Practicing the Hidden Life
Sermon Recap
What if the most formative moments of your life are shaped in hidden corners when no one else is watching? What if that hidden place is where your heart is actually set free?
Jesus warns his disciples to “beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen.” In the 1st century context, the Roman patron-client relationship would have been well known. The system was built on visibility and was how power functioned.
We know, too, what it is like to live in a culture where it seems like everything we do is monitored. And if everything is visible, we feel like everything is being evaluated. So we learn how to cultivate and curate our public image.
We bring this constant evaluation into spiritual things, too. We feel like generosity is something we should do more often. Prayer is something we really should be better at. We keep an internal scorecard for our spiritual practices and feel like we are always behind.
Jesus calls his disciples to think about 4 things: our worship, our audience, our secret life, and our reward.
Beginning with the practice of generosity, Jesus frames giving as an act of worship. Giving to the poor is giving to God himself. In a culture of honor and shame, giving in secret doesn’t just protect yourself against pride, it also protects the dignity of the other person.
Jesus raises the odd standard of giving in such a way that your left hand doesn’t even know what your right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3-4). Perhaps this is pointing to the reality of giving becoming such a normal part of your life that it is no longer even noticed.
The practices of giving and prayer and fasting are formative. In fact they are powerful enough to de-form us if we’re not careful of who our audience is.
Jesus warns his disciples against being like the hypocrites. That word in Jesus time pointed to stage actors, those who wore masks and performed. Success for an actor is marked by the applause of their audience. Jesus says we should instead seek the reward of our Father who sees in secret.
When we live oriented to our Father who sees in secret (vs 4, 6, 18), we are actually set free. Instead of the pressure of performing, of cultivating an image, of managing our reputation – we find instead a God who fully knows us AND fully loves us. We have to let go of our performing, but we will find that this is deeply freeing. To be fully known and fully loved means we don’t have to perform any longer.
Jesus says the Father who sees in secret will reward us. It might sound transactional, but it’s not a bribe. Jesus isn’t anti-reward, He’s anti-cheap-reward. Freed from chasing approval, applause, or status, we can find the reward of a hidden life of communion with God. In essence, Jesus is telling his disciples to not trade the freedom of the Father’s loving gaze for slavery to earning the crowd’s applause.
This is a life that Jesus doesn’t just call us into. He himself lived it. He lived for 30 years in obscurity before his public ministry. It wasn’t preparation for the real thing. That life is the real thing. He is inviting His disciples to learn the kind of life He himself lived.
Entering Conversation
1. Reflect back on what you heard in this sermon, or on the thoughts that have come afterwards. What stood out to you, either because it was new/interesting, or because you felt like the Spirit directed your attention to it?
2. What might it look like to respond in some way to what you heard? Particularly, do you sense an invitation from the Spirit – or the desire of your own heart – to some part of what Toshi called “the hidden life”?
(NB – this is where community can be helpful. Sometimes we don’t know what to do with what we heard, but others can help us identify ways of responding. Feel free to help each other, graciously and gently, listening for what the Spirit may be prompting.)
3. Close this time with prayer, inviting God to continue the conversation with you through the week.