Henry Brown prayed for a way to escape. He was a slave in Richmond, Virginia, and
desperately wanted to be free. He finally felt his prayer was answered when he was
inspired by a unique idea. He had the plantation carpenter construct a box the same size
of the largest boxes that were shipped in that day. He then poked three holes in this three
foot by two foot crate, and then he got inside. The box was taken to the express office,
and from there it was taken by a baggage car to a steam boat, and finally transferred to a
wagon which brought him to Philadelphia and to freedom. There was many a time when
he longed to cry out for help, but he was resolved to be free, or to die trying. When the
people he was mailed to opened the crate, he stood up and fainted. It was a hard price to
pay, but he made his escape.
Escape is a word and experience we are all familiar with, but in the 1950's a new word
developed that we are not very familiar with: The word is inscape. It is opposite of
escape, in some ways, in that it refers, not to getting out of something, but of getting into
something. It is not a fleeing away, but a fleeing within. On the other hand, it is very
much like escape, in that its goal is also freedom. Henry Brown used escape as the means
of getting his freedom. But many could mail themselves to anywhere in the world, and
still not be free, because their slavery is of a different kind. They are like the Pharisees;
enslaved to external values.
1. What do people think of me?
2. How is my external image?
3. How can I make the outside appear right?
4. How can I win the approval of men?
Their self-esteem and worth were tied directly to their popularity with men. They
were slaves to the crowd, and this influenced every thing they did. They developed a
fish-bowl religious life, for what good was it to be religious if people did not see. The
external was everything. Whatever veneer made it look good was all that mattered. We
probably would have liked the Pharisees, for they fit the Western culture, and are far
more appealing to us than most Eastern holy men and mystics. The poet describes the
contrast of the East and West in their religious method.
In Eastern lands the holiest gents
Are those who live at least expense,
They rarely speak; they seek release
From active life in prayer and peace.
But in the Western hemisphere
A saint must catch the public ear,
And rush about, and shout and bustle
Combining holiness and hustle.
We are in a culture where the external outweighs the internal in our religious value system.
We cannot help that, but we can prevent becoming slaves to it. That is what
Jesus is teaching His disciples to do in relation to the Pharisaical external system. How
do you escape the domination of the external? Jesus says the answer is inscape. You
don't run away from it, or mail yourself off to a monastery, or a society of mystics, but
you strive for a balance by developing your inner world.
If success is pleasing God, and God is not pleased with all kinds of external forms and
activities, where the heart is far from him, than it follows that the only road to spiritual
success is the road to inner space. We are caught up in our focus on outer space, and
that is awesome and wondrous, and leads to worship, because the more we know of the
magnitude of God's creation, the more we marvel at His majesty. This is good, and it is
to be pursued, but if it is the only road we travel, God is seen as a Sovereign King, but we
miss the intimacy of knowing God as heavenly Father. This vital aspect of the God-man
relationship calls for the conquering of inner space. Jesus says we must get away from
the crowd, and get alone with God.
Alfred North Whitehead said, "Religion is what the individual does with his own
solitariness....Thus religion is solitariness, and if you are never solitary, you are never
religious." In the light of what Jesus is teaching, this is true, if we add one word-if you
are never solitary, you are never successfully religious. The Pharisees were religious, but
not successfully. There religion pleased men but not God, and so it was not successful.
Giving, praying, fasting, can all be religious activities, but only when they please God are
they successful activities, and since Jesus says they cannot please God if they are only
external, and not matters of the inner life, then it follows, no one can be a success at
anything without inscape, or getting away to within.
Let's apply this the specific need to be successful in prayer. There are several
characteristics that Jesus emphasizes that are crucial to successful prayer, but we want to
focus on the one He most stresses, and that is-
I. SUCCESSFUL PRAYER IS SECRET PRAYER.
Prayer is not primarily a social activity. It is a private matter between an individual
and God. Prayer is to the spiritual life what sex is to the marriage life. It is the secret,
private, and intimate aspect of the relationship. It is not for public display. The
Pharisees were using it for public display in both sacred and secular settings. They
prayed in the synagogues, and on the street corners. Prayer was to them a publicity stunt
that attracted the attention of men. This led to their being praised for their piety. They
were symbols in their day very much like the modern day sex-symbol. Sex is displayed in
a public way, not to enhance the marriage, and internal relationship of mates, but to
attract the attention of the crowd, and get praise and popularity.
Prayer and sex have much in common, for both are avenues of intimacy that can be
exploited, and become external tools for mass appeal. The world uses sex to get
attention, and to manipulate people into buying most everything under the sun.
Religious exploiters use prayer to do the same thing. The prayer gimmicks that have
been used to manipulate Christians could fill a box car. As the world is titillated into
thinking they will get an erotic thrill, so Christians often have the same motivation, and
they are enticed into thinking they can get a special spiritual thrill, and supernatural
answer to prayer, if we send out request to brother so and so, who will read it by the
Jordan River, or nail it to a cross in some prayer tower.
All of these pro-Pharisee prayer promotions would never get off the ground unless
there was something in human nature that loved external power. The fact is, the
Pharisees were not as bad as we often portray them. They were just like everybody else,
including us. That is why they play such a major role in New Testament teaching. When
Jesus attacks their values, we need to see that as an attack, not on a few weirdo's of
ancient history, but an attack on the natural tendency of human nature, including His
own disciples, and us.
In verse 8 Jesus says we are not to be like them. Why bother to warn his sensible and
godly followers not to be like them, unless this was the road they would tend to travel
unless they were given other guidance? Lets face it, to this day we tend to be external
rather than internal oriented, and what Jesus is teaching us here is just as relevant as the
day he spoke it. Successful prayer must be first and foremost secret prayer. It is a
matter of private communication between the believer and God. Jesus is anti-external
because externals tend to lead to idolatry.
The woman at the well tried to get Jesus into the controversy of whether it was best to
worship on the Mount in Samaria, the sacred place of the North, or the temple in
Jerusalem, the sacred place of the South. What she failed to realize was, that in so many
controversies the choices are limited to two, when often there is a third and better way.
Jesus did not choose either of these two external places. He said, "God is spirit and those
who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." In other words, the external
place of worship was not the real issue. What really matters in successful worship is the
inner spirit of the worshiper. If the spirit is right, and it is pleasing to God, one worships
more successfully in a cabin than in a Cathedral.
From the perspective of Jesus, the Christian is to be much like the turtle who carries
his sanctuary with him, and he can inscape anytime he chooses, and withdraw from the
external world to the world within. The Christian needs to take seriously some of the
Biblical imagery, and recognize that the kingdom of God is not out there in the world,
but, as Jesus said, it is within. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. That means we don't
have to go anywhere to pray, for we have our own temple with us all the time. How often
Christian get into such strange controversies. Some struggle with the issue, should the
church be left open for prayer? Some said no, for thieves and vandals could come in and
do damage. Others said, but it is only right that people be allowed to approach God when
they feel a real need. All of this is based on the world of externals which misses the whole
point of Jesus. He is conveying the truth that the secret, solitary, sanctuary of the soul is
always open, and God is ever present there.
I am afraid few Christians even consider the teachings of Christ in our national
controversy over prayer in public schools. Nobody ever asked if public prayer is
pleasing to God, or if Jesus ever advocated the idea. Here in the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus even condemns prayer in the synagogue, the place of worship, when it is done for
the wrong motive, based on the need for the external display of religion. I have a hunch
that many who want prayer in the school want it there for the same reason the Pharisees
wanted it: For display, and the making of the external environment looked more
religious. I agree that prayer should be a part of every day in the life of children, but it
should not be the prayer of some adult that could lead children astray. It should be
private prayer in which each child seeks the guidance of God in their life.
There are a whole host of reasons why Baptists have historically opposed prayer in
public schools. Many Baptists now support the move in this direction believing that our
country needs all the help it can get to change its ungodly course. Nobody can disagree
with that motive, and the day may come when it needs to happen. But the fact is, if
children are taught to add prayer on to their lives as an external religious exercise,
rather than to enter into the secret place of their soul to commune with God, we will be
training people to be Pharisees, and not Christians. Millions have been spent, and
millions more will be, to get children the right to do what Jesus encourages us not to do:
Pray in public. Nobody needs a law, or any change whatever, to practice successful
praying, according to Jesus. The freedom to pray in secret is, has been, and will ever be,
available to all men. To pretend that any person, including a child, lacks what is
necessary for successful praying, which pleases God, is to deny the teaching of Christ.
Religious practices are not automatically good, for if they are mere externals, as it was
with the Pharisees, they actually become a hindrance to pleasing God. Who were the
enemies of Jesus? It was not the publicans and sinners, nor the unbelievers. Jesus never
once went into a tavern or house of prostitution to drive the sinners out with a whip. It
was the temple that He so cleansed. It was praying in the synagogue to be seen of men
that He condemned. Religion was the greatest obstacle to Jesus. It is dangerous to think
that prayer, or any other religious practice will make men, or a nation, better. It will not.
It will make them worse unless their religion, and their praying, becomes a part of their
inner life, and makes them open to the spirit of God. Religion of any kind that does not
change the inner man is seen as a curse all through history.
External religion thrives on public display and public approval. Much of our Puritan
heritage is external religion. A mother shouted at her son, "Get out in the back yard and
play, its Sunday." He said, "Isn't it Sunday in the back yard too mom?" Mark Twain
said he could only play chess on Sunday if he gave Biblical names to all the pieces. All of
the external religion piled on him led him to rebel against his Christian background, and
he became a skeptic. This is a common problem, because the fact is, it is hard to be a
Pharisee. Unfortunately, the world of religion is most often mere externals. Judson tells
of how his first convert in Burma read this passage, and then responded, "These words
take hold of my heart. They make me tremble. Here God commands us to do everything
in secret, and not to be seen of men. How unlike our religion. When Burmans make
offering at the pagodas, they make a great noise with trumpets and musical instruments
that others may see how good they are. But this religion makes the mind fear God."
We do not mean to imply there is no place for public prayer. We have public prayer
as a part of every worship service. But they are not private prayers said in public. They
deal with public issues and needs common to the body. The pastoral prayer lifts up body
concerns and needs so the whole body can join in seeking God's will. It would be folly for
me to pray my private prayers in public for the attention of men. There is even a danger
of praying in a restaurant. We almost always do it, but it is folly to think there is any
merit in it if you attract the attention of others. My thanks to God is a private matter,
and its only value is if God is pleased. If I started doing it to impress people around me, I
am doing it for the same reason as the Pharisees did. When the motive for prayer
becomes anything other than pleasing God, it is not successful prayer. That is why secret
prayer is a key to success. In secret there is nobody else to impress but God. By inscape
you escape all the foreign elements, and the temptation to be religious for the sake of
others.
It is not that God is not present with us in the noisy market place, it is just that we are
more present with Him in the quiet secret place. By shutting out the world, we
concentrate on the One above all others. Just as your mate is pleased when you withdraw
from the world to devote your full attention to them, so God is pleased when you forsake
all others to be in His presence. This can be hard for many people in an external focused
society. Secret prayer is hard for many American Christians, because they have not
learned to enjoy solitude and being alone. We feel the pull of the crowd, and not the pull
of the closet. In the middle ages the monastic movement went the opposite way, and
Christians flocked to monasteries, and to the life of the closet. Much good came out of
that, but it was also a loss of the balance life.
Jesus did not call us to live in the closet, but only to withdraw to the closet for prayer.
We are to get back out into the world, and let our light shine before men. But, like
Moses, we will not have the light of God shining from us if we do not get alone with God.
So it is not a matter of either-or, but of both-and. We are to be introverts and extroverts,
and, therefore, ambiverts. We are to be able to withdraw into solitude, and then to enter
again into society. The Christian is to have the best of both worlds, for this is pleasing to
God, and pleasing to men.
Prayer is the entering into the realm of liberty where you are free to be the real you.
So much of what we express in public is based on how we feel we ought to be because of
what people will think, but in prayer you can be honest. If you are hurt over some trivial
thing, and it is causing resentment, on the outside you can be kind, but inwardly you feel
anger and hostility. In prayer you can open up to God, and let Him see the real you that
you fear to show to others. You can tell God you know its wrong and stupid to feel the
way you do. This makes prayer a sort of therapy, where you confess and get cleansed
from the negative feelings that life often brings to you.
Jesus did not go around preaching openly about His struggles with His divine destiny.
In prayer, however, He opened up to the Father and shared the inner pressures and
trials He had to deal with. Once He even prayed, "If it is possible let this cup pass from
me." Jesus dealt with His inner conflicts in private, as He came before His heavenly
Father in the privacy of prayer. The secret prayer life of Jesus is made public knowledge
so we can see that even He needed a place of retreat where He could be fully honest
before God about His inner feelings. If we follow Jesus as our example we will discover
the secret of successful prayer.
