Sermon on the Mount: Charity & Hypocrisy

Matthew 6:1-4 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

In this next section, Jesus addresses the topic of charity, of giving to the needy, of faith in practice and living out what you believe. There are a few things here that are either implied or expressly stated, and they're pretty important. 

The topics that we see here are:

• hypocrisy
• self glorification
• rewards
• giving to the needy. 

So, to start, Jesus does not, here, tell us to give to the needy. He assumes that we will be. It is a given that His followers will be engaging in charity and generosity to help care for and provide for the needy in their community. It's not “If," but "When.” This same idea is reflected all throughout the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament.

1 John 3:17 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

Psalm 37:21 “The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives;”

Deuteronomy 15:7-8 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.” 

Deuteronomy 15:10-11 “You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

As Christians, we have been given an abundance by God, and we are called to help those who are in need in return. Everyone of us is familiar with people who are asking for help. We see people on the side of the street, holding signs, asking for money, asking for food, living in tents, etc… However, these are not the only people around us who are in need. Of course, if God is calling you to buy a burger for someone on the side of the street or pull out a $20 for a homeless individual, do it, but I would challenge you to also look around at the people you interact with on a daily basis. How many people do you go to school with, work with, live with/near who are in need of something. Often, these people’s needs are less obvious, but still as pressing. We are constantly surrounded by people who need something: food, money to pay the bills, relationship/friendship, tutoring/help with school or work, etc…

The implication in these verses is that Jesus is referencing things like food and money, physical needs, and that is definitely true, but we can take this same truth and apply it to other needs that people have as well. You may not have an abundance of food or money to give out, but what do you have? Each of us has something that we can give to someone else. It may be food or money or transportation or friendship or wisdom or knowledge or skills or talents or truth or time or any number of other things. Each one of us has something that we can offer, and everyone around us needs something. We need to have our eyes open to see the need and our hearts open to help it.

The other thing that Jesus mentions here, and something that He continues to mention in reference to other things in the coming verses, is the importance of avoiding hypocrisy and not advertising your “good deeds.” We live in a world in which we publicly display almost every aspect of our lives via Instagram and TikTok and Snapchat, etc…, and while we could talk at length about the pros and cons of this, the truth is that most of us carefully curate the information that we share. We share almost everything, but we share for a specific reason, and often, that reason is to make ourselves look good in order to get Followers or Likes, to build our image and reputation, to feel loved and seen and important, to make money, whatever. Jesus, in Matthew, is expecting us to do good needs, to help the needy, but He is warning us about our motives in doing so. Helping the needy is not “content creation.” If our goal in helping those in need is so that others will see how “good” we are and give us praise/Likes/money/Follows/etc… we are doing it for the wrong reasons, and Jesus says we are hypocrites. Just as God is seeking worship and praise from true and willing hearts, He desires His followers to reach out in charity from true hearts without regard for who sees or knows or what the ROI will be. This doesn’t mean that if someone knows that we did something good to help others that it invalidates the good we did, but if our goal and object is Views then there is a problem.

So, this week, I would challenge you to open your eyes and see the need that is around you, not just in the obvious locations, but in the hungry kid in your class, in your coworker who is stressing about paying their water bill, in your neighbor who is lonely and feels like they have no one to live life with, in the kid on the team who isn’t all that great, but needs someone to invest in them, in the person sitting alone in the lunchroom, in the person holding a cardboard sign on the street, in your brother or sister or mom or dad or kid who just wants to hang out and talk awhile. Our world is full of need. Each of us has a need, but each of us also has an abundance of something that we can offer, a way that we can help. Help those in need, not for Views or Status or to feel good about yourself, but because you are looking at the world through the eyes of Jesus who loves each and every one of the people in this world, and who gave everything in order to give us all an abundant life.