The Chosen + BibleProject | Season 5 Reading Planنموونە

Prayer Signaling
Why do people pray? Often for good reasons—but Jesus warns that prayer can quickly morph into a show. At best, such public, performative prayer might signal virtue to gain approval; at worst, it can hide darker motives.
In one of The Chosen’s most chilling scenes, Caiaphas, Israel’s high priest, plots Jesus’ death and then leads Israel’s religious leaders in a seemingly pious prayer. He quotes Psalm 79, but twists its words to portray Jesus as an enemy of God.
We know from Scripture that this meeting happened (see Matt. 26:1-5), though the exact conversation is unknown. Law prohibited Jesus’ execution (see John 18:31), but the religious leaders in this scene want him dead and make a plan anyway—spinning evil as righteousness.
In The Chosen, Caiaphas stirs fear with words from Scripture: “Our peril is serious” (Ps. 79:8). He suggests that prayer is their only option, quoting Scripture and appealing to God’s holiness, pretending their need for rescue from Jesus is like Israel’s previous needs for deliverance from ancient oppressors.
But it’s all for show. The prayer sounds holy and displays biblical fluency, but it manipulates, deceives, and harms everyone involved.
This kind of prayer signaling isn’t new. Jesus addresses it directly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:5-8). Real prayer, he says, connects us with God, not an audience. He offers the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-15) as a simple, sincere model and urges honest self-reflection, whether praying in public or private.
Jesus isn’t policing prayer; he’s offering wisdom, helping his followers—both then and now—to avoid a dangerous trap.
Both private and communal prayer are vital to life with God. So Jesus doesn’t say to pray less; instead, he asks us to pray with honest hearts. We may not be using prayer to mask murderous plots, but we may more readily use it to mask pride, insecurity, or our own selfish desires.
Ironically, Caiaphas fears that the whole world will follow after Jesus if they don’t get rid of him. So they have Jesus crucified, but then he resurrects, which sparks a worldwide movement of people following after Jesus.
If prayer is truly about connecting with God, then real prayer includes humility and is compelled by love—not pretense or status seeking. As the BibleProject video emphasizes, followers of Jesus will be most effective in the world when they care least about their social standing.

Reflection Questions
Have you ever felt pressure to sound smart or “biblical” when praying with others? Where does pressure like that come from? How does prayer change when we aren’t worrying about social rejection or approval?

From what you’ve seen in the BibleProject video and Scripture readings, how would you describe the purpose of prayer in your own words?