Performative Spirituality Vs True Devotion
What happens when Christian spirituality becomes more of a performance than authentic devotion?
Have you ever performed on a stage?
I remember performing at my high school talent show with friends in 2012 and I was so nervous. We had spent a few weeks practicing our routine but even then there was still a measure of trepidation. I was going to play my saxophone while my other friends would rap and play the drums.
The day quickly came.
I walked on that stage with my saxophone in hands, with sweaty hands and a fast beating heart.
We then began to play!
It all happened so fast.
At the conclusion of our set—to my surprise and joy—the whole crowd went crazy with enthusiastic applause! It was a glorious moment. It was something that I still remember vividly all these years later. My friends and I walked off that stage feeling good.
But many of us never leave the stage.
The shows goes on!
Many of us actually live for the sake of public recognition.
This ambition can even reveal itself in the realm of faith in God.
Let’s explore this deeper.
Pharisees and Performative Spirituality
In the first century, there was a group of highly esteemed Jewish religious leaders in the first century called Pharisees. The term “Pharisee” means “separated one”. They set themselves apart to a radical commitment to the Scriptures and all the oral traditions that had been passed down. They set themselves apart from anything that would render them ceremonially unclean.
Yet Jesus discerned a fatal flaw in the Pharisees: their performative spirituality!
Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
Matthew 23:5-7
The phylacteries were black leather boxes that contained tiny scrolls of biblical passages like Exodus 13:3-16, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, or Deuteronomy 11:13-21. They would attach these to their arms. The Pharisees took these passages very seriously by doing this practice.
Yet they even found a way for this to become a channel for their ego! They would make them as wide as possible.
The tassels that Jesus also mentions were are blue ornaments placed on the robes or prayer shawls of the Pharisees. This practice recalls Scriptures like Numbers 15:38 and Deuteronomy 22:12. Now specifically in their time, the longer the tassels, the more righteous a teacher appeared to be. So this quickly became a way to showcase their devotion.
Now notice that Jesus is not categorically condemning religious garments (Jesus likely wore similar garments as a devout 1st century Jewish rabbi ) but rather the motives of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees came to crave and lust after the societal status that came with their piety and position. It was no longer about seeking after God’s honor but their own.
The Pharisees lost the plot.
Godliness became a means to gain— and they were not letting go.
Jesus would also more directly call out the root behind their continual resistance to him:
No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.
John 5:44
Whose praise and honor are we really seeking in life?
Jesus further explores this theme in his discussion on prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor— three religious practices that became distorted by the Pharisees.
Giving but missing out on the greatest gift
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 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. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:1-5
Giving to the poor was a way for the Jewish people—and presently for all followers of Jesus— to demonstrate their love for God and care for their neighbor. The Scriptures are full of admonitions to care for the poor. These were all ultimately rooted in the heart of God.
Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. - Proverbs 14:31
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. - Proverbs 19:17
Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. – Psalm 82:3
Share your food with the hungry and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes. – Isaiah 58:7
I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Psalm 140:12
Yet by the time of Jesus, the holy act of giving became a way for the Pharisees to accrue more public honor. Jesus challenges his disciples to embrace secrecy when it came to their devotional act of giving and that true reward would come from God himself.
Go Into Your Room and Pray
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:5-7
Prayer is at the heart of a life devoted to God. The Jewish people at fixed hours throughout would stop whatever they were doing and pray. They would do so in whatever direction the temple in Jerusalem was. This tradition has roots in the Old Testament (Daniel 6:10, Psalm 119:164). Two of these times were 9 AM and 3 PM when certain sacrifices were being offered in the Jerusalem temple; to these times they added high noon. The Pharisees would intentionally position themselves to be in public, crowded places at the set times, so that all could see their prayer and devotion.
Jesus Christ points out to his disciples that even the sacred act of prayer to God can become a vehicle for our vanity if we are not careful. Note what Jesus instructs his disciples to do instead: he tells them to actively avoid attention from others and go pray in their private rooms.
When devotion to God is performative, we will plot and strategize to be in the position where WE will be most glorified by people.
When devotion to God is from the heart, we will plot and strategize to be in the best position to encounter God.
Fasting for the True Feast
When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:16-18
Fasting is when you abstain from food and drink for a set period of time. Fasting was practiced by the Jewish people at that time and now as a way to cultivate devotion to God and mark certain seasons of life as sacred. Fasting was a way for them to align their hearts to God’s desires. It remains so today for followers of Jesus.
Yet even this holy act of self-denial done before God became an opportunity for self-exaltation and ego for the Pharisees. Jesus challenges his disciples to go to great lengths to make their fasting secret. Jesus is not really interested in having people applaud the austere religiosity of his disciples but rather the God that the disciples worship.
There is also a measure of irony in their actions: the Pharisees sought to look unattractive in their fasting so that people would applaud the “beauty” of their actions but to God they were truly a mess on the inside as well.
The Reward From the Father
It is important to note that in all the examples given, Jesus does not categorically condemn all human desire for reward, honor, and exaltation. Jesus speaks about the reward that comes from the Father.
Jesus Christ is not against human beings seeking honor and recognition. He is against humans seeking honor and recognition apart from and outside of God.
Jesus actually thinks our desires are too weak, short-sighted, or corrupted. We settle for less.
But there is good news!
Jesus during his ministry on earth went around proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God: that God is asserting reign of the world he made —that had gone off the rails from his original intent—in a new, decisive, and redemptive way through Jesus the Messiah.
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Mark 1:15
God became human in Jesus of Nazareth to free us from the reign of sin and death through his life, death, and resurrection. He came to liberate us from the false promises of performative spirituality.
True Devotion and the Kingdom of God
Jesus, as part of his testimony to the coming Kingdom, embodies what authentic devotion to God— “true religion” — looks like.
Jesus’ commitment and love for the Father often meant withdrawing from the crowds to pray:
Great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places to pray. Luke 5:15–16
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35
Jesus did much of his ministry in small towns and villages that were full of the poor and marginalized, the socially and economically powerless. He did go to the renowned Jerusalem later in his life but he really spent so much of his time in “forgettable” places.
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Luke 8:1-3
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. Matthew 9:35
And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. Mark 6:56
Jesus’ fasting and first conflict against the devil did not take place in the midst of adoring crowds, but rather in a desolate wilderness.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Matthew 4:1-2
Jesus greatest’ gift to the poor—spiritually and physically— was his own life. He was not only devoted to the will of the Father in life, but even in his death on the Cross for our rescue.
Jesus Christ crucified on the Cross —the greatest act of devotion to God ever known— was not accompanied with the praise and applause of onlooking people but rather mocking, scorn, insult, and public shame.
Performative spirituality could not save us, but true devotion did!
But the story does not end there!
Jesus rises from the dead and reveals to his disciples that
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus is on a mission to free all human beings everywhere from captivity and bondage to the lie that our own self-exaltation is the greatest reward.
Exit, Stage Right..
Jesus wants us to walk off the stage of performative spirituality and move towards a better place— the sacred altar of devotion that has God as the highest aspiration.
From the stage to the altar.
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.
Psalm 43:4
It is there that we find true joy, true fulfillment, and yes— the honor we had been seeking all along!