A Light to the Nations

How can I preach when I’m not permitted to speak?

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

Hello and welcome to episode 5 of A Light to the Nations. I’m your host, Fr. Fred Shaheen.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5-7 constitute a teaching that is commonly referred to as the sermon on the Mountain. In that section of the gospel, Jesus ascends a mountain, he is seated, and his disciples come to him. Then, he opens his mouth and begins to teach them. The detail that Jesus is seated, in the position of the teacher, and delivering the words to his disciples from a mountain, à la Moses, is significant. There is a direct corollary in fact between Moses receiving instruction from the Lord on Mount Sinai in and delivering it to the Israelites, and Jesus opening his mouth and teaching his disciples here in Matthew. In both cases, the instruction is one of a covenant arrangement. Notice how in Matthew, the sermon is addressed to Jesus’ disciples, of whom it says they came to him, and not to the crowds. Just as in Exodus, the Torah (or words of instruction) are given by God to Moses to deliver to the sons of Israel. In both instances, what is taught are words of instruction to a people who belong to God, who are on the receiving end of His saving activity; for both groups, it is obedience to that instruction that defines them as belonging to God; and also what allows them to continue in the state of being graceful recipients of the gift; in Exodus, it’s the deliverance from a life of servitude under pharaoh in Egypt and the gift of inheritance of the earth of promise in Canaan; in Matthew, it is reconciliation to God through the forgiveness of sins and, ultimately, victory over even death. In both cases - Moses and Jesus - the teacher lays out the terms of the covenant. If you believe you are saved from slavery in Egypt by the hand of the Lord your God, then this is how you are to behave. And we get the Torah, beginning with the Ten Commandments. If you believe your sins are forgiven and you are being freed from the tyranny of death - then this is how you, my disciples, are to behave in the world. And we get Jesus’ sermon on the mountain, beginning with the Beatitudes.  

So the purpose of Jesus’ sermon in Matthew is to teach his disciples how they ought to act if they in fact are his disciples. In the middle of Jesus’ discourse, he gives instructions on how to give alms, how to pray and how to fast. In his teaching on prayer, Jesus tells the disciples that they are to address God as father; to expect the coming of his kingdom and submit everything to the doing of his will. This doing of his will - “Thy will be done” as it is worded in the Lord’s Prayer - is key. It is only in the hearing and doing the will of God that the disciples of Jesus can be called sons of God, that they can even dare to address him as “father.” Literarily, the Lord’s Prayer occupies an important place in the sermon on the mountain. It’s in the exact middle of the discourse that covers chapters 5-7, what biblical scholars like to call the chiastic center. 

Just as the Lord’s prayer is given a prominent place in the center of the teaching, similarly Jesus’ teaching on almsgiving (or doing charitable deeds) is given its own priority in chapter 6, in that it is addressed first, before both prayer and fasting.

“But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly (Matthew 6:3-4). 

In all three, almsgiving, prayer and fasting, the basic rule is the same - don’t do it for show, don’t do it to look pious in front of men, but do it privately and with sincerity before God.  

“But you, when you pray, (A)go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you [a]openly.” (6:6)

“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you [f]openly.” (17-18)

Unlike prayer and fasting, almsgiving isn’t a matter exclusively between the doer of the deed and God. More specifically, it involves the relationship of the doer with God as expressed in concrete behavior toward others.  

There’s a story about a Saint who used to keep money on hand to give to the poor in a purse in different denominations - singles, 5s, 10s and 20s in random order. When he would reach into the purse to give to someone, without looking he couldn’t tell what he was grabbing. So when he gave, his left hand literally didn’t know - nor did he himself -  what the right hand was doing. He thus acted with complete trust, not in his own discernment or assessment of the need, but that God himself would provide the thing needed for the person through his concrete act of obedience to the commandment. 

Oftentimes we have difficulty reconciling this aspect of Jesus’ instruction about almsgiving with his words which appear earlier in the sermon, “let your light so shine before men that men see your good works and glorify your father in heaven” (5:16). We sometimes only focus on the discretion of our charity - don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing - so that we end up doing nothing out of concern that it somehow become known; we might end up eliminating all matters concerning giving money and doing acts of charity in, for example, a parish setting, because we think no one is supposed to know about it! This is absurd to say the least, and stems from a misunderstanding of the scriptural teaching. 

How is one to reconcile the teaching to “let your light so shine before men” in Matthew 5:16 with the instruction to do your acts of charity in secret in 6:4?

I want to use a real-life example to illustrate how to understand the totality of the biblical teaching on charitable acts, particularly as it is given in this part of the New Testament. Shortly after the musician Prince died in 2016, a news story was published about his philanthropy. During his lifetime, the Minneapolis native received countless professional accolades. But few people knew much about Prince the person. This article revealed not only that Prince gave often and generously, but that his practice of giving adhered strictly to three principles:

A few years ago, while I was writing for a blog, I had the opportunity to interview one of Prince’s musical protégées and write her story. I asked her what was the one thing she would want people to know about her former mentor. And without hesitation, she said, his philanthropy. Since Prince was known as both an unparalleled genius in the studio and an exhilarating performer on stage, this response surprised me. Taja Sevelle told me that Prince took the biblical teaching of Matthew 6:4 -do not do your charitable deeds before men - so seriously that he didn’t want anything made public during his lifetime. But, she said, now that he was gone, she thought people needed to know because it might inspire others to do the same. In my story, I acknowledged the reason for Prince’s giving in secret with a reference to Matthew 6:4; I also supported Taja’s conviction that “people needed to know” by quoting the teaching in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.” When the story was published on the blog, Taja, herself a student of biblical teaching, told me how pleased she was that I made the connection between the two verses in Matthew.

In Matthew 5:16, Jesus is elaborating on his instruction to the disciples to be light in the world. When we hear the Bible in its totality, there is no contradiction between Matthew 5:16 and 6:4. Interestingly, it is in John, the other gospel that refers to itself in the text specifically as a book, that we hear, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.” That’s chapter 8:12.  As his students, the disciples are expected to follow Jesus; they are to, like him, seek first the kingdom of Heaven and fully submit to the will of God; in doing so they are allowed to call God father just as Jesus himself does. And so accordingly, they must become as light in the world, and they must let that light shine in the world so that men see it. But the outcome is not for glory of the disciples, just as it wasn’t for the glory of Prince Rogers Nelson, but for the glory of God alone: “Let your light so shine before men, (V)that they may see your good works and…here comes the punchline…glorify your Father in heaven.”

So if one is to the follow the commandments of the scriptural God given in the scriptural teaching, the heart of which is to love God with your whole heart, soul and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself - on these two hang all the law and the prophets, according to Jesus in Matthew 22:40 -  then charitable deeds must be done, and they must be done in secret, that is, not for the praise of men. But at the same time as light before men for the glory of God.

This sounds like a conundrum. How am I supposed to be a light if I have to do my deeds in secret? It’s only a conundrum if we letting our light shine should be fine for a self-serving purpose rather than for the glory of God; if we do acts of charity to outwardly appear before men as a person who does acts of charity. But, if we act only according to the commandment in Scripture to love God with our whole heart, soul and strength; and enact that through love of the needy neighbor without boundaries, conditions and without sounding a trumpet before men - without, in a manner of speaking, the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing - then we are not only allowed to be light and let it shine, we are commanded to do so!

My professor of Scripture has repeatedly warned his students against teaching others through their notes on his lectures. Write down exactly what I said and just repeat it verbatim! he bellows. And he means it. Do not filter it through your own understanding of it, through your own mind which, alas, is not scriptural. And yet, in another breath that same professor promotes the teaching and preaching of scripture, encouraging even the publication of this podcast. Once again, does this present a conundrum? I mean, How am I supposed to preach if I’m not allowed to speak? It’s only a conundrum if I understand teaching and preaching as saying whatever I want to say. But as a teacher and preacher of Scripture, I am not permitted to do that. Indeed, it would be better for me not to speak than to open my mouth and just say whatever I want to say. As the classic example of this, we have the prophets in the Old Testament. Notice this gradation we hear among the latter prophets: while Isaiah worries about what he is going to say, Jeremiah is given the exact words to say by God himself; and by the time we get to Ezekiel, God doesn’t allow him to even speak except for his words that he himself puts into his mouth via the written scroll which he gives the prophet to eat! It’s phenomenal. Hear Ezekiel chapter 2 verses 9 and 10:

 

9 Now when I looked, there was (O)a hand stretched out to me; and behold, (P)a scroll of a book was in it. 10 Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.”

And in the beginning of chapter 3 we hear this:

3 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; (A)eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. (3:3-4)

And later in the same chapter, God reinforces the necessity of Ezekiel only speaking exactly what God says; and only when God commands that it be spoken:

“And you, O son of man, surely (AB)they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. 26 (AC)I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and (AD)not be [c]one to rebuke them, (AE)for they are a rebellious house. 27 (AF)But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, (AG)‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 3:25-27).

Significantly, the Spirit of God addresses Ezekiel as “Son of Man;” and in the gospels, Jesus applies this  same title to himself. Just as Ezekiel ate the scroll containing the words of God and regurgitated them to the house of Israel, Jesus recapitulates what was written beforehand in the Law of Moses and in the prophets in his teaching in the sermon on the mountain. 

17 (X)“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19).

So in order to be disciples of Jesus, we must hear and obey the teaching in the sermon on the mountain.  Right after he tells them to be light and to let their light shine before men, Jesus says that greatness in the kingdom of Heaven entails first doing what Scripture commands and then teaching the same to others. Notice the priority here: doing first, and then teaching. 

I want to relate another anecdote related to Prince coming from the perspective of a fan. In the summer 2012, Prince was scheduled to play 3 shows in Chicago; it was billed as the Welcome 2 Chicago Tour. But the trek never went beyond those 3 concerts, which was very odd. At the time, I and other fans voiced our criticism saying Prince really needs a good manager to handle his business. To many people it appeared like he just got bored with the idea and dropped the tour after 3 shows. I mean, who schedules a tour and plays three nights during the week - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - all in the same city and then…nothing? Years later I realized that the Welcome 2 Chicago residency was simply a front to raise money for Rebuild the Dream, a cause that his friend Van Jones alerted him to and that he decided to get behind. So Prince had three nights booked at the United Center in Chicago and sold out 22,000 seats each night at premium ticket prices. He basically generated a ton of money by doing what he loved to do - playing music - and then quietly gave it away to benefit inner city youth in Chicago. What looked like indecisiveness and poor planning from a fan’s perspective was in reality a spontaneous gesture of philanthropy of the highest order; and in conformity to the biblical teaching, in which the left hand has no clue as to what the right is doing. 

If there ever was a conundrum, it is solved. Now let us get on with the business of hearing what scripture says so that we may go and do.  

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