Matthew 9

Seeking the things that Last

This week we continue our reading of the Sermon on the Mount, so to help us get a context for today, let’s take a quick recap. The sermon begins with a series of blessings statements called the Beatitudes which we discussed are not a series of commands, but rather a series of descriptions of the characteristics of living in the Kingdom of Heaven. They can seem daunting because as we look at them, we will quickly realize we do not live up to these standards. And yet, Jesus still offers good news because of the opening line: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Whatever discouragement we may feel when we compare our lives to God’s design, that only affirms Jesus’ message that we can actually enter the kingdom of heaven.

But we cannot expect God’s standards to lighten. After all, Jesus will continue to say that no part of the Law will be abolished. The Law of God will stand till the end of the age, but God’s grace can intervene where we come short. But, in order for our righteousness to grow, we must understand the standard that God has. And so, Jesus then explains the Law of God is not a line to avoid crossing, but rather a standard of the heart. He goes through some of the Ten Commandments saying, “You’ve heard it said…, but I say to you…” He shares both the letter and the spirit of the Law, so that we can understand the true problem is not our actions but our heart. We must exceed the righteousness of the religious leaders by having the right motives and heart behind our right actions.

Thus, in chapter 6, Jesus deals with true hypocrisy which attempts to manipulate others or God through acts of righteousness. Jesus says our prayers, our giving, our fasting, and whatever else we do in the Name of God should be a means to join in God’s mission and bend our will to HIs. We are not to be like the Gentiles who seek power over heaven and earth, but seek for God’s will to be done.

And this leads us to today’s passage, the end of chapter 6, in which Jesus drives home the true purpose for righteousness. It is actually a topic we have discussed in the past when we looked at the Goal of our Faith. Why is it that God saves us? Why did Jesus choose to come to us? Why do we point others to Jesus, as well? Part of the answer is in today’s passage. The Kingdom of Heaven is the true prize for faith. In fact, later Jesus will share a series of parables that reiterate this point. How is heaven the prize?

The Kingdom of Heaven comprises the truly eternal and what will exist beyond this world’s demise.

When we come to the understanding that everything in this world is passing away, it draws us to make a decision. Do we just throw our life away in frivolous nonsense, or do we seek things that transcend this earth? If we truly believe the kingdom of heaven is open to us, then that also means we can seek the things of heaven that will last beyond this earth. And that is how we can ready ourselves for eternity—by laying up treasures in heaven. Let’s take a look.

Focusing our life on the Eternal | Matthew 6:19-24

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, 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 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 the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Matthew 6:19-24

Treasures on earth are great. They’re shiny, new, and they can take care of our wants and needs. Unfortunately, they also fade, get old, and leave us wanting and needing more. The food we eat gets digested, and then we just need more food. The house we build breaks down. The car we love needs constant maintenance. Moths will eat our clothes. Rust destroys our vehicles and equipment. And even worse, thieves can come and steal what we spent so much time earning.

Jesus says it is better to store our treasures in heaven. Time will not fade it. Moths and rust can’t reach it. Thieves have no hope of breaking into it. So what are these treasures? Well, he has already alluded to them. Genuine faith and righteousness, our relationship with our God and Creator, and a place in heaven itself are all treasures that we can store in heaven. We could even add to that the love we share with one another, and the things that we do in order to build up one another and point others to Jesus. If the Kingdom of Heaven consists of all the things that cannot be destroyed by sin and all the things that will survive when this world is recreated by fire, then whatever we do or relationships we have that can transcend that recreation are treasures stored up in heaven.

Heavenly treasures are those that transcend time and describe what kind of human we will become.

There is a section of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis that describes what this may look like in heaven. In it, Lewis describes a lady who is preceded by a parade of singers and angels laying petals as she walks through heaven. He describes her being clothed with “the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass.”

Popular ideas about heaven tend to focus on streets of gold, mansions, and all manner of physical things that we would call good. While these aren’t necessarily bad, I do believe they are misleading. When Jesus talks about laying our treasures in heaven, these aren’t earthly treasures that just happen to be waiting for us on the other side. That idea is more like the ancient Egyptians burying themselves with their earthly goods so they will have things for the “next life.” The kind of treasure Jesus is talking about is more in line of developing who we are and what we will be—what kind of heavenly human will we be. What kind of glory does an eternal human have that has no need for earthly treasure? It is something very different indeed.

If these treasures are so different from earthly ones, then we have to ask where will we put our focus? Jesus says to focus our lives on the eternal. “The eye is the lamp of the body” reminds us that wherever we put our focus, that is where our body will follow. He isn’t talking about watching where you walk (though that may be part of it). It is reminding us that where we focus our attention is what we will do or become.

So, before we go any further, this would be a good time to ask: what has your attention these days? Perhaps you have been distracted by the treasures of this world. As I said before, earthly treasures aren’t always wrong or evil in and of themselves, but they are temporary. And if we focus our minds on temporary things, we are going to be sorely disappointed when they disappear.

Additionally, we must also remember what Jesus completes this passage by saying. You can only have one master. There can be only one passion that drives your life. The ESV translates the line as “You cannot serve God and money,” but many of you may know it as “God and mammon”. ‘Mammon’ has been understand as ‘wealth’ or ‘money,’ but the early church also understood the term to be a personification of wealth. It could be compared to the Roman Nike who is a personification of victory. This personification was even classified as a particular demon in some Patristic circles. Regardless the full interpretation, the point Jesus is making is clear:

A person’s focus is determined by their master, so as Christians we must be careful who or what we are allowing to be master of our life.

The test for this is fairly simple. Take a few minutes to reflect on the last few weeks of your life. What do you spend most of your time doing? Where does your money go? What topics come up in your conversations? The answers to these questions are where you are focused right now. And whatever that focus is, that is your master. Your master may not be evil or even a bad thing per se, but if the answer is anything other than God, it is an idol.

Now, for some that may be an uncomfortable truth, but as always, Jesus has good news for us on the other side of this conviction. You see, this life has some brutal masters. Some of them are very worrisome. Only God can bring you true peace because He is the source of peace. And when we allow Him to be our master, it will remove the worries of this world. Let’s continue reading.

The Solution for Worry | Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:25-34

The problem with earthly treasures being temporary is that they always need to be replaced. The great thing about heavenly treasure, especially when we recognize the great treasure we have in our relationship with God, is the peace that comes with them. The closer we grow with Christ, and the more we experience the goodness of God, the more we realize we have no need for worry. Why should we worry about food and clothing if the Lord is good to take care of us? Now, of course that doesn’t mean we can just quit working and let the Lord miraculously bring us food everyday, but it does mean that when we are serving the Lord, we can rest assured He will take care of our needs.

This facet of our faith is why missionaries can go into the far reaches of the globe with little to their name. They go knowing the Lord is with them. They will find ways to fill their physical needs because the Lord will open the way.

“The Gentiles seek after these things” because it is all they know and where they put their trust. As we looked at last week, we are not to be like the Gentiles who use religion as a manipulative tool. We put our trust in the One True God who cares for His people and will take care of all their needs. When we trust in God and His plan, we will worry far less.

The solution for worry is to place our trust in the Lord and rest that He knows what He is doing.

Rather than worrying or focusing on the treasures of this world, Jesus gives us the key to a more peaceful life. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All the other things will be added when we seek the kingdom of God. Another Lewis quote for you is, “Aim at heaven and you

will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

Last, Jesus says to concern yourself with today because it has enough trouble on its own. Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow. This verse is one that I have highlighted for the longest time in my Bibles. It is one that I try to keep reminding myself because it is so easy to get caught up in wondering when something will happen, if something will happen, or whatever ambitions, concerns, and everything else that can creep up in this life. But I remind myself that my most peaceful days are not the ones in which I am feverishly working on some project or plan, but rather those days when I have given those thoughts to the Lord and simply work on the problems for today.

As we close today, I would like to return to the story of The Great Divorce once more, because shortly after Lewis introduces the lady clothed in righteousness, we meet another character. This one is a dwarfish ghost who holds another ghost by a chain. The taller ghost is what was known as a Tragedian, an actor who excels in tragic stories. The righteous lady attempts to share her joy and love with the dwarf, who we discover was her husband on earth, but the ghost cannot receive any such joy because he is clinging tightly to his tragic persona by the chain. The Tragedian and dwarf are actually the same person. The Tragedian represents the man’s selfishness and pride. He uses pity as a means to get attention and bring others down. Today we call this phenomenon ‘playing the victim’. As the lady continues to talk to the dwarf, Lewis notices the dwarf begins to shrink even more. The more the dwarf ghost rejects the lady’s invitation of peace and forgiveness, the lesser of a person he becomes. Eventually, the dwarf disappears altogether and only the Tragedian remains.

What Lewis is illustrating is what happens to us when we continue to reject the joy of Christ in favor of clinging on to our sinful attitudes and idols. Eventually, the person God created shrivels into itself becoming so small it is unrecognizable. What is left is the sin-corrupted perversion of what we were supposed to be. If we cling to the things of this world like that dwarf ghost clings to the Tragedian, we will shrivel up and dissolve into the hellish thing that remains.

Today, consider who your master truly is. Give up the sin and lie you are clinging to. Take hold of heaven and find your every need and desire filled because it is for heaven that we were created in the first place. Everything in this world will eventually be destroyed and dissolve in fire. Only those who seek the eternal will inherit the new heaven and new earth. Do not cling to what is going away. Cling to Christ.