God or Mammon

MHA: In the next part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus focuses on the topic of earthly wealth.  Jesus considered wealth a hindrance to attaining the kingdom of heaven.

DMLJ: One of the most subtle problems with which the Christian ever has to deal is this problem of his relationship to the world.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.2 - The Sermon on the Mount, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Matthew 6: 19(a) Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth… 20(a) But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…

I have broken the two initial verses in this part for a purpose, as Lloyd-Jones offers an interesting examination just this way.  He sees these verses, when read this way, as an assertion, or injunction – a negative one and a positive one.  Jesus, being God, had no requirement to say anything more; He did not owe any explanation, yet in His kindness toward us, to aid our understanding, He would provide meaningful detail.

Matthew 6: 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Metropolitan Hilarion draws out a strong connection and illustration, looking to see how the word “treasure” is used elsewhere in Matthew.

Matthew 13: 44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

The behavior of these two men seems almost inexplicable – selling all that they had for what they found.  Treasure is that which is more valuable than everything else one holds valuable.  The distinction Jesus is drawing out: is this treasure – a treasure more valuable than everything one owns – something of earth or something of heaven?

Treasure upon earth.  It should not be understood merely as money, or material wealth.  If it was so, this teaching would be wasted on the poor.  Yes, it may be money.  But it also might be a husband, wife, child.  It could be a gift one has – intelligence, strength, beauty.  It might be a love of honor or status or position.

Of course, it does include money, or physical wealth.  In this case, it could mean living merely to accumulate more wealth.  Then again, living to accumulate more status or more beauty or more honor.  You get the idea.  Becoming a slave to any of these things, this is the sure sign of storing treasure on earth.

What of treasures in heaven?  One treasure is the treasure of those you helped on earth:

DMLJ: If you have money, so use it while you are here in this world that, when you arrive in glory, the people who benefitted by it will be there to receive you.

The apostle Paul writes:

1 Timothy 6: 17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Lloyd-Jones understands this to mean that we are to use our wealth in this world such that we are building up a balance for the next.  Metropolitan Hilarion understands it as a call for good works, for the wealthy to share with the poor.

John Chrysostom would write:

‘And these things I say, not because riches are a sin: the sin is in not distributing them to the poor. …nor should I call that wealth [good], which instead of doing away poverty rather increases it.’

The Christian – and Jesus here is speaking to the Christian, the person who has come through the Beatitudes – lives and acts differently.  He does this by having a right view of his place in this world – he is a pilgrim here.  He also has a right view of his role, that of a steward.  He knows that he will have to give an accounting. 

DMLJ: How can I use these things to the glory of God? …I am a child of the Father placed here for His purpose, not for myself.

Treasure on earth is subject to theft.  Like all things of earth, these will decay and will perish. No matter how much, how beautiful, how strong, this is certain.  This is not the case for the treasures stored in heaven, where God is the perfect keeper.  There is do decay, no death, no theft – no corruption in any form.

Matthew 6: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What grips our feelings, our desires, our longings?  Treasures on earth or treasures in heaven?  On which do we focus and attend?

Matthew 6: 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

This passage seems out of place.  Why is it here?  Each author brings some real clarity to these verses: why they are here and how might we understand these.

DMLJ: This picture of the eye is just His way of describing, by means of an illustration, the way in which we look at things.

Metropolitan Hilarion examines the Greek word translated in the King James as “single.”  In the translation he uses, the word used is “clear.”

MHA: The use of the adjective haplous to mean “clear” is unusual: it literally means “simple.”

DMLJ: There is what He calls the ‘single’ eye, the eye of the spiritual man who sees things as they really are, truly and without any double view.

Then there is the evil eye.  The evil eye is one that is blurry, where the lenses aren’t clear.  There are mists, certain prejudices, lusts and desires. 

MHA: The image of the eye is used to refer to sight in the sense of the ability to distinguish light from darkness. …Jesus is speaking of a person’s ability to differentiate between good and evil, to distinguish true treasures from false treasures.

The eye is often used as a reference to the mind, heart, or conscience. 

MHA: …it is possible to say that spiritual blindness is the absence or loss of the ability to make the right choice.  And conversely, the possession of spiritual sight refers to the presence of an inner voice that helps a person to recognize true and abiding treasure…

Light and darkness are used often in Scripture: light for good or God, darkness for evil or the absence of God.

MHA: …if the relationship between light and darkness has been violated in a person, if he has lost the proper system of coordinates, he is no longer capable of distinguishing good from evil, of making the right choice between earthly and heavenly riches, between God and mammon.

In this passage, Jesus is talking about a most fundamental choice: which master will we serve?  The choice is God or the material.  Without the eye (mind, heart), we cannot distinguish light from darkness.  This is the reason Jesus inserted these seemingly disparate statements within this teaching.

Matthew 6: 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Here, Jesus is using language common to the time.  The idea of servants and masters was well-known in the Roman world. 

MHA: The image of the servant with two masters was intended only to demonstrate the impossibility of simultaneously serving two ideals – the heavenly and the earthly.  Each excludes the other; reconciling God and mammon is impossible.

Each of these two masters is totalitarian; they each make totalitarian demands.  They each want us to live for them absolutely. 

DMLJ: Whom do you serve?  That is the question, and it is either God or mammon.

In any compromise between food and poison, death always wins.  (Ayn Rand got it right, and very wrong, at the same time.)  We cannot love two opposite things at the same time. 

DMLJ: Ye cannot serve God and mammon; it is impossible.  So if a materialistic outlook is really controlling us, we are godless, whatever we may say.

This really struck me, and I think it gets right at the root of this entire teaching.  We live in such a world.  Yes, certainly materialist in the sense of wealth and possession, but deeper than that: we are nothing more than the result of random atoms smashing together randomly.  There is nothing higher, nothing above, nothing transcendent.

DMLJ: Our Lord is concerned here not so much about our possessions as with our attitude toward our possessions. … Indeed we go further.  It is a question of one’s whole attitude towards life in this world.

I guess that is what I am getting at: if my whole attitude is that I am a cosmic accident, it will affect how engage in this world.  This materialistic outlook of my being nothing but a cosmic accident is at the root of the choice spoken of in these verses. 

Conclusion

From John Chrysostom, regarding those who have darkened their mind with earthly riches:

“Thus among other things [the rich] tremble at poverty; or rather not at poverty only, but even at any trifling loss.  Yea, and if they should lose some little matter, those who are in want of necessary food do not so grieve and bewail themselves as they.”

This is as true as anything.

Epilogue

Taken from some further comments from Lloyd-Jones:

It all comes back to the corrosive nature of sin.  Sin has an entirely disturbing effect on man; it blinds us in some vital respects, in the relative value of things.  Take, for example, the relative value of life on this earth and eternal life with God; or the relative value of darkness and light.  Sin blinds us to these. 

Sin makes us a slave to the things that were designed by God to serve us.  We were meant to enjoy food, clothing, family, even material possessions.  When we love God, these things serve us; when we love these things, we serve them.

Put this all together: sin ruins man.  He will spend his life building treasures on earth, and in the end will find out he was wrong all along.  He has not lived for God, and everything he has lived for is gone.