In ancient Rome, religion was not a matter of devotion but precision. The gods did not care if you loved them. What they demanded was strict adherence to ritual formulas. For example, Cicero recorded that religious sacrifices sometimes had to be repeated due to minor ritual errors. A priest may have mumbled a word, an unexpected noise came from the crowd, a sacred object was misplaced, or an animal resisted being led to the altar. Anything could be a bad omen and a reason for the gods to reject an offering or deny a request.
Livy, the historian who lived at the same time as Jesus, said the Roman Senate once ordered gladiatorial games and sacrifices to be repeated because procedural errors had been made. They were worried that even a tiny mistake would anger the gods and leave the empire without divine favor. In this way, most ancient religions viewed prayer like magical incantations. The right words, spoken in the right place, at the right time, in the right order, and with the right accessories would manipulate the deity to act on your behalf.
Jesus presents a completely different vision of prayer in the Sermon on the Mount because he knows the true God cannot be controlled by anything or anyone. Rather than the manipulation of magic, Jesus compares prayer to the relationship between a father and child. What father would give his child a stone when he asks for bread, Jesus asks, or a serpent when they ask for a fish? The love of even the very best father is imperfect, but they still know how to give good gifts to their children. Our heavenly Father’s love is without limit or shadow, Jesus said, so how much more will he give good things to us when we ask him?
In this teaching, Jesus rejects two very common ideas held by most religious people. First, he is rejecting the popular vision of a capricious, malevolent god. Our Father in the heavens does not begrudgingly bless his people. Instead, he wants to bless us. In fact, it gives him joy (see Luke 12:32). This is because we are not slaves in God’s household hoping he will take notice of us and offer a scrap from his table. We are daughters and sons who are invited to his table to share in the abundance of his home.
Second, Jesus is rejecting the common belief that blessings must be manipulated or coerced from God through precise rituals or demonstrations of piety. These qualities of ancient Roman paganism are still very common among Christians today. Very often, religious people assume God’s goodness will only be available to them if they attend church more regularly, give more sacrificially, or pray more earnestly. Rather than seeing God as a loving Father, they engage him like an erratic child who must be bribed into obedience. Not only does this view violate the clear evidence of God’s kindness, but it also sinfully assumes we possess the power to manipulate him like a puppet on a string.
Instead, a correct vision of God and ourselves should lead to a completely different way of engagement. That is why Jesus invites us to simply ask him for what we need. Unlike other religious traditions, Jesus bestows upon us the dignity of children rather than the humiliation of slaves or the arrogance of magicians.
Daily Scripture
Weekly Prayer
From Thomas à Kempis (1380 - 1471)
How long can we love life, when it holds so much bitterness and brings so much sorrow? Indeed, how can we call the daily struggle true life, when it brings physical pain and spiritual sadness in equal measure? Yet people cling to sinful activities as a source of comfort. They grasp desperately at the passing pleasures and vanities of the world. They do not readily abandon the desires of the body and the lusts of the eye.
Lord, strengthen me with heavenly courage, that I may fight against pleasures and vanities that harm the soul. I do not expect or ask that trials and sorrows should cease. I ask only that, in your strength, I resist the temptation to seek consolation in sin. For I know that only by clinging to the gospel of righteousness, and by grasping at your eternal grace, can I ever experience true and lasting joy.
Amen.
Thank you for this reminder, just what I needed.
As we approach Father's Day, may those who have never known the kindness of a loving father find comfort in these reminders. Thanks. So much of the faith of my upbringing still insists that God behaves more like an angry tyrant father reaching to remove his belt, and only the good kids who never step out of line are safe.