Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4, 19-24
Today’s sermon is Part 4 of our series on Matthew chapter 6, the middle section of the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s sermon, my three points are as follows: Number One: Two Treasures. Number Two: Two Eyes. And Number Three: Two Masters.
But first… Two Treasures… by which I mean, earthly treasure versus heavenly treasure…
Have you ever seen the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm? It’s a comedic portrayal of the life of Larry David, who co-created the show Seinfeld back in the ’90s—with his friend Jerry Seinfeld. Larry David plays himself on the show—a wealthy, semi-retired celebrity in Los Angeles, hanging out with wealthy, celebrity friends. Of course he’s not really playing himself—he’s playing a highly exaggerated version of himself, with all of his many faults and foibles amplified. The Larry David we see on the show is a fool, in the fullest, most biblical sense of the word. And he usually pays the price for his foolishness.
Anyway, in one episode, he and his wife, Cheryl, attend a reception where Larry is being honored for giving a large donation to charity—he paid for a new wing of a building for a charitable foundation. And the message on one of the walls of this new wing reads, “Wing donated by Larry David.”
So he’s feeling pretty good about himself… [imitating Larry:] Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good…until he sees that another new wing of the building has this message on the wall: “Wing donated by Anonymous.”
He said to his wife, Cheryl, “I’m not crazy about that. Now it just looks like I did it for the credit, as opposed to Mr. Wonderful, ‘Anonymous.’”
Cheryl said, “I know who it is. It’s Ted”—by which she means the actor Ted Danson… the former star of Cheers who also plays a fictionalized version of himself. On the show, Ted and Larry are “frenemies”… rivals. They have a love-hate relationship.
So Ted Danson is the anonymous donor.
And Larry is beside himself! And Cheryl, his wife, is like, “No, isn’t it great? He donated the whole wing, and he didn’t want anyone to know!”
“Well, he told you!” Larry said. “So apparently he wanted somebody to know.”
Cheryl said, “The point is, he didn’t need all the fanfare.”
Larry said, “No one told me that I could be anonymous and tell people. I would have taken that option!”
And it turns out that lots of people at the reception know that Ted Danson is “Anonymous”! So Ted Danson gets twice the credit that Larry gets. And Larry is righteously angry about it—and of course he’s not wrong to be bothered by Ted Danson’s hypocrisy. But he’s mostly disappointed that he didn’t think of doing the same thing himself! Because he would have done the same thing! He wanted the credit—and the extra credit for being anonymous!
Well, speaking of hypocrisy, today we come to the third and final warning from Jesus about hypocrisy. This time, however, the hypocrisy relates to a very sensitive topic. Like the subject of fasting last week, I didn’t think to myself, “I really want to preach about money this week. Because people always love that.” But here it is: it’s in the Bible, it’s in chapter 6 of Matthew’s gospel, and I’m covering the whole chapter in this series. But money is, in fact, a burning hot topic in the gospels themselves. You’ve probably heard it said many times that Jesus talks much more about money and greed than he talks about any other hot topics—like S-E-X, for instance. So we have to deal with it. Speaking of sex, listen to the apostle Paul’s words in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 3 and 5:
Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people… You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
Does the fact that Paul speaks so strongly against greed surprise us? After all, if Paul had only said, “Let there be no sexual immorality or impurity among you.” We’d be like, “Amen!” If he had only said, “You can be sure that no immoral or impure person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.” We would say, “Amen!” But notice Paul throws in this other sin… greed, which encompasses any sin related to the Tenth Commandment, which has to do with covetousness… and money… and wealth… and possessions… To make matters worse, Pauls says the sin of greed also violates the Second Commandment, “For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.”
Did any of y’all listen to that excellent podcast a couple of years ago about Mark Driscoll, the former pastor of that megachurch in Seattle called “Mars Hill”? This church of tens of thousands of members closed its doors rather suddenly in 2014. Just before it did, the church forced Driscoll to resign. When the Mars Hill church announced his resignation on their website, they cited reasons why he needed to step down, including “arrogance, quick temper, harsh speech, a domineering leadership style.”
But then they added, “Pastor Mark has never been charged with any immorality, illegality or heresy,” and therefore, they said, nothing he had done should disqualify him from being a pastor in the future.
I’m sorry… It’s those words, “Never been charged with immorality,”that bother me.I’m guessing that “immorality” is a code word for, you know, those really bad sins—the ones related to sex. But, as one thoughtful Christian writer wondered at the time, “Are things like arrogance, sinful pride, sinful anger—the things that got Driscoll in trouble—are these things not also immoral?” Historically, the church has always considered pride, for instance, to be the worst sin. Why is it suddenly not a big deal?
The problem, I believe, is that some sins are more respectable than others. Today, pride is a respectable kind of sin. And—getting back to our topic this morning—so is greed. Culturally speaking, greed—if we consider it a sin at all—is a “respectable” sin.
And greed, of course, includes money… but from Jesus’ perspective, it’s about much more than that. In fact, according to Jesus, one of the problems with money is that money is often the means to acquiring a treasure that is not found in God himself, through Christ. Let me repeat that: The problem with money is that it’s a means of acquiring a treasure that is not found in God through Christ.
And we see this in today’s scripture… What kind of “treasure,” after all, do these seemingly generous hypocrites of verses 2 to 5 want their money to purchase for them? We’ve seen this earlier in relation to fasting and public prayer: They want their money to purchase, well… the same thing Larry David and Ted Danson wanted their money to purchase: the praise of others. They wanted glory for themselves… and recognition… and applause!
In that opening illustration, Larry is only unhappy because he’s not receiving as much treasure as his “frenemy” Ted Danson!
Poor guy!
I can relate to him! Even as a pastor. Listen to these startling words from theologian Frederick Bruner in his commentary on today’s scripture: “Even the desire to preach the gospel can be an earthly treasure if it is a desire that is linked to our missionary success in preaching it.” 1 If it is linked to our missionary success in preaching it? By “missionary success,” he means the number of converts you win! He means, in other words, numbers. I want lots of “numbers.” Y’all want lots of numbers. We all want lots of numbers.
What we wouldn’t do for numbers!
Even compromise the gospel? Even water-down the most important work we do each week, which is on Sunday—God’s people gathering for worship? Even run roughshod over people who stand in the way of achieving bigger numbers—or whatever else we consider “success.”
I know that temptation! All of us pastors do!
Even the well-intentioned pursuit of some otherwise good goal can become, Bruner says, a dangerous earthly treasure—which is also a kind of greed. Bruner writes, “The goal of evangelism [for example] must be the honor of God and not the maximum number of converts, or else Christian workers will be deeply disappointed where it counts—at the Last Judgment.” And that’s true for anything we do as a church: The question is not, “Do we have enough numbers to make us feel good about ourselves?” Rather, “Are we honoring and glorifying God through our efforts?” Because we can always fulfill that godly goal whether we have a large crowd… or just a few… or even none at all.
If I show up on Sunday to preach and no one’s here, of course I would be disappointed. But that doesn’t mean my efforts wouldn’t have been in vain. Why? Because God’s opinion of me is the only one that counts. And God would know the many hours I spent using the gifts God gave me to create a sermon. The payoff for doing so can’t be the praise and adoration and affirmation of crowds! I’d be miserable. The payoff must always be the praise and adoration and affirmation of my Lord saying, on the Last Day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Everything I do—everything we all do—should be for the glory of God… or we’re not doing it right! 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
But as I said earlier, the problem isn’t money per se. The problem is the earthly treasure that money so often purchases. Pastor Tim Keller, in his sermon on today’s scripture, tells the following story on himself: He pastored a small-town church in rural Virginia before he planted Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. And at the time, he and his wife—and their young kids—were just scraping by, financially. Been there, done that! Yet Keller said that even though he and his family didn’t have much money, he spent a disproportionate amount of it on books. 2
Now I’m someone who thinks that being a voracious reader is hardly a vice—I think we should do all we can to encourage reading… but the problem, Keller says, was linked to the reason he bought so many books. He said that being well read—or being better read than others… or being someone who’s more knowledgeable than others… or being thought of as more intelligent than others… These were things he thought he needed at the time to feel significant. To feel valued and valuable. To have self-esteem. To feel good about himself.
Of course he shouldn’t have needed books to feel that way. He had something infinitely better! He had Jesus!
But this is the subtle danger of earthly treasures that Jesus is warning about in today’s scripture.
Besides, what Keller surely discovered is that as long as he was looking to books to fill him up, he could never get enough of them to keep him satisfied.
I had a friend years ago who’s a successful investigative journalist and editor in the world of news media. Objectively speaking, he “wrote the book on” a particular Supreme Court justice. For years, if someone wanted to know about this Justice, they would read my friend’s book. But he told me one time that his biggest regret in life was that he didn’t write a follow-up… he didn’t write Volume 2… And he said, “That would have secured my legacy. People would remember me.”
I told him, as gently as I could, that, actually, even if he had written the follow-up, he would still be soon forgotten!
And it’s true! Hate to break it to you! That’s what Jesus means when he says that “moth and rust destroy and… thieves break in and steal.” No earthly treasure—even the treasure of securing one’s “legacy” after we die… no earthy treasure lasts!
When I was a senior in high school, we had the equivalent of a beauty pageant, the “Miss Henderson” Pageant. “Henderson” was the name of my high school in Chamblee, Georgia. It doesn’t exist anymore. It’s now a Middle School, but… Go Cougars, anyway!
But the Miss Henderson pageant was divided into three parts: beauty, talent, and an interview with the judges… i.e., public speaking. And I’ll never forget one of my classmates, named Kim, who competed in this pageant… And of course Kim was sufficiently talented and beautiful in the first two portions of the pageant, and if she could only do well in the interview portion, then she stood a real shot at becoming “Miss Henderson” of 1988. She surely had high hopes… at least until the judges asked her the following question: “What would you like your legacy to be?”
What would you like your legacy to be?
And bless her heart, she had a completely understandable deer-in-the-headlights moment—one with which I am nothing but sympathetic. “I sympathize with you, Kim, if you ever stumble on this sermon!” Because I also didn’t know for sure what the word “legacy” meant. We did not use that word as much back then as we do now. But it was clear that Kim didn’t know what the word “legacy” meant, either.
So, after a few awkward moments of silence, all Kim could do, sadly, was to apologize to the judges and walk off the stage.
This was only a temporary setback for this gifted young woman, I’m sure. I feel confident she has enjoyed great success in her life, in her family, in her vocation…
But like Kim, we should all be so lucky not to know that pesky word “legacy.” Because legacy can also be a dangerous earthly treasure!
I’m not saying that our lives shouldn’t make a difference in the world—so long as we understand that the difference our lives make is up to God, not us.
Remember the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer: “Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.”
If God chooses to lay us aside, bring us low, make us empty, and make us have nothing… we likely are not leaving behind some great legacy. And that should be perfectly okay with us!
All things we yield to God’s pleasure and disposal… including even that need to “leave something behind” for future generations. And that includes, by the way, a burning desire to leave even money behind for our kids. John Wesley was against it. He loudly preached against leaving inheritance to our children! As I told my mother, years ago, not long before she died, after she expressed concern about spending our future inheritance: I said to her, “Mom, may the last check bounce.” We don’t need anything.
Instead of worrying about a legacy, we should be consumed with an overriding passion to do one thing: to glorify Christ… to serve him alone… to concern ourselves only with his opinion of us… Paul understood this well: “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” 3
The question is, Do we desire this “heavenly prize”—this treasure in heaven—more than the earthly prizes and earthly treasures that we so often settle for?
Jesus says there’s only one choice for his disciples to make.
How would our lives be different, right now, if we chose correctly?
And that’s Point Number One: Two Treasures…
Point Number Two: Two Eyes… By which I mean, a “healthy” eye versus a bad eye.
The meaning of verses 22 and 23, by themselves, are obscure. But Jesus’ words about the “eye” here must have something to do with greed, money, and earthly treasure because these words are sandwiched in between other words on that same topic. Jesus isn’t suddenly changing the subject—or going off on some unrelated tangent. One commentator, Bruner again, suggests substituting the word “life” for “body” and “goal” for “eye.” So if, in other words, you’re pursuing the right goal in your life, you’ll be able to see clearly where you’re going, and you’ll be on the right path.
If, by contrast, you’re pursuing the wrong goal in life—and there are many, many to choose from—you’ll be in utter darkness… you’ll be going in the wrong direction, on the wrong path. You’ll be lost. I think Jesus is saying something like that. Most commentators agree.
And the reason Jesus mentions this here is because greed… the pursuit of earthly treasure… sets our lives on the wrong path like nothing else!
I took driver’s ed in high school. And I remember how terrifying it was to go on the interstate for the first time—on I-285 in Doraville, near what is now Spaghetti Junction. That didn’t exist at the time. Anyway, the first time I got on 285, my instructor, Mr. Stouffer—who was seated in the passenger seat with that extra brake in the floorboard on the passenger side—remember those?… Mr. Stouffer noticed that I kept veering over toward the lane to my left—if not crossing over the dashed white lines, at least hearing the thump-thump-thump of the rumble strip between the lanes.
Why was I doing this? Because I was afraid of that lane next to me, afraid of passing cars to my left. I wanted to make sure I avoided that lane. So my eyes were constantly darting to the dashed white lines to make sure I wasn’t in danger of crossing them! And as Mr. Stouffer correctly pointed out, the car will naturally drift in the direction of my eyes.
So here was the tip Mr. Stouffer gave me: “Instead of looking at the white lines to your left, look instead at the dark streak in the center of each lane of the highway—the streak caused by oil and other engine fluids.”
And it worked. No more drifting. If your eyes are set on the right thing—on Jesus and the treasure that comes only from him—you’ll be safe. Eternally.
But it’s hard… That’s why, for instance, I’m encouraging you to do things like fast and memorize scripture this year. And I’m giving you verses to help you memorize scripture… And I know most of you are not doing it! Most of you haven’t memorized the two scripture passages I gave you. Yet I also know many of you have a problem with fear. The many promises from God’s Word are the only cure for that spiritual problem. We’re going to look fear dead in the eyes with Jesus’ teaching next week! We’re not off the hook! Only God’s Word gives us reasons to “fear not, therefore.” So please, for the sake of your spiritual health, commit this scripture to memory. You can do it!
Jesus’ warnings in today’s scripture are like that rumble strip on the highway. Thump-thump-thump. Or that buzzing sound when you get to close to the median.
Do you hear that sound in your spirit? If so, it’s a gracious warning from God’s Word. Heed the warning.
And this brings us to Point Number Three, Two Masters, and a very famous verse: “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.”
Does that sound frightening? Don’t think of it like that. It’s actually gracious and loving and compassionate for Jesus to level with us like this. He doesn’t say it’s merely difficult to serve two masters; he says it’s impossible. God didn’t make us to be able to handle serving two masters—that it’s not ideal to do so, that it’s not as spiritually helpful. No, it’s impossible. So the Lord doesn’t want us wasting time trying to do what’s impossible. So he’s telling it like it is! It’s one or the other—not some combination of the two!
The word underneath the English word “money” in verse 24 used to be left untranslated… from an Aramaic word that Jesus used, which comes into English as Mammon. The old King James said you can’t serve both God and Mammon—with a capital M. As if mammon itself were a rival god…
Here’s Bruner again:
Today we might legitimately translate Mammon as things, money, gain, or success. The god Mammon is… is a spiritual force who works with tremendous attracting power to draw us into its orbit and out from under the service of Christ. 4
Bruner says elsewhere that we can’t work mostly for God while at the same time “moonlighting” for Mammon. 5
We see someone who’s moonlighting for Mammon, for instance, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The older son. Remember? “[B]ut he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’” 6
For those many years that the older son was working for his father, I doubt the older son was consciously aware of the resentment he felt for his father. He was a rule-abider, after all, a good kid. Even if he occasionally felt those feelings of resentment, he would tamp them down again. Because he knew that it’s wrong to resent one’s father. Breaking the Fifth Commandment…
But that anger and resentment came spilling out when his younger brother came home.
And we realize in that moment that while the older son was mostly working for his dad those many years, he was, at the same time, moonlighting for Mammon—which in this case included money—the share of wealth that the younger son took with him to that distant land and squandered—but also included what Larry David and Ted Danson wanted: the honor, glory, and recognition of others. “You never even gave me a young goat to throw a party with my friends, much less a fattened calf!”
I don’t want to treat our Father like that. You don’t want to treat our Father like that. All of us, I’m sure, want to love our Father more fully.
Yet Jesus says that our improper relationship with money and possessions prevents us from loving God. He says our misguided definition of success prevents us from loving God. He says our misbegotten desire for glory prevents us from loving God. And—yes—he says our desperate fear of losing earthly treasures, or not having enough of these treasures, prevents us from loving God.
This is a deadly serious problem. What’s the solution?
You’ll have to come back next week… Because in the rest of chapter 6, Jesus offers the solution to the problem that lies deep within each of us…