If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

 

 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."

 

- Matthew 6:19-24 

 

We are reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught about prayer:   "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For Yours is the kingdom and the power and  the glory forever.  Amen.  For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 

 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  My study Bible comments that by attaching themselves to treasures on earth, people cut themselves off from heavenly treasures.  One becomes a slave to earthly things, rather than free in Christ.  This is also a part of the cultivation of dispassion, detachment.  It notes that the heart of discipleship is in disentangling ourselves from the chains earthly things would place upon us, and attaching ourselves to God, who is the true treasure.

"The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  My study Bible explains that the mind (in Greek, nous, the root of words like "noetic" in English; metanoia in Greek) is the spiritual eye of the soul.  It illuminates the inner person, and governs the will.  To keep one's mind wholesome and pure is fundamental to Christian life.  

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."  As a slave who serve two masters, people try to keep an attachment both to earthly and heavenly things (note the keyword "attachment").  But this kind of slavish attachment to both earthly and heavenly things is impossible -- both demand full allegiance, my study Bible tells us.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but because of the control it has over people.  

What is mammon exactly?  Some translate this word as "riches."  Others suggest "treasure."   When these Gospels were written in Greek, apparently their authors did not feel there was a sufficient Greek word that captured it exactly and so we're given mammon.  Here and in Luke 16:13, Jesus speaks of mammon in a personified way, and indicating opposition to God, so suggesting an evil force akin to a god or the demonic.  Originally it seems have been a Chaldean word that indicates "what is trusted in."  So taken altogether, it seems that the point of Christ's juxtaposition of God and mammon here is teaching us about valuing the material, or what we "treasure up," as if we rely on it to save us and fulfill all the needs we have.  This is by nature, effectively, something that is opposed to God, as it is God who not only truly saves us, but God who asks for our primary dependence and loyalty.  Elsewhere, in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) -- Christ's foundational parable for His gospel mission -- Jesus speaks of the "deceitfulness of riches" as that which is symbolized in the thorns that choke the word of God in human beings.  That "deceitfulness of riches" gives us another key to Christ's view of the character of mammon, akin to one we think is a friend, but who betrays us.  This is the sum total of the effect of trusting in mammon, and Jesus' warning takes on a greater weight as He speaks of needing to choose whom we serve.  Whether or not we'd like to say we're capable of choosing both or of loving or serving more than one thing at once, Christ's words are true -- this is the way that life works.  It is the foundation of creation itself; we seek Creator first to set all things in order.  To choose to serve the "creature" or even something man-made like material treasure is to be out of balance, confused.  In a sense it is the blind leading the blind; or, in this case, something with no capacity for understanding leading us altogether, like the Israelites using a golden calf to worship God (Exodus 32).  Jesus begins today's reading by speaking about treasure and the heart.  Many interpretations suggest that this is about using one's wealth in an unselfish way, through charity.  But clearly the teaching on mammon asks us what we trust in, and to make a choice what we will serve first (and obviously, we may also serve God through acts of charity; see James 1:27).  The single-mindedness Christ asks us for is embodied in His use of the eye as metaphor.  Our focus must take in the light of God to guide us, leaving out the darkness that would fill us with its own bad effects.  The nature of the mind is one that does not compartmentalize efficiently or well, and certainly not for a lifetime; our own self-contradictions if not resolved will result in a darkness indeed.  Jesus says, " If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"   He warns us about a kind of darkness that is like a black hole; it simply keeps absorbing whatever there is into its darkness.  Christ always portrays human beings as those who are on a path somewhere, and so we must carefully choose what we follow, what ultimate guides us, where our loyalty lies.  A truly materialistically-minded person may choose to believe that we are simply a bag of cells, components of matter, and so a kind of neutral -- even stagnant -- entity which outside forces can't much change.  But this kind of trust in matter alone is deceitful and blinding, for life and the forces around us are persuasive indeed, especially when we're not really paying attention and not making a clear choice.  Christ emphasizes over and over again the importance of our focus, and here indicates the stark choice of what we serve first -- for this choice will come up over and over again in our lives.  Let us consider where our heart is, and where our eye (our mind) is focused. In the Greek text, the word rendered "good" (in if therefore your eye is good) can literally be translated as "single" or "simple," but that word is used in the Gospels to mean "pure" or "unadulterated."  If we take these meanings altogether, we have an admonition regarding how we look out at the world, and what kind of things block not only our vision but the light that illuminates our minds, bodies, and souls.  Jesus speaks of a wholistic life, and the importance of our own clarity and direction.