Open Handed Journey

Almost a year ago we took a trip around to different national parks in Utah. The first park we visited was Zion and we all agreed we thought it was the best! We decided to do an easy hike with the kids the last morning we were there. We began the hike with smiles and excitement. It was supposed to be a simple 3 mile hike, which wasn’t exactly what we experienced. After trudging through mud and finally getting to the climb we noticed that Gloria kept crouching down ever 10 feet or so. She was drawing something on the path with a stick. We finally asked her what she was doing, and she said, “X marks the spot, I am making a treasure hunt for other hikers.” She proceeded to mark the path with x’s all the way up and down the mountain.

If anyone took the time to dig up the treasure that was supposed to be under the x’s they would have been sorely disappointed. She didn’t have any treasure to put under the x’s, but she sure thought it was a great idea!

Our lives are marked with x’s. We have spent so much time and money digging up treasures only to find they never satisfy. The hunt is fun, but we rarely find anything valuable that is worth the time and money we put into it.

Jesus addresses our natural bent to search for treasure in the next portion of the Sermon on the Mount. As we have said before, Jesus has always been Kingdom minded. His purpose was to bring the Kingdom of God to earth. And the King who rules over the Kingdom demands complete loyalty from His people. Matthew 6:19-20, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We are always on a treasure hunt for money. We think that if we have enough money our lives would be set. We work long hours, or try to join the next big thing so we can earn more money which will solve all of our problems. Money is not the devil. Money isn’t even evil. It’s how we view money that gets us into trouble.

In this passage,

1. Jesus is not concerned so much with the disciples’ wealth as their loyalty.

God knew that we would be people who seek satisfaction in all sorts of things. That our loyalties would be divided. In Deuteronomy 6 we can read the first part of the Shemah, which was a prayer recited by the Jews every morning and evening. It was their confession of faith. And they said it every day. They purposefully aligned themselves with God, as His people, and declared their devotion and allegiance to Him alone. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Hear, O Israel: [a]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

But our loyalty is always tested because we are fickle human beings. As we grow and mature we find that the things we used to be loyal to in our youth are no longer precious to us. We change our loyalties so often because we are always looking for treasures that make us feel successful, powerful, unique, or intelligent. We loyally commit ourselves to idols and worship them because we think they will make our lives better.

Money is one of the greatest idols we have. As we gain wealth, we inevitably also gain possessions. And the more possessions we acquire, the more time and money we will spend taking care of them. If we’re not careful, our possessions will take up the majority of our time, energy and money and when our possessions possess us then we know we’ve become a slave to them.

2. If we hold tightly to our possessions and wealth, it will become our god.

We are encumbered by “treasures” that we just have to have. These treasures weigh us down. If they weigh us down too much we will be unable to obey God when He says go.

As a missionary, I condensed all of my important belongings that had to go with me to six action packers. I put some furniture in storage, which we still use today, but the rest of my things had to be sold or given away. Those six action packers held my life. I really didn’t mind getting rid of most of my stuff. I wasn’t too sad moving out of my apartment. It was quite freeing to squeeze it all into those six boxes. But one day, while living overseas, my mom called and let me know that my dad had sold my car. I cried. That was the only thing that I really loved and had a strange emotional connection to. I was sure it would be there when I got home, but it wasn’t. Our hearts hold on to things, which makes it hard to be obedient when God takes it away.

The second part of the Shemah is found in Deuteronomy 11:13-15, “So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.”

God asked that His people be obedient to Him. He desired for them to remain loyal to Him alone. He made some beautiful promises for His people when they remained loyal. He would always provide what they needed. They didn’t need to hang onto their material possessions so tightly because He would always meet their needs.

But then He warned them in the next portion of the Shemah what would happen if they disobeyed. Deuteronomy 11:16-17, “ Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.”

Open handed living, which Pastor Frank introduced me to has been extremely helpful. If we live our lives with open hands, we can receive the blessings that God wants to give us. We also live in submission to Him by allowing Him to take whatever He sees fit from our lives. If I hold all of my earthly possessions with open hands, I don’t get attached to them. If God asks me to give them away, I can do so without feeling worried or anxious. Open handed living leads to an obedient life.

Job understood this. Everything was taken away from him. Everything. And his response is completely understandable. He grieved all that he had lost. He didn’t understand why God had taken away his possessions and children. He examined his life to see if any sin caused the catastrophe. He came to a point in his brokenness where he said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” He was almost consumed with how destitute he had become. His words pour forth on the ancient text like a fountain of brokenness. Job’s friends tried to console him, they tried to justify why this had happened to him, and they tried to blame him for his losses. But Job went to God with his sorrow and fear, and God blessed him. Through processing his loss, he came to see that God was still in control. And God blessed the second part of his life more than the first. Job could have let the loss destroy him. But he opened his hands and allowed God to give and take away, and praise Him in the process.

3. We can be distracted and thrown off course.

The world and the enemy are more than happy to throw distractions our way, packaging them as treasures, so we get thrown off course.

I love to shop. It is something that I throughly enjoy. I love to window shop, shop online, or good old fashioned shop in stores. My eyes are drawn to certain things. When I go into a store like Marshals I feel overwhelmed with possibility. From shoes to hair tools to purses, to workout gear, to home goods, to pet supplies, to kids clothes, to men’s attire. The possibilities are endless! My mom and I joke that you can’t have an agenda in Marshals, you just have to go in and find whatever is pleasing to your eye. And boy, are there a lot of pleasing things in that store. So often when I buy things there I end up having to make a plan for how I am going to use them. New throw pillows means new throw blanket. New outfit means new shoes. New cooking utensils means more organizational items to keep them in.

As people who are consumed with money and possessions, we spend a lot of time wandering through life waiting for the next x on the path. We meander here and there hoping to discover the next treasure. Our eyes are fixed on the path because we are afraid we will miss out on the thing our heart desires. Or at least the thing our heart desires for that moment until our eyes are drawn somewhere else.

This is why Jesus brings our eyes into the mix in the next portion of this passage. Matthew 6:22-23 says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

If we are seeking for treasure all over the place, with our eyes cast downward, we forget who the giver of every good and perfect gift is. The word used for healthy in this passage is “haplous” which literally means single, complete, perfect, undivided. Jesus wants His followers to be people who keep their eyes focused on God, who stay completely loyal to Him in every way, so that they can find their way through this life.

There will be a lot of things that tempt us in this area. Offers to make a quick buck that aren’t quite above par. Things that we can’t possibly live without. Monthly payments that seem too good to be true but land us in debt for longer than we’d like to admit.

You see, money is not inherently bad. We need it to survive. And God has blessed many of us with enough money to live pretty comfortable lives. As Kingdom minded people, though, we choose to use our blessings to bless others. We choose to be generous with what God has given us. That same word that Jesus uses to describe healthy eyes, haplous, has the connotation of generosity in many other New Testament passages.

2 Corinthians 9:6-15, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

4. Our loyalty to Christ and open-handed living will be made evident by our generosity.

Jesus has the Kingdom in mind as He is speaking to His disciples. He knows the kinds of treasures that wait for them in heaven and they are far more glorious than any treasures we could amass on earth. He ends this portion of His teaching by saying, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

We will always be tempted to love money and be mastered by it. My mom always said, “Money doesn’t buy you happiness, but it does give you choices.” I believe that. When we are blessed financially we can choose to be obedient to God in how we use it. The open handed journey is the most freeing way to live. We trust fully that God will provide for our needs and if He chooses to give above and beyond, we get the joy of sharing that with others. As a family, we get to journey together and share generously with each other because we know that our God gives generously to us.