewards are only of earthly value. We Christians must not seek human evaluations. We must focus on what is best in the sight of God. God can see all our conduct, good and bad, even if something is concealed from human eyes. And we should have no preconceived ideas of doing good just to receive compliments.

To people such as ourselves, God sent forth his only Son, Jesus Christ, who tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). God’s evaluation is based on such a great and deep mercy. “To look up to God, our Father” is to live by recognizing God’s love and mercy. By remaining in a vivid relationship with Him.

True acts of righteousness are not offering donations to the church, or to poor neighbors. Rather, it is feeling and expressing gratefulness to God, who takes care of our every need. That gratefulness must encourage us to do benevolent and charitable acts. When we conduct ourselves in this manner, we will be freed from earthly concerns, like worldly reputations and offers of appreciation. Our real rewards are only accumulated and received by the grace of God.

2. Concerning Prayer

Concerning prayer, Jesus offers further criticism: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward” (Matthew 6:5).

Indeed, they pray, but their prayers are not sincere or genuine. They wish to pray in order to publicly display their faithfulness. By publicly praying they are seeking expressions of appreciation from those who watch. Prayers must not be given for that purpose. Therefore Jesus teaches: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).

Matthew 6:7 also teaches: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” Pagans might pray continuously in a foolish or incomprehensible way, because they may think the quantity of words have more power. A similar thinking can be attributed to certain Japanese people. They try to appeal to their gods in order to obtain what they seek, by practicing ‘hundred-times-prayers’. Those attitudes seem to me a sort of extortion with verbal violence towards their gods.

In the following verse Jesus tells us who our God is, and how our relationship with him should be: “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Pagans’ gods are so far from humans that they need a lot of words to draw their attention. In contrast our Christ is always beside us, in knowing what we need even before we express them in prayer. Perhaps some might say therefore there should be no need to pray in that case.

To some extent they are right because we should pray, before all, not to obtain what we want, but to give praise and gratefulness to God for His love. We pray to communicate with God. God’s love has been, and is always with us even before the birth of Jesus. However it is thanks to Jesus Christ that we can recognize and authentically feel the power of God’s love, and enter into a relationship with Him. Our prayers must be given spontaneously as expressions of our gratefulness.

3. Concerning Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18 concern fasting. Fasting is abstaining from foods as a practice of asceticism. In early Jewish societies during the time of Jesus, fasting was sometimes recognized to be an expression of lamentation, sadness due to sin. The original purpose of fasting was to show how they are repentant of their sins. Thus the important point of the practice is not physical renunciation of food, but of spiritual repentance.

Nevertheless, as time passed by, the practice became a sort of performance to show oneself as a faithful person, a superficial manifestation of faith. In consequence, very often they intentionally simulated a suffering state during a time of fasting. Jesus criticized this tendency: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:16).

“They have received their reward in full” means they were already praised by neighbors for their apparent faithful acts. They became so complacent they did not need any further appreciation from God. But the real rewards we must seek is that of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

I chose Matthew 9:15 for today’s invocation verse: “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

The verse above was the answer to the disciples of John the Baptist, who questioned: “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14).

“The bridegroom” is a reference to Jesus himself. Disciples of Jesus did not fast because Jesus was with them. For Christians the time when Jesus remains among them is a time of festivity, filled with joy. Fasting is not appropriate for such a joyful occasion.

It is true, however, that we must be regretful and always repent of our sins. We need to recognize that Jesus came to us as the son of God, to take away our burden of sin. We are forgiven and live with hope and joy. Our sinful past is buried inside Jesus’ love.

Today we contemplated three teachings of Jesus concerning charity, prayer and fasting. All three teaches that whatever we do must always focus on God. Worldly reputation and public appreciation cannot hold much importance in the sight of God. Once we become receptive to human acclamation our behaviour tends to become hypocritical.

Naturally many churches seek earthly success, by increasing the size of their congregational membership, or to provide the church building with a huge pipe organ, for example. Those tendencies put churches at risk of becoming a simple human oragnisation - not churches of God.

We must keep in our mind the prior role of the church, given by God: to spread good news about Jesus to our neighbors. For that purpose we do not need “trumpets,” or ostentatious methods because: ” For I (the Lord Jesus) am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:1).

And finally, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). If we were thinking of a phrase to take with us, into the New Year of 2009, perhaps we could consider: Try not to be hypocritical. Be conscious of self-display, when we give, when we pray, and when we fast.