This week, we are looking at a part of perhaps the
most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached to discover the reason why how we
handle our treasure is a big deal when it comes to our relationship with Jesus.
Yesterday, we looked on as Jesus commanded the crowds listening, and followers
of Jesus throughout history, not to center our lives on money, possessions and
the treasures of this world. Jesus explained that when we store up treasure
here on earth, we are storing up what is temporary.
In
addition, Jesus revealed the reality that treasures on earth are easily
consumed by the things of the world. Just as a moth consumes cloth or rust
consumes metal, or a thief consumes our money, possessions, and treasure by
stealing, the things of this world are consumed by the world. Instead of
focusing on the accumulation of money, possessions, and treasure on earth,
Jesus commanded the crowds listening, and followers of Jesus throughout
history, to store up, to accumulate for ourselves treasure in Heaven.
Jesus
also pointed out that when we accumulate treasures in Heaven; when we make
deposits into our heavenly bank accounts, those investments cannot be consumed
by the things on earth. Jesus point here is that while treasure on earth is
temporary, treasure in Heaven lasts for eternity. But, why is Jesus coming on
so strong? Why does Jesus feel so strongly that He would command us to store up
for ourselves treasure in Heaven? Today, we find the answer to this question in
Matthew 6:21. Let’s look at it together:
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
In this verse, we see Jesus reveal the timeless reason
behind His command to store up treasure in Heaven. Jesus here is revealing for
us the timeless principle that our desires are revealed by what we invest in.
This timeless principle is incredibly important because of how Jesus defines
spiritual maturity.
You see, Jesus defines spiritual maturity not by how
big of a kingdom that we are building for ourselves here on earth in terms of money,
possessions, and treasure. Instead, Jesus defines spiritual maturity in terms
of the heart. A person who is involved in a growing and maturing relationship
with Jesus will be growing in one’s love for God and in one’s love for others.
Now a natural question that arises here is “well
Dave, that sounds great, but how does one define and measure one’s love and
devotion to God and others?” If that question is running through your mind, I
want to let you know that you are asking a great question. It is a great
question to ask because we cannot simply peer into another human beings heart
and measure love, can we? So how do we measure our love for God and
others? Jesus point in this verse is
that we invest our treasure in the things that we treasure. Followers of Jesus
who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Him respond to all
that God has done for them by investing in God’s kingdom mission because they
treasure God above everything else. You see, the reality is that we can tell
what we love by looking at where our treasure goes. So, when you look at your
checkbook, what does it say about who or what you love? Where does your money
go? What are you investing in? Jesus then uses a metaphor to hammer His point
home in verses 22-23. Let’s look at it together:
"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!
Now to fully understand the metaphor that Jesus uses
here, we first need to understand what Jesus is talking about when He refers to
the eye as the lamp of the body. When Jesus uses the word eye, He is referring
to our spiritual eyes and what they focus on. This is important because our
bodies follow what our eyes focus on.
I learned this principle first hand during a
mountain bike trip outside of Kingman. During my ride, I approached a steep
downward section of the trail that was covered with baseball sized rocks. Now
sometimes when mountain biking, you come to situations where you realize that
you have lost control of the speed of your bike. And as I gained speed down
this section of the trail, this was one of those times. About ¾ of the way down
this decline, there was a boulder that came up to a person’s knee.
Now I knew that I did not want to hit that boulder.
But as I came closer to that point on the trail, I was coming closer to the
boulder. As you have probably guessed, I hit the boulder square and went head
over my handlebars down the rest of the hill. And if that was not bad enough,
the bike proceeded to fall on top of me and follow me down the hill. Needless
to say, my body was covered with scrapes and boulder rash. You see, because I was
focused on the boulder so as to not hit it, my body actually steered the bike
toward the boulder.
And that is Jesus point here. With this metaphor,
Jesus is revealing the reality that we follow what we are focused on. When
Jesus uses the word clear, He is referring to someone who is motivated by a
singleness of purpose or focus. Jesus provided that focus in verse 20 when He
commanded that we store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. Jesus point is
that when our spiritual eyes are clearly focused on storing up treasure in
Heaven our whole body will be full of light. But what does Jesus mean when He
states that our bodies will be full of light?
The phrase to be full of light conveys the sense of
being illuminated by something so as to reflect that light toward others. So in
essence, Jesus is stating that when we are focused on storing up treasures in
Heaven, we will reveal and reflect Jesus to others. We will reflect Jesus’
generosity. We will reflect Jesus’ desire to love and serve God and others
through the money, possessions, and treasure that we have while we live life on
earth.
And as we reveal and reflect Jesus to others, the
result is that we advance God’s Kingdom and enhance God’s reputation. Followers
of Jesus who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Him are
able to make a fundamental shift from asking the question “What honors me?” to
the question “What honors God?”
Jesus then contrasts the person who is singularly
focused on storing up treasures in Heaven with the person who is focused on
storing up treasures on earth. In verse 23, Jesus speaks of the person whose
eye is bad. When Jesus uses the word bad, He is literally referring to someone
whose spiritual eyes are unhealthy or sick. This person’s spiritual eyes are
clouded by greed. This is a person who is focused on making and spending the money,
possessions, and treasure that they accumulate on themselves to advance their
kingdom and enhance their reputation.
Jesus then explained to the crowds listening that the
end result of having spiritual eyes that are unhealthy due to being clouded by
greed is that the person is described as being full of darkness. To be full of
darkness conveys the sense of an absence of Christ-likeness in a person’s life.
Jesus ends verse 23 with the phrase if the light in you is darkness, how great
is the darkness. Jesus point is that the person whose life is clouded by greed
and selfishness and that focuses on storing up treasures for themselves on
earth is full of spiritual and moral darkness as well.
Now, I don’t know about you, but sometimes we can
find ourselves trying to have it both ways, can’t we? I can find myself tempted
to try to have my feet in both worlds, so to speak. So, can’t we do both? Can’t
we store up treasures on earth and in Heaven?
Friday, we will see Jesus provide the answer to this
question…
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