Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
In the first place we see here the expectation that we will perform righteous deeds, that we will participate in giving alms, prayer, and fasting. Jesus is not so much concerned with whether these actions of ours will be so hidden as to be absolute secrets. In fact he anticipates that others will see the deeds of his disciples and that those deeds will redound to the glory of the Father. His concern is that his disciples not be motivated by the desire to be seen. In other words he seeks a more robust motivation for our works of Christian service than a desire for the praise of others.
One problem with immature motivation, with the desire for the praise of others, is that it can become a limitation. We then only practice almsgiving in situations where other people will notice, or where we at least can directly witness our beneficiaries receiving what we give. We become unable to do tasks that are likely to be unnoticed. We become unwilling to contribute if we won't be able to see whether or not our efforts bear fruit.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
Jesus knows that it is easier at first to do things for the wrong motivation rather than the right one. He knows that is seems like a more attainable benefit and a low hanging fruit. He knows, therefore, that we must guard against such motivations if we want to grow in maturity as his disciples. If our right hand notices what the left is doing it means we have lost our focus on loving others for the sake of God and have begun thinking about ourselves and what we can get. But what one hand of ours can get on a human level when we give is not very much, and does not last. It is actually a much better result to be repaid by the Father than by fleeting approval in the sight of others.
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
There are many of us within the Church of Christ whose motivations for our piety are mixed. On the one hand we love Jesus and want to respond to him on the basis of that love. But as we do so we tend to experience others thinking highly of us, as though our devotion were somehow that result of our own doing, or a sign of our superiority. And while we know this to be false we nevertheless enjoy the attention. This leads us to be motivated to seek more of this attention going forward. It can be even more subtle. Our prayer in the liturgy, our singing, our gestures and genuflections, can all be virtue signaling. If we are the type to insist on perfection we can enjoy when others notice, even if they aren't impressed. We can then think how much better we are because we do everything with such regard for the rubrics. If we are the type to take a more loose and laid back approach we may still find occasion to judge others who do things differently, perhaps as legalists that don't really know what Christianity is all about. There is actually a minefield of misplaced motivations. There is only one that is actually correct. We are meant to be motivated by our desire to be seen, not by others, but by the Father. The reward we want to seek is the one that only he himself can give.
When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
When we do hard work for the sake of charity we tend to want others to be sympathetic. This is in some ways a natural human impulse. The support of those with whom we are in fellowship can actually build us back up to go out again and get after it. But when this motivation predominates it becomes another kind of limitation. People may be initially impressed and sympathetic with us. But as we do the same things again in the future they may be less so. We might feel the need to increasingly punish ourselves to achieve the same level of human sympathy. If people cease to be impressed no matter what we do, what then happens to our work? Do we then minimize it, or even stop it entirely?
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.
What humans can offer us as repayment for our works of service is sometimes very readily attainable but is ultimately a recipe for disappointment. We should instead learn and train ourselves to seek the repayment that only God can provide. This repayment is not natural but spiritual. When our motivation is love of God our reward is growing in that love. It's a reward that is baked in to the logic of love that is at the very heart of the universe. Love, in this sense at least, really is its own reward.
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