Matthew 6:6
Progressive Relationship Requesting Desires Matthew 6:5-14 4| The Hidden Lord | Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, 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 openly” (Matthew 6:6). We must not dismiss this verse without again considering the pressing truth of “in the secret place.” Each time Matthew uses the Greek word “krypto,” translated “secret,” in these sentences, he uses it as a substantival adjective. A substantival adjective means an adjective used as a noun, stating the reality of a person, place, or thing. In our passage, it suggests a state of existence, “the secret place.” “Secret” may not be the best translation for the English language because it has the connotation of deceptive or hypocritical, which is the opposite of what Jesus said about “charitable deeds” and “prayer.” In the New Testament, “krypto” is more often translated as “hidden” or “concealed,” which gives us a clearer understanding of the statement. Jesus’ language portrays the imagery of a location. Jesus instructs us to “go into your room,” “shut your door,” and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place.” Jesus continues with this same imagery to describe the “Father who sees in secret.” The Father dwells in a state of seeing or knowing, described as a place of concealment. Martin Luther proposed a mystical principle called “The Hidden Lord.” He stated that God reveals Himself by concealing Himself. At first, this statement may seem ridiculous. If God wants to reveal Himself, why doesn’t He simply appear before us? Why would He hide, and by that means, make Himself known to us? Divine logic is the opposite of the world’s logic! Jesus taught His disciples, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). The philosophy of the world cries, “You must save your life.” Work, protect, guard, and grab are all elements you must achieve. Losing your life will get you the label of “loser.” The Kingdom operates on a different logic, a Divine logic. Jesus proposed, “And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave” (Matthew 20:27). The thought process of our world cannot conceive such a ridiculous idea. Our world calculates one’s position by how many people serve you. The more people bowing at your feet, scrambling to serve you, the greater your authority and power. The Kingdom logic is that the more people you serve, the greater your position. Jesus ended one of His parables by saying, “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16). No one had ever proposed such an idea. The world says you must do whatever is necessary to be first in line. You must cut corners and use people to achieve what you want. Jesus refused this logic, and the Jews wanted Him crucified. In losing His life, He saved it. In becoming the slave, Jesus became first in the Kingdom. In being the last and the least, He became first. Such is Divine logic! God reveals Himself by concealing Himself! This idea follows the pattern of Divine logic. If you come to me and demand that I show you God, I immediately transport you to a place called “Golgotha.” We mingle with the yelling crowd, laughing and scorning three men on crosses. It is a horrible scene, revealing the deep demonic tendencies of humanity. I quietly point a finger to the Man on the middle cross and tell you that He is God. You undoubtedly laugh in the same manner the leaders of Israel did in their hour. How could the dying, beaten, suffering, miserable Creature on the middle cross be God? How could we ever view the One who is the curse of the law as God? But God has hidden Himself in the pain and agony of the cross. When you, by faith, embrace Jesus in His death, He gives a revelation of Himself in a remarkable way. You realize you would never have known Him if He had not concealed Himself in the cross. It is in losing my life and embracing the style of the cross that I know God in a way I could never have known Him otherwise. He has concealed Himself to reveal Himself. He is “the Hidden Lord.” Who could be foolish enough to wish suffering on their lives? No one in their right mind would invite pain to strike their body. No one except the person who understands God has hidden Himself in suffering. When by faith I embrace the suffering of my life and look for Him, a revelation of His person comes to me, overshadowing all involved suffering. I realize I would never have known Him in such depth if He had not revealed Himself by concealing Himself. No one wants “dark moments.” Where is joy when the dark night of the soul comes upon us? Shadows are everywhere, and we seem to have no direction. Loneliness plagues us as we experience the world’s weight upon our shoulders. No one invites such an experience, except the one who understands God has hidden Himself in the dark moments. When by faith I embrace those moments and look for Him through the eyes of faith, I will see Him more clearly than ever before. I will thank God for the dark moments, which bring a revelation of His person to me. God has concealed Himself to reveal Himself. If God did not hide Himself, I would never see Him! We believe that one day Jesus will appear in His second coming manifestation. Indeed, He will come in all His glory, and all the nations will gather at His feet (Matthew 25:31, 32). How will you act in that hour? Will you not delight in His coming and surrender every situation in your life to Him? There will be no need for worry, stress, or struggle. He is here! What if I could convince you, He is here now as assuredly as He will be here then? He has hidden Himself for these moments, and we can only embrace Him by faith. He is here now in all of His power and is just as adequate for our cares and needs as He will be then. If you plan to respond to Him in total surrender in His second coming manifestation, then you can respond to Him immediately in this way. He is as much here now as He will be then. I cannot prove it, nor can I argue you into it. It requires all of your heart to see it. He has not left us; He has hidden Himself to reveal Himself. I want to live now just as I will live then because He is here now, just as He will be then. When Jesus first came in the incarnation, He demonstrated this truth for us. The birth of Jesus was not an absent God finally appearing. He was here all the time but hidden. We received extraordinary glimpses of Him throughout the Old Testament. We saw more of His handiwork than we saw Him, but He let us know He was present. We can never forget the demonstrations of his person on Mt. Sinai. He made Himself known in the fire on Elijah’s sacrifice altar. The prophets spoke to Him. He was present but undoubtedly hidden. For four hundred years, between the Old and New Testament, we had no word from Him. Was He gone or just hidden? The birth of Jesus was the revelation of God who had hidden Himself all of these years. We live in another dispensation where we expect Him to return the second time. However, He is not absent but is again concealing Himself that He might reveal Himself. Concentrated “in” (en) Jesus proposes and emphasizes a concentration on “the secret place.” Each time He mentions “the secret place,” he injects the word “in,” a translation of the Greek word “en.” He did this in His discourse on “charitable deeds” (Matthew 6:4). Now, Jesus continues with the application regarding “prayer.” “But you, when you pray, 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 openly” (Matthew 6:6). Jesus did not refer to doing charitable deeds or praying in a hidden or unknown manner. Each time he uses the word “secret” in these sentences, He uses it as a substantival adjective, an adjective used as a noun in the Greek language. In the Sermon on the Mount, it is a reference to Jesus’ premise. It is the mystical merger between our helplessness and His resource, our nature, and His nature. In the place of this mystic union, God creates a new creature. All charitable deeds and prayers are to come from this “hidden” location. The Greek word “en” refers to a fixed dwelling place, the preposition “from” is a movement term, and the preposition “into” indicates a change of location. But “in” means there is no movement. If we pray to the Father, we speak to Him where He is in His fixed dwelling place, “the secret place.” That is not a contradiction of the omnipresence of God. David, the psalmist, cried: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there” (Psalms 139:7-8). While God is everywhere in His sovereign realm, as our Father, He concentrated Himself in “the secret place.” “The secret place” is not generalized but is the face-to-face encounter with God. Through the redemptive resource of Jesus, the Trinity God moved His generalized omnipresence to a mystical location of intimacy. God, who is everywhere in nature, experienced in the whirlwind and present in the twilight, wants to embrace us in oneness in “the secret place.” It is the strange and mystical indwelling of the fullness of His Spirit within the believer. Jesus called it “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). It is the Holy Spirit coming upon us (Acts 1:8). Man and God are in oneness in this “secret place.” Daniel prayed three times a day to God, kneeling at his window, looking toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10). Now the imagery shifts from a definite time and location of prayer to a new intimacy with the Father. We share in the intimate whisperings with God in the night hour. Our prayers are like the pillow talk of the bride and bridegroom. Prayer is like the personal sharing of a four-year-old who has fallen, and his father holds him close in a secure embrace. It is the closeness of a vine and branch as the vine infiltrates the branch with its life flow. It is the communication of a growing baby in his mother’s womb as they share the same body. We have no imagery to give expression to “the secret place” adequately. Prayer is the fixed place of communication, intimacy, and oneness with the Father. We only experience the exceeding righteousness of Jesus when we dwell in this fixed place with the Trinity God (Matthew 5:21-22). We find the communication level needed for a charitable deed only in this fixed place. The deed sourced from this location of intimacy is an extension of God’s presence and goes far beyond mere activity. Prayer on the street or in the synagogue becomes more than words when we dwell in “the secret place.” Clarified “sees” (blepo) Why is it so important to dwell in “the secret place?” That is the only place the Father “sees” you! Jesus said this in the instructions on charitable deeds and prayer (Matthew 6:4-6). We can do charitable deeds as the hypocrites do. They appear to be giving, but in reality, they are getting the applause of men. The Father does not acknowledge or have involvement in such a deed. We can pray as the hypocrites do. They appear to talk to God, but they are speaking to men to impress them. The Father is not involved in their prayer, nor does He hear it. Such charitable deeds and prayers are a waste, for the proper intended results are lost. The Kingdom person, the new creature merged with God, dwells in “the secret place.” It is the place where the Father sees, not just hears. The Greek word translated as “sees” is “blepo.” It appears 137 times in the New Testament, used with a variety of meanings. The primary meaning, which must always be present in every usage, is “to be able to see.” The opposite of “blepo” is to be blind. The merger of my helplessness and His resourceful nature allows an expanded involvement of insight into my life. In His sovereign omniscience, God sees everything as it is, but Jesus proposes a one on one participation in the merger. This communication is not on the level of texting, speaking on the phone, receiving an email, or getting a letter through the mail. In the embracing of my helplessness, the Divine person embraces me in intimacy. I am open before Him. Another use of the Greek word “blepo” is perceiving as with the eyes, meaning to discern or understand. While in the sovereignty of God’s omniscience, perceiving is complete because in “the secret place,” something happens to me. In this intimacy of oneness, a new perception between God and man takes place. In the welding of His presence and my weakness, an understanding happens between us, I know Him, and He knows me! He sees what I could be, and the reality of that begins in me. My full potential becomes possible in His sight! Jesus is not saying that the Father’s sight increases in “the secret place.” God sees the charitable deeds and understands the prayers of the hypocrites as well as the saints. It is the imagery for the intimacy of His presence and involvement within the relationship of the new creature, the merger of God and man, distinctly highlighted by the fact that Jesus does not refer to the “hearing” of the Father, but “seeing.” We usually expect that the Father would “hear” the prayer of the believer. Thus, the imagery of “seeing” the prayer because He dwells in “the secret place” yells of the closeness of His presence in oneness with the believer! Conceived “your” (sou) Jesus freely refers to God as “Father,” which was radical for the Jews of Jesus’ day. God was indeed Father in creating humanity, but not in the sense of embrace and intimacy. He was so far removed from the daily function of their lives that they could not use His name even in prayer. They wanted Him close, such as dwelling in the temple, but realized they needed protection from the nature of His person and power. Now Jesus speaks about dwelling in Him in “the secret place” of intimacy and calling Him “Father.” Significantly, each time Jesus mentions “Father,” He places before it “the.” It is the Greek word “ho,” which has the primary meaning and function of distinction. It is not translated in the English versions because it sounds awkward. Jesus continually refers to “Father in heaven” in the Sermon on the Mount, each time placing “the” before it. Let there be no misunderstanding about His reference. The sovereign God Jehovah, who birthed the nation of Israel to redeem a world through the Messiah, is “the Father.” He does not have this position because He is creator but because of His loving nature. Jesus takes us to a new level of intimacy with the heart of God. He is “the Father” who joins us in oneness in “the secret place.” Each time Jesus uses the term “Father,” He couples with it the word “your.” “Your” is in the genitive case, establishing a relationship of ownership. God is not only the creator who is your “Father” through creation, but He is “your Father.” The consistent personalization of the Gospel story is amazing. The Bible’s message projects the picture of all that God does, He did not do for the human race as a whole, but He does it precisely for “you.” God focuses the intent of the heart on “you.” Jesus came and died for “you.” You are helpless; the entire resource of God’s nature wants to indwell and merge with “you.” The union of your heart and His heart is “the secret place.” In this union of oneness between you and Him, intimate communication occurs; it is called “prayer.”