Printable Handout

1. The term often translated “hypocrite” is the Greek word hupŏkritēs which literally translates to “actor.” Why would Jesus be calling them actors?

2. What kind of reward are these “actors” getting?

3. What is so wrong about these things? Shouldn’t we do things like pray very publicly so others can see our faith?

4. Verse 8 mentions that God already knows what we need, so why bother praying then? What is prayer for?

5. What kind of format should our prayers take based on Jesus’ example here?

6. What is a condition of our salvation that is mentioned in verse 15? Why is this a condition?

7. How can we apply this passage to our lives? How ought we live in light of Jesus’ words here?

Before you meet, be sure to send out the questions and the passage a few days before. 

When you meet, start with some fellowship. This could just be a conversation or a meal, it doesn't matter too much what the medium is, what matters is that your group is actively building relationships with each other.

Discussion Guide

1. The term often translated “hypocrite” is the Greek word hupŏkritēs which literally translates to “actor.” Why would Jesus be calling them actors?

   • These are people who are looking to put on a show, they are performing for a crowd. In stark contrast the disciples of Jesus are to not act for a crowd but instead to perform for the glory of God alone. 

2. What kind of reward are these “actors” getting?

   • They get attention and praise from people, not from God. People see your actions while God sees your heart.

3. What is so wrong about these things? Shouldn’t we do things like pray very publicly so others can see our faith?

   • These aren't commands to not pray in public nor to not give in public (if it were so then our churches would have some serious issues because we pray corporately and most churches pass around a plate for tithes). Rather the emphasis is this: why are we doing these things? If the answer is not something along the lines of "I'm doing this because I love God" or "because I love my neighbor" then there is a major issue that needs to be rectified. 

4. Verse 8 mentions that God already knows what we need, so why bother praying then? What is prayer for?

   • Notice that the first thing Jesus does is not ask forgiveness nor ask for provision. Rather Jesus starts off with praise and submission to God's will. This is the purpose of prayer! We pray not because we need to ask God for a laundry list of items, instead we pray because we are seeking and submitting to the will of God. 

5. What kind of format should our prayers take based on Jesus’ example here?

   • We should first praise God, then submit to and seek His will, then ask for what we need (which is an expression of dependence on Him), then pray for forgiveness (an expression of humility), and finish off with a plea for God to keep us on the right path because we can't trust ourselves. 

   • Ultimately Jesus' prayer here is a very humbling experience. It's not at all about what I want, but it is entirely about humbling myself before the creator of the universe and submitting entirely to Him.

6. What is a condition of our salvation that is mentioned in verse 15? Why is this a condition?

   • It is simple reciprocity. God rightfully expects us to show others the same forgiveness that He shows to us. If you give a child a popsicle and then watch him steal another popsicle from another child, you would be right to reprimand the child and take away both popsicles from him. This is even more true for our salvation. Our sins toward God are far greater than whatever grudge we are holding against someone else, so how can we expect to be forgiven by God if we are not willing to forgive a smaller offense.

7. How can we apply this passage to our lives? How ought we live in light of Jesus’ words here?

   • This is going to be highly dependent on your group and what you all were able to pull out of the passage.

This passage is a fairly popular one and is very indicative of Matthew's gospel focusing hard in bashing the religious elites of the day: the Pharisees. It's easy to see that the hypocrites Jesus mentions here are most likely the Pharisees, especially considering Jesus' later words to about about the Pharisees. For more Pharisee bashing see Mt. 23.

Giving to the Poor and Prayer (v. 1-6)

Jesus gives to examples of living out your faith that have very similar meaning. One revolves around giving to the poor and needy, and the other is prayer. Both are treated here as religious practices (for giving to the poor as a religious practice see Dt. 15:7-11). Both of these are things we, as Christians, are meant to do and the following of these things stems far back into the Old Testament. Jesus here affirms these practices as ones we should absolutely continue doing in our churches, but we need to be careful about how we go about it. 

Jesus gives a term here that we render into English as Hypocrite. In reality this is a transliteration of the Greek word ὑποκριταὶ (hupŏkritai) which more literally translates to "actor." Jesus is intentionally calling these people actors because their outwards actions are inherently a lie and a performance. These men give to the poor not because the care about their fellow man, nor do they care about giving God glory by banishing iniquity from their community. Rather they give because they want to be seen giving. They want to social credit and that's all they get.

The same is true for their prayer lives. These are people who pray loud and proud, not because they want to be heard by God, but rather they want to be heard by onlookers. In a very egregious way, they are not praying to God but are praying instead to the crowd. 

Now does this mean that we are to never give nor pray in public? May it never be! Corporate prayer is an essential tool of the church. It is powerful what happens when we come together as a community to submit to God's will and corporately trust in God to meet the needs of our communities. Similarly it is also powerful when our faith community comes together in a financial way to meet the needs of those in our community. To suggest that we abstain from doing these things publicly would be to remove all food pantries, soup kitchens, food drives, collections for families that have suffered fires or natural disasters, and the many other charities your church might support. 

What Jesus is getting at here is not the how or what we are doing, but rather it's the why behind what we are doing. If we donate a large amount to a food drive to show off just how charitable we are, then we fall under Jesus' condemnation here. If we donate simply because of social pressure, we also fall under Jesus' condemnation here. We must donate because we love God and because we love our neighbor. Our motivation for something like a food drive needs to be eradicating iniquity from our communities. 

The Lord's Prayer (v. 7-15)

Jesus now focuses in on prayer, and the first thing he does is mention how the pagans pray. They would repeat themselves endlessly in phrases that ultimately became meaningless. Think back to the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. They prayed and prayed all day, to the point that Elijah (the prophet of Yahweh) started heckling them and suggesting why their god isn't responding to them. Yet when Elijah prayed to Yahweh, He answers immediately. We need not try to get God's attention, we already have it.

So we know that God is listening, how then should we pray? Jesus lays out a very good sample prayer here. We could follow it exactly, but we can also take it as an archetype we ought to follow as well. 

Jesus starts by praising the Father. He says "Hallowed be Your name." To hallow something is to make it holy or sacred. So Jesus is saying already that the Father's name be declared holy and sacred. Then Jesus continues the prayer by submitting to God. He says "your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven." This is very much like the prayer that Jesus prays in Gethsemane much later on, and the idea is very similar to what we discussed back in the temptations of Jesus. In this submission we also see a plea for divine providence, that God would give us just what we need for the day because He is the great provider.

Before we continue on I want to highlight what Jesus says in these three statements (out of five overall). These three statements are not ones asking for things, because asking is not really what prayer is about. It's about submitting to God. Many churches today miss this and end up asking for a laundry list of items. Instead they should be submitting to God, asking that His will be done in their midst, that He might establish His kingdom and maybe we can help out some. 

Jesus then continues on with a very core teaching. He prays "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" and then mentions afterwards in v. 14-15 that those who refuse to forgive others will NOT be forgiven themselves. 

To make this point I want to give you a parable from my own life. I work as an Alt Ed English 9 Teacher. I have a student whom we will call Susie. Susie opened the door to the classroom after I just announced that I was going to write up the next person who opened the door. She claims that she didn't hear me say that, so I decide to show her some grace and give her an extra chance. About five minutes later my other student, whom we will call John, opens the door for whatever reason. Susie then loudly demands that I write up John. I then have to sit there and explain to Susie that if I write up John then I'll have to write her up as well because she broke the very same rule. This very situation is exactly what Jesus is talking about!

Jesus then finishes the prayer by asking the Father to deliver us from evil. This is essentially "God I'm sorry, I messed up. I don't every want to do that again, but I'm to weak and need You to help me not mess up anymore." This is again submission and meekness.

Conclusions

Ultimately Jesus here gets to the heart of the conflict between true faith and high religion. Jesus here condemns putting on a show, on just doing religious things for the purpose of gaining social credit, which is high religion. Instead Jesus wants true faith from us, to do these religious things with the intention of pleasing God alone and submitting to HIm. That's what we need to do, it shouldn't matter who sees what you do, because the only one who matters is God and He's already looking.

Bibliography

France, R. T. Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.

Turner, David, and Darrell L. Bock. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 11: Matthew and Mark. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005.