Where is your treasure?

馬 太 福 音 第 6 章：19 - 24 节
Sermon on Matthew 6 : 19 - 24

Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Roosevelt, the renowned U.S President in the 1930s and early 1940s once said, [P] “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes.” Agree? I personally find this an incisive comment. Indeed, it is not what we say and trumpet that best reflect what we truly believe in, but our ongoing judgments, discretions and decisions in daily matters. Friends, what is that which tend to govern our choices in daily affairs? What tend to be the desired outcomes when we choose ‘a’ but not ‘b’ to ‘z’? If you are thinking along with me, don’t try too hard. What are the answers that have already come to mind?

In today’s text, Jesus expresses his deep concerns about these answers that have just crossed our minds, almost instantaneously when the question was asked a moment ago. Jesus has quite a bit to say in this morning’s text concerning these answers of ours and also the answer that he wishes that we will arrive at.

The way Jesus expresses his concerns this time round is very much like the way he teaches on subjects such as anger, lust, and oath earlier on. He continue to make demands that seem to only make life difficult for his followers. He employs very strange sounding images and illustrations that make us wonder if we are reading English. Yet, he always punches home soul searching conclusions that we must be heartless to turn a deaf ear to what he is saying.

Like a bullet train, Jesus touches on 3 areas in these short few verses. But how many demands or commands is he loading upon us this time? Three, more than three, or just one? And if it is just one, then what is it?

Jesus began the section by saying emphatically, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” I don’t think any of us has misunderstood Jesus to be saying that we are not to work hard and accumulate wealth. The Old Testament is filled with examples on hard work and accumulation being a good thing. When God created the world, he created jobs for the first man on earth right in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:15 says that it was God who fetched the man to his workplace. Next, ants, the six-legged creepy crawlies, whether red, black or white in color, we hate them all. But these 6 legged creatures were featured 2 times in the bible. And in both instances, they were showcased as positive examples on working hard and stockpiling of food (Pb 6:6; 30:25). More critically, without stockpiling, the holy blood line and many more around Egypt may not have survived to this day. Remember Joseph asking the Pharaoh to store up grains for the years of drought, which in turn saved Joseph’s family when drought finally came (Gen 42:33-36; 45:7). God loves his creation, and stockpiling is a way to allow the creation to last and endure.

Turning to the epistles in the New Testament, Christians were required to provide for their relatives, we read this in 1 Tim 5.8. This means that believers were to work hard for relations beyond one’s immediate family. And when we turn to 2 Cor 12:14, Paul says something which I hope our young friends will never use as a trump card, especially since ang pows now are on the way, “ For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.” [P] In short, it is clear that working hard and wealth accumulation is not in conflict with biblical teachings.

But whatever can be accumulated on earth, we know, does have its problems. And Jesus name for us 2. Firstly, although earthly accumulations can be of great value, and in our present days, it is great value plus increased convenience and efficiency. But one fact remains; the best thing that can be said is that they are after all insecure. So be wise, says Jesus, and rate your treasures.

Secondly, with or without us knowing, our treasures of choice, whatever they may be, choose for us the way we live our lives. John Calvin underscore this understanding by saying, “if honor is rated the highest good, then ambition must take complete charge of a man; if money, then forthwith greed take over the kingdom; if pleasure, then men will certainly degenerate into sheer self-indulgence" [P] In short, treasures dictate. So be wise, says Jesus, and choose very carefully your treasures.

Friend, what are our treasures? What are the good stuffs that dictates us? If you are thinking along with me, what are the answers that have already come to mind?

Moving on, Jesus says in verse 22 that the eye is the lamp of the body. I can’t help but think about this gentleman [P] every time I come across the verse. Iron Man, way off the mark, but a good enough pictorial illustration of what Jesus is referring to here. According to scholars, it was only after the medieval period when the human eye was understood as like a window through which a person takes in images from the surrounding. Well, that is at least the case in the Western part of the world. Back in those days when man taught that earth looks like a pan pizza and the sun revolves around the earth, the eye was taught to contain its own light. This sounds rather strange, but only as strange as for the ancients to imagine the earth looking like a ball, and people living at the bottom of it standing and walking upside down.

I don’t think I can explain why ancient people carries such an understanding, but maybe a few bible verse can help to assure us that such was indeed their understanding of the human eye. [P] “The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones.” (Prov 15:30) [P] “Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.” (Deut 34:7) [P] “Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see.” (Gen 48:10) The same was said about Isaac in his old age. And so, we see that the eye being the lamp of the body is not a figure of speech, but a literal description of the ancients’ understanding.

The eye as a light emitting lamp is a difficult concept to grasp, but there are even tougher explanations to be done if we want to properly unpack these verses that talk about the eye. Let’s not do that, but allow me to begin drawing out the message that Jesus is driving home.

Verse 23 ends with these words, [P] “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “ Jesus began by saying that the eye is the lamp that gives off light, and ended by commenting about the light in a person. In this case, it has to be that the light in the person is the light source that send light out of the body through the eyes. Yes, this explanation again sounds strange, but it is altogether in line with what Jesus said earlier in Matthew 5:14-16, that “You are the light of the world”, “[so] let your light shine before others.” Friend, light just shines, what else? What else is light supposed to do? Yet Jesus had to instruct his disciples to let their light shine before other. What has gotten in the way and blocked the light going forth from the disciples?

In this morning’s passage, Jesus says that the eye can be either healthy or bad. The Greek word translated here as healthy can also mean [P] ‘clear’ or ‘generous’. But the Greek word can also be rendered as [P] ‘single’, ‘simple’ and ‘unmixed’ in English. And here we locate the pivotal point of the whole matter, if the eye of a disciple is single and unmixed, if his or her focus is single and simple; in other word, if the disciple’s concerns are about God and his glory and nothing else, then the light of God in him or her will go forth to others. But if the heart of the disciple is always crowded by many and mixed concerns, then all that can be seen from the eyes will be just reflections and ‘print screens’ of those concerns.

Friend, what do we think people are seeing when they look at our eyes? If you still are thinking along with me, what are the answers that has already come to mind?

“No one can serve two masters,” this popular phrase opens the final section of today’s text. We, busy city dwellers, are often overwhelmed with many tasks to complete: projects and assignment to finish, friend to keep in touch, drama serials on the TV, tablets and phones to catch up. I don’t suppose “no one can serve two masters” to be one of our favorite bible verses. In fact, “no man can serve two masters” comes across from time to time as an accusation that finds us guilty. Biblical scholars would like us to know that Jesus is technically incorrect in this case, because it was a legally possible for slaves back then to serve concurrently more than one master. But we know what Jesus is driving at. Mammon, like treasures, can dictate and claim lordship over one’s life. And so Jesus is asking us once more, to what do we pledge our service and allegiance? This time, what is the answer that has already comes to mind?

Friends, less we walk away this morning finding Jesus’ words accusing us, let me say that that’s not the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount. The three sections make us ask ourselves, again and again, what is our top most priority in life, and what follows immediately is the passage on not to worry, for we have a Heavenly Father who takes care of our needs. First get the priorities straight and then look to the Father who cares. Isn’t this the message of the Lord’s Prayer? Do we ever find the Lord’s Prayer which has been sung with many beautiful tunes an accusation? No, not accusation, but exhortation, or invitation, to put the Father first and then trust in him who knows and who provides for our needs. Likewise, the words of Jesus here aim to nudge us toward giving our heavenly Father who cares for us the first place.

But this is far from easy. Our heart, that which seeks to grab but is in fact being grabbed by what is call treasures, is constantly exposed to the radiation of meritocracy, individualism, and popular and trendy ideas, which all present itself as treasures to be grabbed. Our hearts need to be reminded time and again that our treasure (singular), our treasure that in which we experience true riches and at the same time owns us is to be none else but God.

Our hearts need to be reminded of this. The hymn writer who wrote the hymn, ‘Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessings” knows this only too well. The first and second verses of the hymn are words of praise and worship, singing about God’s worthiness and his act of salvation. But then, we have this in the third verse: [P]

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

A happy song usually stays happy throughout, likewise a sad song. In the church, a praise song usually sings words of praise from start till finish. But for this hymn, word of praise and worship are replaced suddenly in the third verse with words of confession and prayer. The writer first admits to the tendency to wander from God and to cleave to other treasure, followed by praying that God would seal his heart for the Kingdom. As a church community, we are quick to launch into the singing of praise and worship songs, but we who are constantly exposed to the radiation of new ideas and trends are probably also prone to wander. We need God’s goodness that’s like a fetter to keep us from wandering, to help us put him in the first place. This morning, can I invite us to close by praying with the tune and words of this verse, committing ourselves to the Good God, and pray that he will indeed help us to love him and love him still.