Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you

 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.  Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. 

 

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

- Matthew 7:1-12 

 

We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

 

  "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  My study Bible comments here that we will be judged with our own level of judgment because we are guilty of the same things we judge in others (Romans 2:1).  We have failed in repentance and in fleeing from sin also.  To pass judgment is to assume God's authority.  Moreover, my study Bible points out that the second part of this verse is found in Mark 4:24 and Luke 6:38, each used in a different context, as Christ clearly repeated this message many times.  This repetition teaches us something about the significance of the principle He names here.

 

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  Here is an elaboration on the warning against judgment, and a teaching on our own blindness to our flaws and what that does to us.  We are to look to ourselves to correct our own errors and mistaken thinking and practices before we can ever help others.  For Christ's teaching on mutual correction in the Church, see Matthew 18:15-35.  Let us remember also that Jesus is preaching to those who are His disciples, and who will in turn become teachers and authorities in His Church.

 

 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."   Dogs and swine, my study Bible explains, refer to heathen peoples (Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15), but this would also include Jews who do not practice virtue.  According to patristic teaching, "dogs" are those who are so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, while "swine" are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives.  The pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, including Christ's teachings (Matthew 13:46) and the great sacraments.  These holy things are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant, not to protect the holy things themselves, for Christ needs no protection.  On the contrary, we protect the faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding God's mysteries in contempt.  Additionally, this extends the warning about judgment to protection from those who would respond with hostility to what is intended as helpful correction given through grace ("removing the speck in another's eye") such as Christ gives to His disciples.  

 

 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  My study Bible tells us that in the Greek, the verbs ask, seek, and knock are present progressives:  "be asking," "be seeking," "be knocking."  Note the synergy here:  our effort is commanded, but not ever apart from the immediate help of God.  We ask in prayer; seek by learning God's truth; and knock by doing God's will.  Human beings are called evil not to condemn all of us, but rather to contrast the imperfect goodness in people (in other words, our goodness is also mixed with sin) with the perfect goodness of God (see Matthew 19:16-17).  If imperfect and even wicked people can do some good, my study Bible explains, all the more will God work perfect good.  

 

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."  This verse is known as the Golden Rule.   Jesus' expresses that it fulfills the demands of the Law and the Prophets; my study Bible remarks that it is also a practical application of the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (see Jesus' statement of the two greatest commandments, found at Matthew 22:37-40).  This Golden Rule is a first step in spiritual growth, according to my study Bible.  There is also a negative form of the Golden Rule which was already well known in Judaism ("Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you").  But Christ's fulfillment of the Law and Prophets renders this into a positive statement:  this is the action that begins to draw us toward God.  

 

Jesus teaches, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  We may be tempted to think of these words, taken apart from the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, as indicating material blessings to be given by God in exchange for our good behavior.  But to keep asking, and keep seeking and keep knocking in this context is to seek the blessings of discipleship, the blessedness of the Kingdom, the reality of what it is to be an adopted "son" of your Father who is in heaven.  The good things Jesus preaches about are the fruits of discipleship, the spiritual gifts meant for those who love God, and seek to do God's will.  Jesus begins today's reading by teaching, "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."   These are words that teach us, as followers of Christ, to pay attention to what we are to be about -- not to what everyone else is supposed to be doing.  In the final verses we find in St. John's Gospel, there is a story that is illustrative of this same principle.  Jesus comes, in one of His resurrectional appearances, to St. Peter.  In a striking dialogue, meant to be taken as a restoration of St. Peter to his place as apostle after his three-time denial of Christ (Matthew 26:69-75), Jesus asks St. Peter three times, "Do you love Me?"  Each time Peter answers positively, and Jesus indicates that his work going forward is to feed His lambs (John 21:15-19).  This moving scene is tremendous in and of itself.  But -- perhaps just because it's St. Peter -- that's not all there is to the story.  Peter then turns, see the apostle St. John (the author of the Gospel) following, and asks Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?"  Jesus' response bears out His teaching in today's reading.  He tells St. Peter, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me" (John 21:20-22).  If it is even so for one as great as St. Peter, the first among equals of the apostles, consider how it is so for us that our job is to look to ourselves, our place as disciples, the "plank" in our own eye that needs removal, our own flaws, and our own ways we're called to follow Christ.  If we think about it carefully, casting pearls before swine or giving what is holy to dogs is also outside of our purview, not staying in our own lane, so to speak, nor remembering what it is we are supposed to be about.  Moreover, the grace and mercy we are capable of expressing will be measured back to us.  Let us remember that Jesus is speaking to those who would be His disciples, and that this sermon's theme is the righteousness of the Kingdom.  Beginning with the Beatitudes, He teaches us about blessings that seem to stand the values of the world on their heads, and here the promises and teachings are all about how we grow in discipleship, and the good things bestowed by our Father.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets

 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.  

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. 

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

- Matthew 7:1-12 

 

Currently we are reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught, "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'   For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  My study Bible comments that we will be judged with our own level of judgment because we are guilty of the very things we judge in others (Romans 2:1).  We ourselves have failed in repentance and in fleeing from sin.  To pass judgment is to assume God's authority.  Jesus also uses these terms, "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you," in Mark 4:24 and Luke 6:38.   Each is in a different context, as no doubt Jesus repeated this important message many times.  

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."   We should remember that this message is directed to those who would be disciples, and regarding the practice of discipleship.  How can one possibly correct or instruct others in spiritual growth unless one already has the rigorous experience of seeing, knowing, and correcting one's own spiritual "blind spots"?  It's also a warning about our own capacity to overlook our own flaws, and an admonition for this kind of self-knowledge and correction.  The language here follows Jesus' earlier teaching, "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!" (see Saturday's reading).  

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."  My study Bible says that dogs and swine are references to heathen peoples (Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15), but this would also include Jews who do not practice virtue.  According to patristic sources, "dogs" are those so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, and "swine" are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives.  The pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, including Christ's teachings (Matthew 13:46) and the great sacraments.  These holy things, my study Bible explains, are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant, not to protect the holy things themselves, for Christ does not need protection.  Instead, we protect faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding God's mysteries in contempt.  The words of Christ also warn us about the response of those who cannot or will not understand.  Again, Jesus is still speaking in the context of discipleship, correction, and spiritual growth.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  Once more, Jesus is speaking of spiritual growth in discipleship.  My study Bible says that the verbs ask, seek, and knock are present progressives, which can be rendered "be asking," "be seeking," "be knocking."  There is a synergy here, it asks us to note:  our effort is commanded, but never apart from the immediate help of God.  We ask in prayer, we seek by learning God's truth, and we knock by doing God's will.  Here, human beings are called evil not to condemn all, but rather to contrast the imperfect goodness in human beings (where our goodness is also mingled with sin) with the perfect goodness of God (see Matthew 19:16-17).  My study Bible further comments that if imperfect and even wicked people can do some good, all the more will God work perfect good.  

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." My study Bible says that this "Golden Rule" fulfills the demands of the Law and the Prophets, and is a practical application of the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:39-40).  It's a first step in spiritual growth.  There is a  negative form of the Golden Rule ("Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you") which was well known in Judaism.  Christ's form is positive:  this is the action that begins to draw us toward God, my study Bible says.  

This "positive" form of the Golden Rule is illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, found only in Luke's Gospel (Luke 10:25-37).  In that parable, the Samaritan is the one who gives aid and help to the injured Jewish man, and so it is the Samaritan who was his true "neighbor."  In the language of the Gospel, the one who was the true neighbor was the one "who showed mercy" on the hurt man.  So this positive form of the Golden Rule applies to all acts of mercy, of charity, in whatever form that takes.  This ties in Jesus' statement at the beginning of the reading, concerning judgment.  Our positive acts toward others, embodying the things we'd want done for ourselves, become a way to heed Christ's teaching, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  Interestingly, Jesus also speaks of what we call "projection" in modern psychological terms.  That is, we're blind to our own flaws ("And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is your own eye?"), and we often accuse others of the very same thing we ourselves are doing.  This seems to be particularly true in the public eye, in which it's often observed.  We can see this on the smallest scale, such as an argument between child siblings, to the grandest scale, in which those committing war crimes will often accuse their opponents of the same crime.  Clearly Christ calls us, if we would be His disciples, to do otherwise, and to rise above this common human flaw as part of spiritual discipline.  One thing is certain, Jesus does not entertain those who would claim their character is written in stone or that human nature cannot be changed.  On the contrary, what He teaches is that our own minds are malleable and capable of the greatest transformation, for this indeed is the very essence of salvation, of repentance (in the Greek of the Gospels, the word for repentance literally means "change of mind").  What we are asked by Christ to do then, in our own discipleship, is to be aware of our propensity not simply to overlook or be blind to our own faults, but to project them onto others -- and to do something about that.  We're meant to shift our focus onto ourselves, and instead to follow this positive Golden Rule.   Good judgment, Jesus tells us, is impossible when we have no clear understanding of ourselves and our own faults, and hypocrisy leads to our downfall.  Indeed, the greatest condemnation Jesus gives will be in Matthew 23, when He rails against the religious leadership for their very hypocrisy.   We remember that the word "hypocrite" originally meant "actor" -- the Greek literally meaning "below the mask," as in the masks worn by actors in ancient plays signifying the character they play.  Many today would seem to replace religion as a guiding light for practices of mercy in public life, with the tools of political ideology and persuasion.  Yet there we also observe that many seem to turn a blind eye to the suffering of the powerless even as they pose as champions of enlightened policies and human rights.  So neither blindness to our own shortcomings nor hypocrisy has left the world, and perhaps the modern day power of propaganda and communication technologies make such masks that much more powerful and oppressive. Let us, then, look to our Lord to guide us in our lives, despite the hypocrisy we see.  In such a time, many would say that the light and truth of faith -- which shines from the inside to the outside -- is now more needful than ever.  For where there is hypocrisy there is surely hardness of heart.

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets

 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.  

 

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

- Matthew 7:1-12 

 

We are presently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught:  "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." 

 

"Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  My study Bible comments here that we will be judged with our own level of judgment because we are guilty of the things we judge in others (Romans 2:1).  We ourselves also have failed in repentance and in fleeing from sin.  To pass judgment is to assume God's authority.  The second part of this verse is found in Mark 4:24 and in Luke 6:38, each in a different context; no doubt Christ repeated this particular message many times.  It teaches us, also, how basic this concept is to our faith and our lives.  There is yet another important message here, and that is the means whereby we seek to clarify our own perceptions, to cleanse ourselves of false beliefs and values through repentance, and whether or not we have practiced our own spiritual learning and discipline in order to properly help others.  For without the discernment that only comes from one's own experience of repentance and spiritual growth, one fails to perceive clearly or properly.

 

 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."  My study Bible explains that while dogs and swine would refer to heathen peoples in the context of the time (Philippians 3:2, Revelation 22:15), they also would include Jews who do not practice virtue.  According to patristic literature, "dogs" are those people who are so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, while "swine" are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives.  Of course through continual evil behavior, this is possible for any one of us.  The pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, which includes Christ's teachings (Matthew 13:46) and the great sacraments.  These holy things are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant, my study Bible explains, not to protect the holy things themselves, for Christ needs no protection.  Rather, we protect the faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding God's mysteries in contempt. 

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  My study Bible points out that the verbs ask, seek, and knock are, in the Greek of the Gospel, present progressives.  In other words, Jesus is saying we are to "be asking," "be seeking," and "be knocking."  It asks us to note the synergy:  our effort is commanded, but never apart from the immediate help of God.  We ask in prayer; we seek by learning God's truth; and we knock by doing God's will.  Human beings are called evil here not in order to condemn all of us, but to contrast the imperfect goodness in people (our goodness is also mingled with sin - fallibility and imperfection), with God's perfect goodness (see Matthew 19:16-17).  My study Bible comments that if imperfect and even wicked people can do some good, all the more will God work perfect good.

 

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."  This is the "Golden Rule" which fulfills the demands of the Law and the Prophets.  It is also the practical application of the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:39-40).  My study Bible says it is a first step in spiritual growth.  The negative form of the Golden Rule ("Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you") was well-known in Judaism.  Jesus' form here is positive:  this is the action that begins to draw us toward God (see Luke 6:31).

My study Bible calls the Golden Rule ("Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets") the first step in the road toward God.  That is, when we simply begin to consider treating others as we'd like to be treated, we are making a first start on Christ's road of perfection, of being His disciples.  I daresay there are times when we'll find, in this practice, that there are others who don't like being treated as we'd like to be treated (that is, they don't necessarily want the same things from others that we do), but this becomes part of the learning curve of spiritual discernment and proper boundaries.  It is part of the learning curve of discipleship, even of how to deal with those who don't love or appreciate or treasure the "pearls" that we do.  Nonetheless, that very basic understanding of proper respect for other human beings becomes a first step in the journey of discipleship; it sets out a sense of what we might call boundaries, and lays down a foundation of how we approach Christ and neighbor.  It will teach us also that there are limits to what "doing good" means; what is good to us is not necessarily what others think of as good.  Moreover, it is the first step to discerning those who do not wish to receive the "pearls" which God has given to us.  On another level, it is important to understand that the road to Christ is the long learning curve of love.  What is good for people, what they truly need, may vary from person to person.  Sometimes love asks us to let go; sometimes love is reaching out.  Sometimes love means having to say "no" to what another person wants from us.  All of these things are integral to the spiritual life of discernment, the level of discipleship we have integrated and towards which we wish to move.  Jesus says earlier in today's reading, "First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  He emphasizes that it is this spiritual experience, this discipleship journey, that makes us qualified to even begin to help another:  not only to recognize the "speck" in another's way of perceiving, but even to understand our own difficulties in perceiving and doing away with the flaws in our ways of seeing, the places where we are blind.  In terms of how we treat others and the Golden Rule, the more blind we are in our own way, the more we seem to project our flaws onto others, and fail to see where we also need change and repentance.  The things we fail to see about ourselves on this road of discipleship become the places where we fail to "change our minds" in repentance, and so to correct our own spiritual sight.  In the midst of all of this, Jesus promises great help:  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."  We do not do spiritual seeking on our own; the level of change we need is one that is addressed through asking, seeking and knocking.  It is through a life of prayer that God can help us to know our way; this is not a journey that we judge nor undertake ourselves.   It is only God's love -- and the help of Father, Son, and Spirit and the saints and angels with whom we pray -- that can lead us on this journey, teach us, guide us, refine us, and help us to know what we need to cast away.  And this is where real discernment comes in, when we realize our dependency upon God, and that we cannot undertake this journey without the practices of our faith and the loving hand of the Helper (and other helpers) always there, and the communion we find in the great cloud of witnesses, both seen and unseen, by which we are always surrounded.   We are taught to "judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."   It's only with God's help that we can seek good judgment, and discernment -- for everything begins with the Golden Rule.

You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  

 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

 

- Luke 16:10–17 (18) 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"  My study bible declares here that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how one spends one's money.  The money that we consider to be our own is actually another man's -- that is, belonging to God, or at least to the poor.  It says that in the patristic tradition there is a universal understanding that a person's failure to give money to God's work is stealing.  St. Theophan calls it "nothing less than embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."  

"No servant 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."    Here Jesus lays out what is seemingly a rare division of the world into competing opposites.  But the truth is that He is expressing the idea that God's way of thinking and being, and therefore our participation in God's kingdom, is quite different from a perspective based on pure materialism and without God.  In true participation in this kingdom, we have a perspective on our wealth and possessions that comes from our faith, and what Jesus is demonstrating clearly here is the stark difference between a life with the perspective of faith and a perspective without it.  What Christ is laying out is the total incompatibility and contradiction within these two perspectives.  One view the world and all that is in it from the perspective of faith in a God who created it and dwells within it and among us; the other is a purely materialist perspective minus the dimension of spiritual reality. 

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study bible tells us that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.  Again, continuing His comment regarding loyalty to God or to mammon, Jesus lays out the difference in perspective between that which is illumined by faith in God and that which is not, when He says that "what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."   This leads us to understand that the justification "before men" -- that is before the society of human beings -- tends to be focused purely on the material, and misses the perspective of faith in the reality of God's presence.

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."   With Jesus' Baptism by John, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets has emerged into a new covenant of faith in the gospel of the kingdom of God, as preached by Christ.   In this context, we are given to understand that an understanding of justice and righteousness also must be given within this new context of the gospel of the Kingdom.

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Some might think this statement seems out of context.  In reality of the time in which Christ speaks, the hotly contested topic of divorce also revolved around rulings which concerned themselves with monies which accompanied marriage, and their transfer through divorce -- even manipulation of the law through divorce and remarriage merely for acquisition of this money.  Christ frames marriage in the context of the gospel of the Kingdom, teaching the heavenly perspective regarding marriage, and not merely based on material considerations from a purely earthly understanding of the institution of marriage.   On this basis, the Church understands holy matrimony as a sacrament.

In thinking about marriage, it strikes me that in the entire context of the Scriptures, marriage has been understood as that which unites Creator and creature, and especially God and God's people.  Infidelity is used frequently to describe the actions of an unfaithful people; as such metaphors of prostitution, adultery, and harlotry have accompanied prophetic calls to the people to come back to their faith.  This "unfaithfulness" has also been seen in the Old Testament context as that which is responsible for so many of the misfortunes of Israel throughout its spiritual history.  So, in the context of Jesus' speech regarding the inability to serve both God and mammon, the image of marriage is an important one, as Jesus is calling us to a fidelity of faith in God, and a rejection of serving and allying with mammon.  Our deepest need for fidelity is to God, first and foremost, and we cannot serve two masters who are divided in their aims, wills, and whole orientation to life and its purposes and functions.  Our fidelity follows Christ's "first and great commandment" given in Matthew 22:34-40:  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  The second one, which Jesus said was "like" the first, is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  On these two commandments, said Jesus, hang all the Law and the Prophets.  So, if we consider marriage as the metaphor for faith -- and especially in the context of today's reading, we are taught to direct our love in a very important way.  We must seek God first, and then all these things are added unto us (Matthew 6:33).  In yesterday's reading Jesus spoke about using the things of "unrighteous mammon" to make friends for ourselves.  That is, by using our material goods in a righteous way, to feed and clothe and help those who are in need, we are able to make friends in an everlasting home.  And so, this remains true in today's reading.  We are not asked to serve unrighteous mammon, but to serve God.  But here is the key:  we may use all the good things and material potentials of this world in the ways that God asks of us, keeping ourselves in fidelity and loyalty to God first, and putting the kingdom of God first.  In this way, we serve God and God's kingdom even with all the things of this world.  Jesus puts marriage into this context when He shifts the dialogue on divorce into an awareness of a spiritual, loving purpose to marriage that is not merely material in consideration and purpose.  Let us consider that when we pray, we may place all things at our disposal into God's hand for guidance for us.  That would include anything in our possession, as well as problematic circumstances, painful personal realizations and defects, and imperfect life, and all the rest that the world of "unrighteous mammon" may somehow present to us.  Our lives are to be transfigured in the fidelity to Christ, which is the true way of the Cross.  Let us consider how all things are in God's hands, as potential for us to use our lives and to live them God's way.