Matthew 6:22-24 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
How can an eye be a lamp? A lamp generates its own light, an eye just takes in light. Jesus in the above words is nailing down his teaching on where our treasure is stored. Is our primary purpose in life to fulfill our fleshly desires or to know God? Our way of living connotes very well with Jesus’ metaphor of the lamp. What is primary in our lifestyles; what is central in our thinking and actions? Is our lamp healthy? if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If our lives are dedicated only to ourselves, gleaning the most out of life for our self-centered reasons, we will lose the real purpose for living. By seeking our self-interests, we actually lose our lives. We are storing up treasure here on Earth, where moths and vermin destroy, where thieves can break in and steal as we read last week. If our treasure is of this world, there is no servanthood in that life, for our lamps are dark. Jesus says, that existence is exceptionally dark, so dark that we cannot fully understand the depths of such a condition. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! The prophet Jeremiah expresses it this way: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9) A life centered on self is a desperate life. The Bible clearly states that it is dead to God. Mammon cannot be the purpose of our lives or we are not really living. We might deceive ourselves by emphasizing the goodness in our lives, but the eye is still unhealthy because it is not totally committed to a LIVING GOD. We are like the rich who give to the temple treasury that which is the excess of their lives, that which is not really needed to sustain their lives. But the widow Jesus told about who put in everything—all she had to live on is living with a good bulb in her lamp, illuminating her whole existence. (Mark 12:44) She is completely sold out to God. Her treasure is not on Earth, but in heaven. She trusts the God of heaven to take care of her needs. The rich men at the temple trusted in their self-sufficiency. Their bulbs were opaque, not able to display God’s light to the depths of their souls. How dark is that kind of existence? Who can know it? Realistically, only God knows every thought, intention, nanosecond mulling of our hearts. To please the God of creation, we must have healthy eyes to cleanse our hearts, our inner souls. We must have THE LIGHT generating in our lamps. In him was life, and that life was the LIGHT of all mankind. (John 1:4) He is the one who lights up the hidden creases in our souls. He eradicates the sickness of our hearts that brings eternal death. Jesus, The Light of the World, makes us acceptable to God, white as snow.
When we trust in Christ as the way to live, our treasure shifts from this world to the next world. Our master shifts from us to him. We no longer serve our own needs, but his desires. We know Jesus is completely pleasing to God, and eternal life exists only IN HIM AND THROUGH HIM. Therefore, we trust in Jesus Christ and not our self-sufficiency. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. God sent Jesus into the world to heal our eyes, changing the lamp of the body. By making the eye healthy, the lamp makes the whole body full of light. The inner recesses of the soul will be new, created in the newness and healthiness of Jesus Christ. Without this power of God to generate health to every part of our souls through his light, we are still lost in the milieu of the self-centered man with our treasure still here on Earth. But the Holy Spirit in us is at work within our spirits, encouraging us to place our treasure in heaven where Jesus abides. The Spirit encourages us to feed our souls the Light, to live for him and not ourselves, to place our affections on the things of heaven and not on this earth. He teaches us to be true to God, to serve God with our whole heart, to love him and to love others. Paul tells us how to think, how to live in our minds as new creatures with a new Master. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9) If our treasure is truly in heaven, we will think and act differently. We can evaluate where we are in the inner recesses of our lives if we desire to dwell only on the positive things of life. The light of God should make us weary of the lifestyles and actions of the world. Rather than emulate the celebrities and elite of the world, we should desire to imitate the lives of the apostles, who gave everything for Christ. They endured hardships and trials of all kinds to propagate the Good News throughout the world. We should look at them for their treasure was in heaven, not on this earth. We accept Paul’s prayer that our eyes may be full of light, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. (Ephesians 1:18)
Our inheritance in Christ as God’s children will lead us on wonderful paths. Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:18-22) In these verses, Jesus tells the apostles what happens if their treasure is in heaven. The Light in their souls will cause them to do mighty deeds because of God’s power and light. As Jesus and the apostles walk to Jerusalem, He seeks fruit from a fig tree. Finding none, He curses the tree. Immediately, the fig tree withers. Jesus did not pray that the fig tree grow stronger and bear an abundance of fruit—He curses it. The fig tree did not provide provisions for Jesus. Are we the fig tree—lacking fruit for Christ? Are our treasures or the intentions and actions of our lives focused on ourselves, not on Jesus and eternal life? There is no purpose for a fruitless fig tree. A fig tree should generate fruit, not just exist. Jesus used this event to tell the disciples that they should have faith to bear fruit. If they have faith, they can change the landscape in their lives: remove mountains. They can change what always has been to something new. They can change the very purpose of their lives, not living for themselves, storing up treasure for themselves; instead, bearing fruit, generating life, changing reality for themselves and for others. If our eyes are full of darkness, our opaque lamps will fail to sensitize our souls to the Eternal Light. If our lives are fixed on THE LIGHT because of the healthiness of our eyes, trusting in Jesus, our whole purpose of life will change. Jesus will find figs on our trees. With fruit in our lives, we will be capable of feeding many. We are mountain movers, changing people’s lives, feeding their souls. We are the movers and the shakers of the world. Nothing is safe when the mountain movers move in, but Jesus told the disciples that faith is what changes the landscape. With faith anything is possible, but without faith the tree will just provide a little shade and temporary beauty. But with faith unlimited, nothing can withstand that kind of power, even the landscape of people’s dead souls. They will be changed eternally from death to life. The mountain has been moved. Of course, Jesus is the ultimate mountain mover; but as followers of Jesus who trust in his power and authority, we can move mountains too as did the apostles. We will provide people with new eyes, new lamps; so when Jesus evaluates their lives, He will find abundant fruit in them. But serving the flesh will lead to a darkness so great, who can know it. There is no positive outcome or destination in serving the flesh. The treasure of this world does not last or satisfy the soul. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” You cannot serve both God and money. People without absolute faith and trust in God will abide alone throughout eternity because of their alienation from the only true Master. On Earth, they established their personal treasure, fulfilling their bucket lists; but when their lives end, their money, their treasure will be as worthless as Monopoly money. The Lord, the evaluator of all earthly journeys, will burn their worthless treasure. The silver and gold of Earth will disappear in smoke. Only that which endures the testing of fire will exist eternally. Beloved friends around the breakfast table, mountain movers’ fruit endures the test of fire. God will say to them, “Enter into the place I prepared for you, my good and faithful servants. You changed the landscape for many in this world. Christ found an abundance of fruit in your lives.” Praise God!
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