Green Baggins

Matthew 6:19-24

“Money often comes between men and God. Someone has said that you can take two small ten-cent pieces, just two dimes, and shut out the view of a panoramic landscape. Go to the mountains and just hold two coins closely in front of your eyes–the mountains are still there, but you cannot see them at all because there is a dime shutting off the vision in each eye.” It doesn’t take large quantities of money to come between us and God; just a little, placed in the wrong position, will effectively obscure our view. So says A.W. Tozer. Vision and treasure. How do we see our treasures? What are our treasures? And what does our vision have to do with our treasures?

Tonight, we come to a portion of God’s Word that has to do with treasure, specifically, how we define what our treasure is, and how we see things. Jesus is a very different investment counselor than you will typically find. Your typical investment counselor will tell you which mutual funds to invest in, how to spend your money wisely, how to stay out of debt. These are not bad things in and of themselves. But Jesus turns the conventional wisdom on its head. You see, the assumption underlying much investment counseling these days, as it has for many decades and centuries, is that the best place to store treasure is here on earth. Invest in something that you can see: land, for instance; or gold, or a mutual fund. Jesus is saying to us that we should invest in heavenly things, which are invisible to us at the present moment. Who is wiser, the world or Jesus?

Jesus starts by saying that earthly investments have no lasting value. By lasting value, of course, Jesus means “eternal value.” The problem with earthly investments is that there is no guarantee of their longevity. Many things can corrode wealth. In 1928 a group of the world’s most successful financiers met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. The following were present: The president of the largest utility company, The greatest wheat speculator, The president of the New York Stock Exchange, A member of the President’s Cabinet, The greatest “bear” in Wall Street, The president of the Bank of International Settlements, The head of the world’s greatest monopoly. Collectively, these tycoons controlled more wealth than there was in the U.S. Treasury, and for years newspapers and magazines had been printing their success stories and urging the youth of the nation to follow their examples. Twenty-five years later, this is what had happened to these men: The president of the largest independent steel company, Charles Schwab, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died broke. The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cutten, died abroad, insolvent. The president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, served a term in Sing Sing Prison. The member of the President’s Cabinet, Albert Fall, was pardoned from prison so he could die at home. The greatest “bear” in Wall Street, Jesse Livermore, committed suicide. The president of the Bank of International Settlements, Leon Fraser, committed suicide. The head of the world’s greatest monopoly, Ivar Drueger, committed suicide. All of these men had learned how to make money, but not one of them had learned how to live. Wealth doesn’t seem to be very permanent, does it? It can take wings and fly away. If your wealth is in textiles, the moth can come and destroy it. Read that “clothes,” women. Men, what about your farming equipment? Is that your treasure? Rust can lay that equipment to rest in an oxidized grave. What about just plain ol’ money? Deposit that in the bank, which is then robbed. Where is your money then? Oh, but the bank is insured, you might say. But what happens if the insurance company goes under? What then? Your wealth is gone. I hardly even need mention the stock market, as volatile as the wind. 9/11 can come along and erase just about everyone’s wealth.

What about the alternative? What about heavenly investments? Jesus tells us that there is no decay there. There is no robbery in heaven. There is no bad accounting. Go Himself guards our investments there. And He is the best Bank there is. He will give the best return on your investments, since the entire universe belongs to Him.

Verse 21 tells us that this is all a matter of the heart. What you see as your treasure is what you will spend the most time with, spend the most money on, spend your thoughts on, and worry most about. Where is your heart? What do you most fear losing? It could be any number of things: equipment, clothes, money, cars, influence, social standing, fame, pleasure, even family. If you make any of things your main treasure, then there is only one word for that: idolatry.

Idolatry is in how you see things. That is what Jesus goes on to say in verses 22-23. At first glance, these verses about the eye don’t seem to be relevant to treasure, or the two masters in verse 24. Why did Jesus say this about the eye right in the middle of a discussion about treasure? Well, remember our illustration at the beginning: money or any other kind of treasure can blind us to what is the real treasure, God Himself.

Jesus tells us that the eye is a lamp of the body. This is a physical illustration of a spiritual reality. The physical illustration is that of a sound, healthy eye compared with a bad, sick eye. If you have a healthy eye, then your whole body knows where to go, and what to do. Just think for a moment about those people who are blind. They can sometimes compensate rather remarkably for their lack of eyesight. However, the fact remains that they will always need help in life getting places. If you have bad eyes, then you will often have trouble doing things, going places, and just plain living.

Okay, that’s the physical illustration. What is the spiritual truth that Jesus intends to communicate through this illustration? We must remember the context. Jesus talked about treasure right before. Right after these two verses, Jesus will talk about whether we have God or Mammon as our master. So the spiritual reality behind this physical illustration must be related to the idea of treasure.

The physical illustration is meant to convey this truth: if your eye sees earthly things as treasure, then you have a bad eye; but if your eye sees heavenly things as treasure, then you have a good eye. Jesus is here playing ophthalmologist. Only Jesus has the standard. If you into and ophthalmologist’s office, you will see a chart with letters on it that keep on getting smaller and smaller. That chart is designed to test your eyes, to see how well they see. Jesus here is giving us one of those charts. The more you can see heavenly things as treasure, the better your spiritual eyesight is. Those heavenly things are hard to see, aren’t they? The letters are small, when it comes to spiritual things. That’s because spiritual things are in fact invisible! How good is your spiritual eyesight? Do you look to God for your treasure? Are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ Jesus? Or is Jesus just stupid to you? “Put your trust in things you can see,” you say. Jesus has harsh words about such people: they are blind! He literally says, “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” You are not seeing things properly. What you need is to have your vision corrected. The only way you can have that done is to let Jesus Christ do it. He is the best spiritual Ophthalmologist. He will take away the scales from your eyes, so that you can see again what is truly valuable.

Jesus concludes the passage with a ringing declaration that you cannot serve both God and money. We might remember the KJV translation here, You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” Mammon is an Aramaic word that Matthew simply put into Greek letters. It means “possessions.” But it means anything that is an idol; anything that our hearts desire more than God. Matthew Henry says that “whatever is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is mammon.” That includes ourselves. Let’s not forget that most appealing of idols: our very own selves.

Jesus tells us that there is no middle ground between these masters. Let’s take a close look at these words, since every word counts. The word “serve” literally means “be a slave to.” We are not talking about two different employers. We are talking about two people who theoretically own the same person. Jesus says that it is impossible to be a slave to two different owners. That word “cannot” is a strong word. It means “impossible.” Jesus does not here say that we should not serve two masters, or that we must not serve two masters, but that we cannot serve two masters. There are many in the church today who think otherwise. They think that they can serve God while serving themselves. They can look out for their own best interests while going to church. The problem is that that kind of thinking is merely lip service to God. That’s not real service. Real service to God involves sacrifice of what we have, and sacrifice of our own self-interests. This is what Jesus Himself did when he became incarnated of the virgin Mary. Philippians 2 says that Jesus even had equality with God. And yet He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave. Jesus was not grasping for what He could get. He was serving. This is the real reason why it is impossible to serve both God and mammon. As Matthew henry says, “God says, ‘My son, give me your heart.’ Mammon says, ‘No, give it to me.’ God says, ‘Be content with the things that you have.’ Mammon says, ‘Grasp at everything you can. Get money by fair means or foul.’ God says, ‘Do not defraud, or lie; be honest and just in all your dealings.’ Mammon says, ‘Cheat your own father, if you can gain by it.’ God says, ‘Be charitable.’ Mammon says, ‘Hold your own: this giving undoes us all.’ God says, ‘Do not worry about anything.’ Mammon says, ‘Worry about everything.’ God says, ‘Keep the Sabbath Day holy.’ Mammon says, ‘Make use of that day as well as any other for the world.’” And it is Jesus who gives us the best example of serving God. Jesus’ whole attitude was one of giving and serving. Mammon’s whole idea is one of self-serving and grasping. Can we not see that they are incompatible? But many of us are utterly blind to this. We can tear the church apart with our own two hands, as long as we get our hands on the money. We’ll tear to shreds someone else’s reputation, if it means that we can gain by it. We’ll take our fellow believers to court if it means that we can gain by it.

You might say, “Oh, but those people are not Christians; therefore I can do whatever I feel needs to be done.” Well, the Bible condemns that sort of thinking as well. You are to live honestly with all people. Let’s grant that those people are not Christians. Did not Paul also say that you are to live peaceably with all men, not believers only? Live at peace with all men. But supposing that person that you are calling an unbeliever is actually a member of the church. Then that member is to be a Christian in your mind unless the church says otherwise. We are not to judge personally and say that such and such a person is not a Christian. We are not the judges of who is and who isn’t a member of the body of Christ. It is the leadership of the church that makes that decision. The church only gets to declare that such and such a person is deemed to be a Christian.

My friends, if any of us are thinking about Mammon in some of these ways, even willing to defame another person of the body of Christ, then we are blind. We are blind even to the fact that we are blind. And it will not do to claim that we are serving Christ. If you are after money at the expense of anyone else, then you are serving Mammon. You cannot possibly be serving Christ while you are doing that. Did not Paul say that it was better to suffer wrong, than to do the wronging yourself? Matthew Henry was once robbed of some money. This is what he wrote about it: “Lord, I thank you that I have never been robbed before; that although they took my money, they spared my life; that although they took everything, it wasn’t very much; that it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”

So which master is it to which you are a slave? You are a slave to either one or the other. As I said this morning, there is no middle ground between God and the world, between God and any idol, including yourself. Who will it be, God or mammon? Where will your treasure be, here, or in heaven? How good is your spiritual eyesight? Thanks be to God, who gives us good eyes to see where our treasure should be.