Sermon on the Mount: 9th Blessing
MATTHEW 6:19-34
CHRISTIAN AMBITION
In the first half of Matthew 6 Jesus describes the Christian’s private life in the “secret place” (giving, fasting, praying); in the second half which we cover now in verses 19-34 Jesus is concerned with our public life in the world (money, possessions, food, drink, clothing, and ambition).
In both areas He allows the identical summons which is the call to be different from the popular culture, different from the hypocrisy of those who claim to be religious, and most different from materialism that surrounds us. He is teaching believers that there are two treasures (earth and heaven), two bodily conditions (light and darkness), two masters (God and mammon) and two areas for us to choose from (our bodies and God’s kingdom). We cannot sit on the fence. Jesus is clear on that conclusion.
How shall we make our choice?
The attraction of materialism is hard to resist so in this section of the Sermon, Jesus helps us to choose well.
QUESTION OF TREASURE
In verses 19-21 Jesus begins the teaching with helping us to understand the durability of our options. Treasures on earth are corruptible and therefore insecure, while treasures of heaven are neither. What is Jesus advising us to gain awareness of with earthly treasure? What He forbids is selfish accumulation of goods while we are here. This is the materialism which ties our hearts to the earth and this physical life. But the Sermon continually refers to the “heart” of the believer and where it should reside and what should it knowingly choose. The earthly treasures we covet grow rusty and moth-eaten. Even if some last through this life, we can take none of it into the next life. The treasures we store in heaven by obedience here are secure for eternity.
QUESTION OF VISION
The contrast now is between a person with sight and one who is blind. Once more we see the contrast is given between light and darkness. The eye is the lamp of the body. Almost everything the body does depends on our ability to see. Now Jesus moves from teaching us to have our heart in the right place to the importance for our eye to be sound and healthy. Just as our eye affects the whole body, so our ambition (where we fix our eye and thereby our heart) affects our whole life. Selfish ambition (laying up treasure here) plunges us into moral darkness, making us intolerant and depriving life of its ultimate significance.
If our vison is clouded by the false god of materialism, we then lose our sense of value of that which is higher and our life resides in darkness. If we slide fully into coveting earthly things we live in violation of commandment #10.
QUESTION OF WORTH
The difference between the two masters before us for our choice is strongly opposite according to the Lord. If we choose unwisely we reside spiritually and physically in shadow. Jesus is clearer here than He is in any other portion of the Sermon. We cannot serve God and mammon (the Aramaic word for money and wealth).
It is a question of comparative worth: the intrinsic worth of the One and the intrinsic worthlessness of the other.
QUESTION OF AMBITION
Jesus calls us to thought before He calls us to action. He invites us to look clearly and coldly at the alternatives before us and to weigh them carefully. We want to accumulate treasure? Which of the two choices is more durable into eternity? We want to serve the best master? Which master is more worthy of our devotion? Only when we have grasped with our minds the choice of durability can we choose wisely. The comparative usefulness of the two eye conditions (light and darkness) and the comparative worth of the two masters (God and mammon), should make us ready to make our choice properly.
A person’s ambition is his secret inner motivation. This is what Jesus is talking about when He defined what He expects us to “seek first”, which is the righteousness of God and then (and only then) will all the other things be added to us.
QUESTION OF WORRY
Worry is incompatible with the Christian faith. God gives and then sustains our life. These are undeniable facts. We neither created ourselves nor do we keep ourselves alive. Our lives are more important than the biological nourishment we receive. Our body is more important than the clothes on it. If God has already taken care of these things which are of the greatest values, why can we not trust Him with all things of much lesser value? Just as we should leave these matters to God (for they are surely beyond us), is it not sensible for us to trust Him for all other things? If we trust Him as we should, there is no place for worry. If we do not then we should worry about much more than the lesser things.
The devotion of the believer is measured only by the depth of our surrender.
While we are to be fully surrendered and avoid worry we still must earn our own living. God provides but we must cooperate. We are not exempt from our own efforts to prepare and arrange a good life for our families.
There will always be troubles inside our lives. There is a powerful enemy who makes sure of that fact. God permits these things and limits them to what we can bear, with His grace given.
Not understanding this important lesson of the Sermon and continuing to live as the world lives is distrustful of our Father. Jesus here calls us to a greater righteousness, a broader love, a deeper devotion, and now He calls us to a higher ambition.
Ambition for God can never be modest. Once we are clear that God is King, then we long to see Him crowned with glory from our lives lived for Him as we accord to Him His assigned place in our lives, the supreme place. Our ambitions for the spread of His kingdom should be first and always our main priority.
