Difference between revisions of "Matt 6:6-10"

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The New Testament > Matthew > Chapter 6

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 6

Building on the commentary at verse 5, one must explore in this verse especially the radical subjectivity at work in the Spirit of Christian prayer. A counter-text from the Old Testament might well open the possibility of interpreting this radical subjectivity clearly: Ezra 9:5-15. In that passage, Ezra has just learned of the intermarriage of the Judahites returning from captivity with the semi-Israelites who were left behind. In response, "having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God" (verse 5). Preparing to pray in response to the situation, Ezra makes--and according to the Law of Moses--rather a show of things. But the show marks the point: the prayer that follows is not for God but for the listeners. He begins his prayer poetically: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God" (verse 6), after which he uses the language of court flattery, as in verse 8: "And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage." The prayer goes on and on in this same spirit, and Ezra never asks anything of the Lord, and certainly he never praises Him in the words of the Israelite liturgies (only in the language of court flattery--learned in Persia?). By the time Ezra concludes the prayer, all he seems to have accomplished is to make absolutely clear to his listeners that they cannot stand before God in their "sin": "O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this" (verse 15). As one reads this prayer carefully, it becomes quite obvious that the prayer is no prayer, that there is no praying, no petition and no exultation. It is, rather, a tool to accomplish particular "political" ends (inter-human ends). And in fact, recent biblical scholarship has increasingly seen reason to criticize Ezra's political agenda (a topic that can only be discussed at length in the commentary at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah).

What Jesus commands the people to do in this sermon stands in stark contrast to what Ezra does in his prayer: Jesus teaches the people to pray in a radically secret way: "enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray." It may well be that Jesus had Ezra's prayer (but certainly prayers just like it) in mind when He spoke the words of verse 5. The Spirit of Christian prayer is, over and against Ezra's prayer, one of radical subjectivity, of an incredibly individual relation to God. This individuality is heralded in the word "Father," which appears twice in this verse, and becomes focal at the beginning of the "Pater Noster" Jesus provides a few verses later. Of central significance is this radically subjective and individual relation to the Father in prayer, and it deserves some careful attention. Perhaps what most needs attention is how this radically subjective characterization of prayer, as taught by the Savior, changes all prayers, even those to be offered in public and "before the world" (see commentary at verse 5): if Jesus is not here offering "rules" for prayer, He is offering a radical reinterpretation (or restoring the true interpretation, as it shall be seen) of prayer, one that recasts prayer as a work to be done within the Christian logic of superabundance.

Hence, of radical subjectivity: the theme is not unique--and this must be noticed from the very start--to the New Testament. The radical subjectivity of secret prayer is a theme that runs through the texts of the Old Testament prophets. Perhaps it is most explicitly explored in the Book of Jonah, but it is implicitly present in a number of the prophet books (Habakkuk is also a good place to explore the meaning of radically subjective prayer). The starting point, of course, for any question of radical subjectivity is its origin, that is, how it is that a radical subjectivity comes into being in the first place. Two answers immediately present themselves, two answers that are, in the end, closely tied: there must be a naming of the subject, and the subject must be called. The two are closely tied in an obvious way: the naming is the calling, for the subject is called into radical subjectivity by a name. If Christian prayer, then, is marked by a radical subjectivity, it can only be understood as a response to a call, as a counter-naming: precisely because one is to "pray to thy Father which is in secret" (one must notice that He, too, is radically subjective--and that because of His name: Father), one has been called by the name of the Son, has been called as a son in the name of the Son.

Obviously these comments are quickly becoming an excursus, and it would be best to locate any further detail in commentary on a verse that more specifically deals with these themes. But it is necessary to recognize the underpinnings of the radical subjectivity which characterizes Christian prayer: as the Son to the Father, and hence, called by the name of the Son, as a son, one prays without hypocrisy.

Verse 9

Tension with verse 6? There is an obvious difficulty if this verse is read as following verse 6: if one is to pray entirely on one's own, apart from everyone else, and in one's very closet, why on earth is one to begin prayer with the word "Our"? The point should be obvious: prayer is at once a question of radical subjectivity and a question of community. There are at least two undeniable consequences of this juxtaposition: one's prayer, offered at a remove from all other individuals, is a sort of intercessory prayer on behalf of all sons, of all Israel; moreover, prayer is inevitably communal, but communal prayer should be so profoundly subjective, so profoundly personal, that even when it is spoken in community it is spoken as if one were in one's closet.

"Hallowed be thy name." This phrase might be taken as a supplication for God to vindicate his own name (this is the approach Donald Hagner takes in the Word Biblical Commentary), or it might be taken as a supplication that others will reverence God's name (Leon Morris suggests this view in his book The Gospel According to Matthew, 1992). A third reading might be that Jesus is simply praising God's name, more of an acknowledgement that God's name should be hallowed and(/or) that Jesus, in the very act of stating this, is hallowing God's name. The ambiguity between these three readings might highlight the lack of clear separation between them: if God vindicates his own name, it would result in a reverencing of God's name. (See also Ezek 36:20-23]] for the importance of God's name being kept holy.)

Third person imperatives. The grammar in the first three requests of the Lord's prayer is 3rd person imperative (the requests switch to 2nd person imperative in verse 11). More than a mere supplication to God, it seems this request includes an implicit moral imperative: the realization of these three requests depends, at least in part, on the action of the one praying (Jesus in this case, but remember he is giving an example of how to pray). In this sense, prayer might be seen as not just a matter of requesting something from God, but as a step toward reconciling oneself with God's will, committing onself to the cause of that which is being prayed about.

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