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, also 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 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?"   This comment comes in the context of the parable of the Unjust Steward which Jesus has immediately given to His disciples (see yesterday's reading, above).  It refers to our use of the things of this world in the service of our faith, including "unrighteous mammon," our wealth.  According to my study Bible, the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how that person spends his money.  The money we consider our own is actually another man's, that is, it belongs to God, or possibly to the poor.  It says that the patristic writers universally see a person's failure to give money to Gods work as stealing.  In the words of Theophan, it is "nothing less than the 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."  This is a continuation of Christ's discussion about how we use our material resources and how we live our lives.  We are always servants, in all that we do, and we must choose which master we serve in how we use our material wealth and what we do with it.

 

 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also 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 comments that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.

"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."  Jesus makes a powerful statement to the Pharisees about the New Covenant.  The kingdom of God has been preached by Christ, and He has taught His apostles to do so as well.  When He sent out the Twelve on their first apostolic mission, He sent them to preach the kingdom of God (Luke 9:2).  When He sent out the Seventy on their apostolic mission, He taught them to say to the people in whatever city they entered, "The kingdom of God has come near to you," and if they were rejected there, to say, "Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you" (see Luke 10:8-12).  Within this context, the emphasis here is on the New Covenant's fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, a deep manifestation of the true spirit and aim of the Law.  In His own time, the Pharisees and others hotly disputed the laws and regulation concerning divorce.  Again, in the context of property and wealth, part of those disputes centered upon the monies that a wife brought with her into marriage, and how these could be abused by certain divorce practices.  But in His talks about marriage as a sacred institution, Jesus emphasizes what is given in Genesis as a picture of love which is meant to be eternal (see Matthew 19:2-10).  In each of these cases, the emphasis remains on the choice to serve God or mammon; the kingdom of God is meant to be a deeper manifestation of covenant with God, governing all that we do.

What does it mean that we are part of a covenant with Christ that forms His gospel of the kingdom of God?  Jesus makes a profound statement when He says, "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."  What this is telling us is that the one master we choose to serve must govern all of our lives.  There is not one pocket of life in which we make an exception, and other compartments where we can honor God.  But the gospel of the kingdom of God teaches us that the presence of the Kingdom is everywhere; there is no place where it should not be, or where we should not live according to its laws and teachings.  Even when it comes to where and how we spend our money or use our possessions, it's our faith that needs to be honored in what we do.  This means a prayerful life, in which we seek to honor God and find God's way for us in the world.  The past few readings have emphasized the powerful mercy of God that governs the laws of heaven.  This is found in the seeking out of the lost sheep and the lost coin (see Tuesday's reading), the rejoicing over a soul lost to God that has been found again (in the parable of the Lost Son, or Prodigal Son, in Wednesday's reading).  In the parable of the Unjust Steward, in yesterday's reading, above, Jesus taught the disciples about their own mission as sinners among other sinners, as "sons of light" who must deal as shrewdly as the "sons of this world" in terms of their work as servants of God who seek the souls for the kingdom of God.  In all things, as disciples of Christ, we're meant to keep in mind the priorities and prerogatives of God, and especially God's love and mercy and longing for all beings to return to God and to covenant.  In this covenant of the Kingdom, Jesus emphasizes in many different ways the reality of its presence, and that we seek to live this Kingdom even here in this world.  In the Lord's Prayer, He has taught us to pray to Our Father, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Luke 11:2).  In our dealings with others, we will either serve that will or the will of mammon which governs the way we deal with material wealth.  But a consciousness of God's mercy and love must permeate the choices we make, a sense of whom it is we serve must always be with us in the reality of the presence of the kingdom of God.  It is our top priority, our covenant.  Jesus says to the Pharisees, "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."   Well, He speaks to us as well, for we are each capable of being modern day Pharisees, in this sense of hypocrisy and love of money.  He is not criticizing wealth itself, nor the beautiful, bountiful things of this world.  But He is aiming at how we use what we have, the blessings we're given -- so that we remember the One who sustains and blesses and honor God with how we steward what we're given.  For the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21).  Let us always strive to remember and honor that presence.

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, also 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 taught 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?  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."  My study bible says that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on someone is directly related to how one spends one's money.  What we consider our own is actually another man's, that is, belonging to God, or at least to the poor.   By tradition, my study bible says the Father's universally see a person's failure to give money to God's work as stealing.  It quotes Theophylact of Bulgaria as saying this is "nothing less than embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."  In this context, Jesus' words that no servant can serve two masters can be understood as saying that even in the realm of "riches" (mammon), it's God's law that must prevail in the ways in which we use all our resources.

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also 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 suggests that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.

"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."  My study bible explains that Jesus fulfills the Law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions.  He performs God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15), and transgresses none of its precepts (John 8:46; 14:30).  Here He declares the perfect fulfillment of the Law which He's about to deliver, and grants righteousness to us, which is the goal of the Law (Romans 3:31; 8:3-4; 10:4).  Jesus fulfills the Prophets by both being and carrying out what they have foretold. 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  My study bible tells us that under Mosaic Law it was easy for a man to divorce a woman; Jesus repeatedly condemns this practice because of its misuse and the kind of hardship it conveyed upon women (who could not divorce, and had no likely means of support nor social standing aside from marriage).  In this context, Jesus repeatedly emphasizes the eternal nature of marriage and its holiness.  This is a bond of love and care, and in that context it fits rightly into the rest of the themes of today's reading.   Our readings on this consistent subject (of righteousness and the Law) began when Jesus was criticized by scribes and Pharisees for eating with and spending time in the company of sinners.   Different schools of the Pharisees at the time of Jesus were divided on divorce; some followed a more stringent rule that suggested divorce should only be given on the grounds of sexual immorality, while others for any reason.  What that suggests is that here, consistent with all of His teachings in the past few readings on the subject of righteousness in our every day dealings, Jesus is giving a rather strict interpretation of the Law on the subject of divorce.  In so doing, He's perhaps calling out the Pharisees on their own hypocrisy in this respect, after He's been criticized for time spent with sinners.  He's effectively insisting on the righteousness of His ministry.

The consistent theme in our readings is Jesus' expression of righteousness in all things.  He doesn't defy the Law, He embodies the Law.  He clearly states that not only is His Kingdom one of righteousness, but it is also one of lawfulness.  His consistent theme is that the law of God, of righteousness, surpasses all things, no matter what we're doing and no matter what the subject.  If our subject is on the management of a company or a household, Christ gives us a parable (in yesterday's reading) in which shrewd dealing means a "forgiveness" of debts in order to come to terms and settle.  If you think about it, this is good judgment in all kinds of ways, and in the practice of law, a good settlement does just that:  puts an end to costly strife and makes a peace.  But Jesus says this kind of behavior applies on levels and terms of righteousness; it's not just shrewd business dealing, it's "good dealing."  To save sinners and to be joyful like the angels when one repents and returns to the kingdom of God is righteousness behavior.  It's a righteous attitude.  To hold marriage as sacred and to take vows of commitment seriously is righteousness; it's all in how one holds the value of relationships and other human beings.  It's God-like to rejoice over one who has been restored to you, who was lost and is found again, who was dead and is alive again.   So the laws of God apply in any and all situations; it's always up to us to be trustworthy in the "little" so that we are trustworthy in the greater.  All the ambitions of pride, of place, of status, mean nothing in the court of God.  What really means something is the law of the gospel message, the righteousness of the Kingdom.  It applies everywhere.