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.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And who is my neighbor?

 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  He said to him, "What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?"  So he answered and said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'"  And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus answered and said:  "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

- Luke 10:25-37

In yesterday's reading, we read that the seventy returned with joy from their mission, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."  And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."  In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.  Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."

 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  He said to him, "What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?"  So he answered and said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'"  And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."  The lawyer quotes from two sections of the law:  Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.  What we note is that these quotations are all about relationship, to God and to neighbor.  Right relatedness is just or righteous behavior.

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus answered and said:  "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead."  Although there was a road from Jerusalem to Jericho, we may dwell on the symbolic value of this story as told by Jesus.  Jerusalem is the place of peace, and is symbolic of the communion with God (related to the two precepts of the law given above).  Jericho, as opposed to Jerusalem, was renowned as a place of sin (see 19:1).  To fall among thieves is a natural consequence of journeying away from God toward a life of sin.  In John 10:10 and elsewhere, Jesus refers to false leaders as thieves.

"Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side."  There are two important ways of looking symbolically at the addition of a priest and a Levite to this story.  The first is that titles and positions are meaningless in God's sight if true good work does not accompany them.  My study bible quotes Cyril of Alexandria who writes, "The dignity of the priesthood means nothing unless he also excels in deeds."  Secondly, that the priest and the Levite do not help this man is an indication of the failure of the Old Testament Law to heal the consequences of sin.

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."  My study bible says that the Samaritan in the story, while a despised foreigner, is an image of Christ (John 8:48), for He "came down from heaven" (Nicene Creed) to save even those in rebellion against Him.  In addition, the bandages, oil, and wine are sacramental images.  The bandages are like the garment of baptism, which delivers from the wounds of sin.  The oil of chrismation gives new life in the Holy Spirit,  the wine of communion is that of the divine Blood which leads to eternal life.  My study bible also says that His own animal indicates Christ bearing our sins in His own body.  The inn reveals the Church in which Christ's care is received -- and He pays the price for that care (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23). 

So here is the real question:  "Who is my neighbor?"  Jesus answers the question clearly with the elective actions of the Samaritan.  Leaving his own money to help to pay for the care of the man can also be symbolic of prayer, where we may pray even for our nominal enemies.   Elsewhere, Jesus speaks of a type of exchange, in which doing good is like wealth, when He teaches about having "treasure in heaven"  (Matthew 6:20, 19:21).  Our own elective actions and choices in following His word and teachings create this kind of treasure, even when they involve sacrifice on our part.  It is a way of understanding our own capacity to build relationship even where there is none, and thereby build righteousness and 'treasures' (good things) in the world.  It may be paradoxical, but if we get our mind around Christ's teachings, we see His way of thinking:  that we can be 'like God,' creating good where there is no good through our own capacity to choose outside of the box, so to speak -- in accordance with His word.  I think prayer has to be understood in terms of this "good deed" that is possible in all times.  We needn't have wealth or a whole host of capacities to be able to pray for anyone.  What we need is a heart that is moved with mercy, with care, and that is willing to love God and to love neighbor and be 'in communion' this way.  We can give up our enemies to God through prayer, we can pray for strangers, and we can do whatever we can for those in need - particularly for healing of any type.  God gives us the resources to act, even when we despair of resources.  Prayer can lead to inspiration for help we couldn't foresee nor think of immediately, it puts our mind in the right place to be disposed to help heal a situation or persons; it teaches intention and mercy even as we place ourselves in God's mercy for understanding and for compassion.  We are able to create 'good things' and to 'do good' at all times through such relatedness as He teaches, and as the law gives above.  A willing heart is the greatest blessing.  Everything starts from there.

No one can serve two masters

 "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, which began with last Monday's reading, The Beatitudes.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave us what we know as the Lord's Prayer.  He taught, "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 ourselves to treasures on earth, we cut ourselves off from heavenly treasures.  There is a distinct conflict between freedom in Christ and being slaves to earthly things.  It says that the heart of discipleship is in disentangling ourselves from the chains of earthly things, and in attaching ourselves to God, the true treasure.  Once again, Jesus emphasizes the life of the Kingdom even as we live our lives in the world; a set of values by which His disciples live in order to bear the Kingdom in the world, "on earth as it is in heaven."

"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 (nous in Greek) is the spiritual eye of the soul; it illuminates the inner person and governs the will.  Keeping one's mind wholesome and pure is fundamental to the Christian life.  How we "see" life and our place in it, our identity, is the centerpiece of the call of Christ's teachings.  For proper sight in this sense, we need God's light.

"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 says that as slaves who serve two masters, people seek to maintain attachment to both earthly and heavenly things.  But this is not possible, since both demand our full allegiance.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but  because of the control it has over people.

There's a clear split, a distinction made in Jesus' teaching, between the "worldly" (or "mammon") and the life of the Kingdom.  It's not that He's teaching that the two can never meet.  What He is teaching is that we must endeavor to bring the life of the Kingdom into the world, even as we live worldly lives.    But in order to do that, we need to focus on God first, the life of the Kingdom must be what we really desire.  In yesterday's reading, He gave us the Lord's Prayer, and taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  This is the substance of His teachings to us about how we live our lives, and what we put first as a priority -- even what it is that illumines the eye of the mind.  Our very thinking becomes paramount, as a way to walk in the light of God.  What He's calling for is a worldly life conditioned in that light, following a true desire -- our greatest treasure -- for the things of the Kingdom.  A "worldly" life, in this language, isn't about the world as a bad or inferior place; far from it!  On the contrary, the world is Creation, made for the light of God, for glory.  But if we are separate from God, if our mind is in darkness, then the glory of God is missing from the world, we fail to bear that Kingdom into the world.  In this sense, "worldly" means without the light of God -- "mammon" as object of worship becomes the color of our world, the thing that shuts out beauty, love, and righteousness.   We focus on the light of God so that we may bring it into the world, and live lives that glorify God by bringing everything into right relationship, using and caring for what we have in the world in ways illumined by faith and spiritual truth.  This is an image of wholeness, of a union of God's kingdom and the world, a restoration of who we are, what we are, how man was meant to live and even of the beauty and care of the world.  But there's one way to do it; we must choose what we worship, and God who illumines our way back to the beauty of Creation must help us to find this way, this light, to do so.  The Incarnation speaks to us of this union, and Jesus points the way by teaching us the essential importance of our choices.  As disciples, it is we who bear the Kingdom in the world.  So much depends on what we treasure, how we choose, who we choose to be and who we think we are.  Jesus emphasizes the heart, the center of who we are.  Where our heart is focused becomes the guiding and unifying point of our lives -- or the focus that separates and divides us from the potentials of light and love.

And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull

 And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.  And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.  Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.  And the inscription of His accusation was written above:

THE KING OF THE JEWS

With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left.  So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha!  You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."  Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.

- Mark 15:22-32

Yesterday, we read that Pilate answered and said to the crowd again, after he had offered to set Christ free due to occasion of the feast, "What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?"  So they cried out again, "Crucify Him!"  Then Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has He done?"  But they cried out all the more, "Crucify Him!"  So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.  Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison.  And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"  Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.  And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.  Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.

 And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.  And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.  Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.  And the inscription of His accusation was written above:  THE KING OF THE JEWS.  My study bible tells us that what was intended as an accusation and a mockery became instead a triumphant symbol.  The act of Pilate is prophetic, showing that the people have risen against their own King, and that the cross was the means by which Christ established His Kingdom.  The third hour is nine o'clock in the morning.

 With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left.  So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha!  You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."  Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.  My study bible says that Christ being crucified between two robbers not only fulfills the Scripture (Isaiah 53:12), but shows that He is completely identifying with sinful humanity.

What a scene is depicted here.  How much more can it be clear that Jesus is in a place where there is no mercy for Him?  It's interesting that in contrast to the horror we imagine of crucifixion, the Gospel has none of it:  not the gory details, nor any explicit mention of His suffering.  As in the ancient plays, it's all left to our understanding of what He goes through.  But the details give us a particular picture of this place where Jesus is brought to, and it's a place of no mercy at all.  It's Golgotha, the Place of a Skull.  Actually, in the Greek, it's suggestive of the phrase "The Skull Place."  That alone tells us something, this is the place of death, where death reigns.  Death is another image of evil itself, even the "evil one" and the impact of evil in the world, in so many forms of death on various levels. Jesus refuses the wine mixed with myrrh, the one analgesic available to Him.  There is nothing that is going to blunt the reality of what He goes through.  And there is nothing at all left for Him of a worldly life of any kindness or comfort:  the soldiers cast lots for His clothing.  "The King of the Jews" is crucified with two robbers at either side, standing in for the men of honor who would be at a king's right and left.  And then there are the ridiculers, the ones who continue to misrepresent His teaching about the temple, the ones who would insist He use His power to save Himself (echoing the temptation of Satan).  There's no respite here, no let up, nothing to save, with grace.  And that's really the key in a big way.  Jesus is in the agony of what life like without any grace at all.  The One who comes to the world to bring us grace is finally put in a place to die where grace does not exist for Him.  Even the ones crucified with Him revile Him.  At this point, He's cursed by all.  Where are the followers, the disciples?  In this scene, there's no room for them, no comfort.  No, the real grace in this picture is the reality of Who He is, what is going on, that this is a voluntary sacrifice, and that we know that His love and the love of God have put Him in a place where He knows what a merciless world is like, a world without His presence in it to counter death itself and the effects of evil.  This picture is what life is like without Him.  Truth is twisted, honor and true greatness are mocked and ridiculed, holy power and healing turned to refuse and death and rejection in the mouths of these so-called men of faith who curse Him and put God to the test.  Whatever we know and understand, our King knows what it is to be in a place without grace and without mercy, without love nor kindness nor respite from evil.  He goes before us, He knows all about the ugliness of the world, its brutishness, its failure to have values worth anything.  This is the place of the Skull, where He's left with nothing.  And yet, it is Christ who has everything, and in this act of being on the Cross, is in fact giving us all that there is:  grace and truth and beauty and life itself.  Nothing in this scene is the truth about Christ and His mission:  but the power of the Cross is the ultimate power over death and evil, and no one will take that away.  Not one of them.  His sacrifice for us all transcends all of it.