You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "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 currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer.  He said, "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."  By attaching ourselves to treasures on earth, my study Bible says, we cut ourselves off from heavenly treasures.  In this way, people become slaves to earthly things rather than free in Christ.  It says that the heart of discipleship lies in disentangling ourselves from the chains of earthly things, and attaching ourselves to God, 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, νοῦς/nous) is the spiritual eye of the soul.  It illuminates the inner person and governs the will.  To keep one's mind wholesome and pure, it says, is fundamental to the 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 slaves who serve two masters, people seek to maintain an attachment to both earthly and heavenly things.  My study Bible calls this impossible, since both demand full allegiance.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but because of the control that it has over people.  

 

What does it mean to serve two masters?  We live in a world where we can pursue different passions, ambitions, goals.  In Christ's teaching, there is one great and first commandment:  to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength; and there's a second which is like it, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Let's note that the world love is the active principle in both of these two great commandments.  These are, after all, the two commandments which Jesus teaches contain all the Law and the Prophets (see Matthew 22:35-40).  And in this context we are invited in to consider Christ's words in today's reading.  He speaks of two masters in order to tell us that for we human beings, this is impossible.  We can't serve two.  We will have to choose what we place first.  Jesus speaks of riches in a way for us to understand what hold our own desires and focus have on us; that is, whatever it is that we place first in life.  This word mammon (μαμωνᾶς/mamonas in the Greek) becomes personified so that we can understand this sort of relationship we establish through such choices.  The word had come to mean riches or wealth in Christ's time, but importantly comes from a root meant to indicate what one puts trust in.  When we consider that the root of the word translated as faith or belief in the Gospels means "trust," then we come to understand the competing realities Jesus is talking about.  We cannot trust in both God and mammon; we have to choose one, because it will determine the value of everything else.  What is our true treasure?  By what do we measure the value of all else?  In this context, also, it's important to see that when we make anything our master short of God -- where that depth of trust belongs -- then we become slaves of that thing.  True freedom is found in the reality which Christ brings to us and offers us.  So wealth, once we make it our ultimate treasure, becomes the thing we slave for; this in turn in our modern age can be seen also in the images of addictions of all kinds, whether that be drugs, or gambling, another person, a cult, or whatever else we give our souls to.  In short, worship -- faith -- only belongs with real confidence in one place.  Jesus literally speaks of treasure, which is another definition for mammon.  What is our true treasure?  What do we place first in substance, power, authority, value?  What do we treasure first?  All else will be subject to that.  He speaks of the eye; how do we see things?  What do we gaze upon to want or desire?  If it's not the light of Christ that fills the eye, then we have darkness -- and how we see determines our whole lives, even the place of the soul and the path it follows in life.  In His explanation of the parable of the Sower, Jesus illustrates the pitfalls of those who cannot produce good fruit by suggesting "the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches" as thorns which choke the good word (see Matthew 13:1-23).  Let us understand this is a choice of what we put first, what we cherish.  In our very next reading, Jesus will expand upon this subject, addressing our anxieties over the material things we need in this context.  He will teach, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."  Let us choose wisely what and Whom we serve, and all else will be placed in proper relationship.  For this is the very definition of righteousness.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

 "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

In the lectionary cycle, we are reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  For the earlier readings in the Sermon on the Mount, see The Beatitudes;  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven;  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven;  I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment;  Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect; and Do not be like the hypocrites.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught us 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 says that "by attaching themselves to treasures on earth people cut themselves off from heavenly treasures.  They become slaves, not free in Christ.  The heart of discipleship lies in (1) disentangling ourselves from the chains of earthly things, and (2) attaching ourselves to God, the true treasure.  We have need for certain material things, but we use them according to God's will and purposes."  Let us remember these teachings come just after the teachings on almsgiving, prayer, and fasting -- and especially the emphasis on the warnings against hypocrisy.  Here, Jesus takes us to the real step He has in mind:  our focus is on God and the love of God, and the real treasures in that bond of love.

"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 tells us:  "Jesus refers to things within the reach of the senses so that we might more easily grasp His teaching.  We all understand the value of light in our lives.  As the eye is the lamp of the body, so the mind (Gr. nous) is the spiritual eye of the soul:  it illuminates the whole inner man.  Keeping our spiritual eyes good, that is, wholesome and pure, is fundamental to a Christian life."  If we recall, Jesus very early in the Sermon on the Mount, spoke of salt and of light.  Here, the light is taken to that deeper internal level of unification within ourselves:  the idea is that this bond of love in God, our real Master, is what illumines our own sight in the first place.  Without that, how are we to shine into the world?

"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."  My study bible notes:  "As slaves serving two masters, people attempt to maintain an attachment both to earthly and to heavenly things.  But this is impossible, for both demand full allegiance.  Jesus calls mammon a master, not because it is by nature evil, but because of the absolute and wretched servility it exacts."

Here's the real conflict, what do we choose to serve?  A completely material-minded perspective, that has the outward "appearance" in mind, is going to miss the point.  Or worse, in Jesus' teaching, one cannot serve both our real and true inner relationship to God and the relationship to a material-minded perspective.  In this sense, these teachings take us even deeper into what it is to truly live as a hypocrite, focused on the outer life or appearance alone.  Instead, it is the light of the eye that must inform how to live in the world, what to do with our possessions and our worldly lives.  Jesus presents such a stark picture because He's trying to get us to understand the stark reality of our choices.  It all depends on what we put first.  Which master do we serve?  If we first consider the things of heaven and the precious treasures there, then we are on a good road in our lives.  He likens that treasure to the light of the eye, the thing we really need to see by, so that what we do with our lives will be illumined by that light.  The absence of this light, He implies, conveys an incredible darkness -- without it, there is no light at all.  It is God who gives the light that illumines us, and we may shine that light in the world.  It all depends on what we hold first and best in our hearts, what we truly treasure, what we love.  Whatever that is, it becomes our master.  It is the first and most important thing.  Elsewhere, in the parable of the Sower, Jesus speaks about "the deceit of riches."  Here, He implies that you really can't rely on material life alone as if it were God, the true master.  Material treasures can be eaten by moths and rust away, or stolen by thieves.  But what we gain as the internal light of real wisdom, in a faith in something of true substance, we don't lose; it will see us through our lives, especially the times of uncertainty, apparent failure, and the letdown of position in a worldly sense.  Who do we love?  What lights us up?  Who do we truly serve?  God made the world and all in it good; let us remember how we use what we have as stewards called to be children of God.  What is our true treasure?  Jesus calls us to take good care to discern what it is we truly love, and what will truly love us back with our best interest at heart!  What master will truly care for us?