The Rightside Up King And His Upside Down Kingdom: Heavenly Stock
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Matthew 6:19-24
Matthew 6:19-24
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
This particular division of Jesus’ sermon on the mount is found near the middle of Jesus’ entire homily. It is sandwhiched between his teaching on piety, found in the first half of the chapter (Matthew 6:1-18) and his teaching on priorities in the second half (Matthew 6:25-34).
It is here that Jesus warns His disciples against the dangers of materialism, while contrasting two treasures, two eys and two masters as a way to emphasize compassion, generosity and full devotion to God.
As Matthew recounts the words of Jesus, he emphasizes Jewish and Rabbinic idiomatic phrases that would have resounded heavily with his Jewish audience. That is simply an educated way of saying that Jesus chooses in this text to use many common day phrases and figures of speech to communicate timeless theological truths concerning compassion, generosity and full devotion to God.
Matthew does not recount his experience with Jesus chronologically, but rather topically. In fact, Matthew is not haphazardly topic, but he is strategically topical in that he groups the topics of the book around five great discourses, with the first being the sermon on the mount.
It is in Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” that he emphasizes Jesus as the Old Testament fulfillment and portrays Jesus as “the prophet unto like Moses.” In others words, just as Moses went to Mt. Sanai to receive the law, Jesus goes to the Mountain to set forth a new law.
Jesus is setting forth new Kingdom values, priorities and ethics in the entirety of the sermon on the mount, and in this text, the ethic that Jesus is espousing is the ethic of Kingdom priorities as it relates to wealth.
It is no accident that the ethics of wealth and priority follow the ethic of piety because righteousness in relation to God requires not only sincere devotion through almsgiving, prayer and fasting but it also requires that we trust him in every circumstance.
So, before one can assess their trust in God, one first has to confront their trust in riches.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
The text is organized into three divisions. Matthew contrasts:
1. Two Treasures (6:19-21
A. Treasure on earth (v. 19)
B. Treasure in heaven (v. 20)
C. Conclusion: Your treasure determines your affection (v. 21)
2. Two Eyes (6:22-23)
A. A healthy eye is full of light (v. 22)
B. An unhealthy eye is full of darkness (v. 22a)
C. Conclusion: The depths of darkness (v. 23b)
3. Two Masters (6:24)
A. Two Options (v. 24a)
B. Two reactions (v. 24b)
C. Conclusion: You cannot serve God and wealth (v. 24c)
The first contrast of the text occurs in verse 19 where the instruction is given “do not lay up for yourselves treasures...” The greek word for treasure occurs 9 times in the Gospel of Matthew and 17 times total in the New Testament. Over half of the occurences in the New Testament are found in Matthew since Matthew was a tax collector and well acquainted with the wealth of the world. The word can be translated to mean “wealth generally” or “to make a deposit.” The text seems to indicate that Jesus had in mind the definition of a deposit because he uses the imagery of wealth that is laid up.
The worldly wealth of the common people of the first century was counted in terms of their garments and their grain rather than silver and gold. Common people rarely had silver and gold. Rich people had silver and gold, but Jesus addresses them both, and levels the playing field by describing the wealth of the common folks and the wealth of the rich as wealth that does not last.
Whatever it is that you use to measure yourself against another person, is still not enough. Your wealth is prone to be corrupted by moth and rust or stolen by theives. It was common for people to keep their wealth in strongboxes in their homes and buried beneath the floor. And Jesus is speaking to an audience who understands that as well as you hide it, and dilligently as you make preparation to retain it, it is still subject to decay and theft.
This is why he admonishes his audience that instead of storing up what you can not secure, it is better to store it up and heaven and trust that God has it secured. This is not a condemnation of worldly wealth. In fact, Parents in both testaments are instructed to save for their children.
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
Jesus’ point isn’t to discourage acquiring wealth. His point is about a reflection of where your heart is. The point is that the things that you and I highly treasure are the things that occupy the heart, and the heart is the center of the personality. It is the thing that captivates the mind. It is the thing that directs your emotions and subjugates your will. It is the thing that draws you away from him that Jesus is contending for.
The second contrast is the contrast of two eyes. Matthew 6:21–23 “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
After comparing the two treasures, Jesus turns to a parable of two eyes to contrast the light and darkness of the inner life. In other words, to have a “healthy eye” is to be full of light, but to have a “unhealthy eye” is to be full of darkness. The word “healthy” means to “to be spread out” or “without a fold.” It refers to how the Christian sees the world. It is the fact that we operate without duplicity. It is that we are uncorrupted.
Jesus’ use of the eyes as a metaphor for morality was quite common among the Jews. A good eye signified a generous soul and an evil eye was a grudging soul.
“Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you.
A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth
And does not know that want will come upon him.
Jesus is using the contrasts of the eyes to associate light with the presence of God, as symbols of goodness, uprightness and blessings, whereas darkness is associated with wickedness, disaster, and judgement. As a matter of fact, light has always been used to characterize the life of the Christian.
I hear 1 John 1:7 saying “to walk in the light, as he is in the light,” which means to live in love.
In context, we can deduce that Jesus warns us that materalism that obfuscates our relationship our relationship with the Lord and shuts out the light of Christ. Materialism darkens our lives and leaves us grasping for pursuing less than what we’ve already been promised. Jesus’ words warns us against a progressive devolution. We are progressively devolving into demons who are never satisfied until we get more. More money, more houses. More cars. More clothes. More popularity. More degrees. More status. More esteem. More sex. More of everything.
And it seems like Jesus is wondering when are we going to want more of HIM. More love. More joy. More peace. More praying. More fasting. More blessed assurance. More Jesus is mine. More “oh what a foretaste of glory divine.”More praising my savior all the day long..”
Third and finally, the last contrast is the contrast of the two masters. After instructing his disciples to lay up treasures by guarding the affections of their heart, and to be filled with the light of love and truth, Jesus wraps up his message on materialism and misplaced priorities by speaking fo the ultimate devotion of the heart. The last metaphor of two masters reduces the issue that Jesus is addressing down to the point of allegiance.
The statement “no one can serve two masters” is not meant to be definitive. In fact, we see clearly that the slave girl in Acts 16:16 had multiple masters. Jesus’ point is that it is impossible to give two masters allegiance. Jesus says you will either love one, and hate the other or be devoted to one and despise the other.
Verse 24 is intended to combine the message of all three saying together to emphasize the point that you need to choose between pursuing wealth and pursuing God. You need to choose between pursuing what feeds your happiness and what feeds your holiness.
And the reality of it is that the worldly stuff that we often choose comes with more bills, more credit checks, more clock-ins and clock-outs, more stress, more baby mama and baby daddy drama, more STD’s, more shots, and more pills.
But when you set your affections on the Lord…
The Lord has already promised you..
A New House because somebody said “theres a mansion now empty just waiting for me...”
The Lord has already promised you...
A New City because said “its an emerald city with walls of jasper and streets of gold..”
And it’ll a crime free city because somebody said there will be no more theives, robbers and murderers...
The Lord has already promised you...
The best worship team you’ve ever heard because somebody said “the angels will be gathered around the throne singing Holy, holy, holy.”
The Lord has already promised you…
The best mental health you’ve ever had because somebody said “there will be no more death, no more dying, no more sickness no more pain...”
