When your name becomes synonymous with a particular prayer posture, you are having an impact. And for Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos’ quarterback, that impact arises from a simple, but very public, habit, an action that has virtually overshadowed his remarkable skills on the football field.
WeathersAs Time magazine observed, “He is now a verb. To ‘Tebow’ is to get down on one knee and start praying even if everyone else is doing something completely different.” With this high-profile platform for drawing attention to his deep faith in Christ, Time described Tebow as “perhaps the most significant evangelical Christian in the country.”
Now across the world, people “Tebow.” A quick Internet search produces pictures of people “Tebowing” at colleges, famous shrines, desert outposts, and even the Western Wall in Jerusalem. But that doesn’t mean Tim Tebow is equally popular with everyone.
Many people revile what they regard as his ostentatious sectarianism. In December, Saturday Night Live spoofed Tebow and ridiculed Christianity as a whole. And bloggers regularly slam the young quarterback, often invoking Matthew 6:5-8, in which Jesus warns against hypocritical public displays of prayer. A Google search of “Tebow Matt 6” produces more than 30 million hits.
But this is not uncommon. Anytime critics are uncomfortable with public prayers in Jesus’ name, they trot out this passage. But usually when critics quote this one passage, they ignore the clear sense of the entire Sermon on the Mount, not to mention what the rest of the Bible teaches about prayer, or that Jesus himself prayed in public.
Such criticism of public prayer ignores the context of Jesus’ warning against praying “as the hypocrites do.” The “hypocrites” in Jesus’ scenario are Pharisees, who practiced their religious piety to impress people rather than serve God. The issue was not public or private. The issue was sincerity. The religious leaders valued performance over piety.
Of course, there is no way to know Tebow’s heart. But there is no reason to assume he is anything other than a sincere man of God whose knee-jerk response is to thank God for good things. (Yes – pun intended.)
So what should we do? Knowing the criticism he suffers, and the unique platform God has given him, can I make a suggestion?
“Tebow” for Tebow.