This section of writing all has the same point: do not so something spiritual for God so that others can see it. In verses 1-4, Jesus talks about almsgiving. Verses 5-8 are about prayer and 16-18 are about fasting. We give money to the church because God calls us to. We pray because we are called to. We fast because we are called to. But as in many things in life, when we do something that is good, we want others to see. We want to know how our actions make others see us. We want to be held up high for our contributions. We want to feel better about ourselves by showing off what we have done. We desire to be marked as important.
Jesus is telling us not to do this. Yes, he tells us to “let our light shine (Matthew 5:16),” but we don’t need to let it shine to draw attention to ourselves. Read the end of each of the sections:
“Your Father who sees in secret will repay you (4b).”
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him (8).”
“Your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you (18).”
As humans, it is almost impossible not to have the “did you see what I did” attitude from childhood. As young children, we have the “mom watch me” and know that we get attention from it. Especially when it’s a first time to accomplish something, or we did something good. So it is almost ingrained in us to look for praise when we do something big, whether for ourselves or others.
Social media makes this super easy, to a fault. It so easy to take a selfie of something we or our kids have accomplished and post it on Facebook or Twitter, so we can get “likes” from our friends and family. I try to use Facebook mostly to have pictures of events of my kids so I can share them with family all over. Birthdays, holidays, first days of school pictures to send to friends and family when we have lived in 4 different places since they were born becomes tedious via text or email, so it makes sense to use a platform that my family and friends are on, right? But I can see this getting into Jesus’s message if I post to much for ‘look what my child did’ or ‘look what I did’, then waiting to see how many people notice.
We should be proud of accomplishments, as long as we remember who got us there. But when it comes to the bigger picture, when we do things for God as his Christian servants, we need to not blast those things out for attention. The desire for attention will be paid back by God. Let God’s light shine through you so others may see, and through the light alone, they will turn to God. Peace be with you.
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