³³ Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” ³⁴ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵ or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:33-37

We are now to the fourth section of six in which Jesus is fleshing out the nature of true righteousness. What we are finding is that true righteousness is that which reflects the very righteousness of God. God is not righteous by doing certain actions, fulfilling certain duties or following certain laws. God is not righteous because He does enough to satisfy certain conditions of a contract. Righteousness is who God is. The law that God gave to the Hebrew people was to reflect or point to this righteousness that is God’s real being. The laws of how to treat each other and how to relate to God flowed from the very nature and heart of God.

Jesus tells His listeners earlier in this sermon, he has come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. In Jesus, the completion of the law becomes flesh. It is no longer just a written code to point to righteousness. It is lived out from Jesus’ very being and so now reflects perfectly back to God His own righteousness in human form.

In these examples that Jesus gives of the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we see reflected the righteousness of God. God is fully right, or righteous towards us. God is not divided towards us, either in His words or His thoughts. God loves us, and His words to us and thoughts of us always spring out of that love. God remains faithful to Himself and therefore to us, even in the face of our unfaithfulness.

Jesus is asking His listeners to consider the nature of true righteousness in each of these six sections we are now considering. He is showing them that righteousness is far more deep, real, and solid than they may have come to believe. Righteousness towards others involves our words and even our thoughts. That is because true righteousness flows out of a righteous being. Only Jesus can fulfill the law and have a righteousness that exceeds whatever the scribes and Pharisees have been able to do.

When we listen to Jesus’ words here, we might be tempted to feel discouraged. If my calling my brother or sister a fool is no better than actually killing them, then what hope is there for me? If my thought life makes me as guilty before the law as my actions do, then I will never be able to make myself more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees.

However, I don’t think that Jesus’ intention is to weigh us down or condemn us. He is giving us good news about the nature of righteousness. How wonderful to know that God’s intention for us is that we become righteous people, not just those that do righteous things sometimes. We are to reflect His very nature and character, to be made new all the way down to the deepest parts of our being! Thank God Jesus came to fulfill the law and provide for us in Himself true righteousness. This is why those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness are blessed and will one day be satisfied: not because they will make themselves righteous, but because Christ shares with us his true righteousness as we receive and participate in it by faith in him.

So far Jesus has spoken to His listeners of true righteousness in terms of murder and adultery. He has led them to realize that real righteousness that comes from God begins back in our thoughts and our words. True righteousness leads to relationships that are founded in deep trust, so that vulnerability and intimacy are possible, because there is no fear of hypocrisy or betrayal. In the section we are now looking at, Jesus continues to reveal the heart of righteousness.

Jesus begins, as He has with the previous sections, by reminding His listeners of what they already know. “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” The issue at hand here is one of integrity. The Israelites were commanded to be faithful to do what they had sworn to do. People were to be able to count on the oath you made.

But over time what had developed is a system of oaths that would enable people to look trustworthy, but not to be held accountable to do what they had “promised” to do. Depending on what you swore by, you were more or less obligated to do what you said you would. People would swear by some lesser things, because they reasoned that if they broke their word, then “at least they were not bringing God’s name into disrepute.”(The Bible Backround Commentary, IVP, p. 59) It became a task of the rabbis to sort out and decide which of these various oaths were completely binding.

Jesus refers indirectly to Isaiah 66:1 (“Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool’”) to remind his listeners that all of creation belongs to God. The idea that there may be some parts of the world that God has nothing to do with and so we can swear by them without God being involved is ridiculous. He goes on and warns against swearing by one’s head, because “you cannot make one hair white or black.” We have no capacity by sheer willpower, to change the color of our hair. What business do we have swearing by our heads, then?

The original law, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn,” was meant to reflect the faithfulness of God. Righteousness, right relationship, involves being one who is true to their promises. Jesus here is saying that integrity goes deeper than that. Integrity does not require a promise or an oath at all. The oath or promise imply that there are times when our words cannot be counted on, so we have to add these things to convince another that this time we will be bound by what we say we will do.

Today we do not have an elaborate system of objects by which to swear. We will sometimes try to sound more convincing with the words, “I promise” or “I swear” but that is often as far as it goes. As children we may have tried at times to make a commitment less binding by crossing our fingers behind our backs. But we still struggle with the idea of making our “yes” or “no” suffice. I think some of what is behind this is that we wish to appear as generous, open, and flexible as we can while at the same time keeping a tight hold on what we actually end up doing for others.

Sometimes we say “maybe” instead of “yes” or “no” because we think it makes us look more open than we truly are. Unfortunately this often forces the other person to remain suspended in a position of indecision and ambiguity which can stifle trust and even prevent cooperation and fellowship. A maybe does not invite trust, confidence or partnership. When we leave our own options open through our own indecision on the chance that perhaps our maybe will change into a yes, we can actually restrict the options open to others in response.

Avoiding yes or no is often not considerate or generous or even non-manipulative, but the opposite. Sometimes we blurt out a response to sound good or generous or flexible, without thinking through whether we really intend to follow through or not. I remember many years ago realizing that I often told people I would pray for them, then I would forget to later on. I knew that I was seeking to appear more pious and interested in others than in fact I was.

To have your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”, means that there is no slippage between what you say and what you do. You do not appear to be anything else than who you truly are. We affirm our abilities, potentials, and moral priorities with our yeses and admit our practical and moral limitations with our nos. Our word is an extension of our inward being. People are able to see more clearly into who we are when our words and our actions always correspond as we trust in Christ to share with us the by the Spirit His very righteousness.

Our word and actions then become little signs, pointers to the integrity which is God’s. The reason that letting your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no” is part of the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees is because God Himself has no slippage between He words to us and His actions. We can completely count on God’s word to be backed up by His action. He does not need to “swear” in order to convince us that in this instance He is serious. We can always count on Him, we do not need to work our lives around only having vague hopes that He might be faithful, afraid to find out that He won’t. In Jesus God’s word is not “yes” and “no”, or even “maybe”.

Jesus reveals to us the true heart of God and we can trust that God will always be faithful to Himself and therefore to us. He will, as Paul says at the beginning of Philippians, bring to completion the good work that He began in us. God does not vacilliate in His love for us or in His word to us. Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthian church says this: “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, … was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes’. For all the promises of God find their ‘Yes’ in him.” Jesus is God’s word, God’s Yes to us! How wonderful to know that He is faithful and can be trusted always to be true to Himself.

³⁸ You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; ⁴⁰ and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; ⁴¹ and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴² Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.

Matthew 5:38-42

Jesus is continuing to flesh out for His listeners what true righteousness is. Remember that Jesus began this section by saying that He is the One who fulfills all righteousness. In reading through these sections, then, we are first learning more of the character of Jesus, and therefore of the triune God. The meaning, shape and character of righteousness does not come primarily from what God says, but out of who God is.

In this section we see that righteousness, God’s righteousness, involves a freedom to love and serve others, that is in no way bound by the other’s character, motives, or relationship with the One who is loving. This righteousness that Jesus fulfills and provides for us is rooted in overflowing grace and love, freeing the giver to give without regard to whether she or he will receive equally back from the one being given to.

Jesus begins this section, as He has the preceding ones, reminding His readers of what they already know. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ This principle was the basis of much of Near Eastern justice, and would be immediately recognized by Jesus’ hearers. It was put into place to restrain unlimited blood vengeance. It limited what damages one could expect to what was considered proportional, equal and fair.

But what this dictum often led to was a tit-for-tat kind of thinking that permeated all relationships. This attitude is certainly still pervasive today. We often work to keep things as even and equal as possible. Children begin very early to argue when they believe something is “not fair.” If someone hurts us in some way, we are tempted to hurt them back. Suing has gotten out of hand in our culture. We want what we believe is our share. We can also be concerned about keeping things even so that we are not beholden to others. If we are given a Christmas gift of certain value, for instance, we will think through what action or gift would “equal” this present and so keep things even. Keeping and getting even directs so much of what we do.

What a restricting way to live! We are then tempted to decide how to act toward others according to how they act towards us. When we are wronged, our thoughts are focused on how to “get even.” We want them to pay for what they have done. This can become our one obsession. We see people today, consumed with a desire for revenge that is so deep, that this passion comes to define their whole purpose in life. Evil begets evil, and it becomes a perpetual course.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” can help limit the evil of a retaliation, but there is no life in it. It can only keep things “even.” It cannot bring joy, grace, or life into the relationship. To live by this mindset is to be bound within a cycle of reaction and action. It does not lead to freedom.

Jesus is telling His readers that “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is not the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees. It does not reflect the true righteousness that has its source in God’s own heart and character. So now Jesus tells His readers that true righteousness goes way beyond a tit-for-tat mindset. The RSV version that I use translates this next line “But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil.” If Jesus sees this as the contrast to the previous line, then this must mean that we are not to pay evil back with evil, even if it is an “equal and fair” amount. I do not believe Jesus is saying that we are not to resist evil, but that we are not to resist it with evil means. This makes the most sense in the context. I found further insight on the Greek in a book entitled Kingdom Ethics (IVP, 2003). The Greek for “evil” can mean either “by evil means” or “the evil person”, and which to choose must be decided from the context. As I stated, this follows Jesus quoting “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” which has to do with a particular means for dealing with evil or pain. Secondly, the authors go on to note that the Greek word translated “resist” is “used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures … and in the Greek sources of the time, Josephus and Philo, ‘for armed resistance in military encounters’ in the majority of cases.” Their conclusion is that a more accurate translation to this verse would be “‘do not retaliate or resist violently or revengefully, by evil means.’”(p. 138).

Jesus now goes on to give three examples of what a true righteousness looks like in situations where you might be tempted to give back “tit-for-tat.” It is important to see that in each of these situations, the righteous person acts out of freedom toward the other rather than just reacting to what occurs. It seems to me that in all of these cases, this freedom is rooted in the understanding that true righteousness begins in being poor in spirit. The truly righteous one knows that her/his identity and life do not come from themselves but are found in God, so no one can take it from them. This allows them to act independently of the others’ actions towards them in any given situation.

In the first example someone strikes you on the right cheek. According to The Bible Background Commentary (IVP) a “blow on the right cheek was the most grievous insult possible in the ancient world …” and “both Jewish and Roman law permitted prosecution for this offense” (p. 60). To act by the standards of justice and fairness, one would seek retribution for this act. But Jesus suggests that true righteousness means turning and offering the other cheek as well. In other words, what the righteous man is saying by this action is “You think you have insulted me by this action, but in order to show you that you have no power to insult me because I know to whom I belong, I will offer to let you slap my other cheek as well.”

In the second example someone is out to sue you and take your coat. As in the previous example, someone is trying to “lord it over” you, to control and abuse you. They believe they are in the seat of power over you. But Jesus suggests you dispel this notion here by giving them your cloak as well. They are out to take it by force from you, but you turn around and demonstrate that if they intend to wrongfully take it from you, you are going to choose to give to them freely if they need it so badly.

The third example comes from the law at that time. A Roman soldier could legally make you carry something (usually all his military baggage) for him for one mile. If the soldier makes this demand of you, you may well feel as if you are being forced to do this, that you have no choice. The soldier can lord it over you because of his position in the occupying army. You would be tempted to find some way to retaliate, to get back at this soldier for this humiliation of being forced to carry his things for him. But Jesus’ tells His hearers that true righteousness would lead you to walk a second mile for the man as well. It is as if you are saying, “You think that you are forcing me to do this, as if I have no choice. To show you that I am free from your tyranny and that I freely choose to do this, because I serve an even higher Authority, I will go with you even farther than you expect me to.”

Lastly, Jesus encourages His listeners to be generous givers. He tells them not to refuse either the person who begs from them or the person who wants to borrow from them. They are not to react in these situations by trying to protect themselves and make sure that everything remains even and fair. Their response is not to come from the immediate situation, but out of a freedom that indicates that they know that money is not the source of their lives and security.

Jesus is the One who fulfills this righteousness. He does not move towards us in reaction to how we deal with Him. He comes to us with a lavish love and grace which is in no way merited by our situation. He is not reacting to our loveliness, goodness, and impressive good deeds. In Ephesians 2:4-5, Paul says that God poured out His great love for us while we were still dead in our sins. Jesus is not motivated by trying to carve out His fair share, or by seeing that we get what we deserve. He is not dependent on our actions to know how to feel and act towards us. Jesus acts out of a tremendous freedom, a freedom that comes from knowing that His life and identity come from His wonderful Father and so He has nothing He needs to protect or guard from us.

This is the amazing righteousness that is at the heart of the triune God, and that Jesus in fulfilling the law has come to share with us. We are truly poor in spirit–silly creatures so often grasping to make sure that we get our share, that we keep things even, as if our lives were at their deepest level bound up with our own efforts. The tit-for-tat mindset assumes that life, and our identities and worth, are limited commodities that we all need to compete for. The good news that Jesus reveals here is that this is simply not the case. There is a true righteousness that operates out of the freedom that comes from knowing the truth, the reality that you are indeed the beloved daughter or son of God. He gives us our lives, our identities and they are secure in Him. So we return good even for evil.

It is wonderful to know that this righteousness, this free love and grace that Jesus pours out on us, is the righteousness He is transforming us to fully share in. And what a great way to live that so far exceeds the endless cycle of keeping things even.

⁴³ You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

We are now at the last section that follows Jesus’ statement that He has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. Throughout this long passage, Jesus has been expounding on what true righteousness, the righteousness that He fulfills, truly is. Jesus is revealing to us the righteousness that flows from God’s heart, His character. In the previous section to what we are going to study now, Jesus tells His listeners that true righteousness involves a freedom to love and serve others regardless of their words or actions towards us.

This section is closely connected to the one right before it. These verses are also dealing with the freedom of true righteousness to love another without reference to whether or not they love or care for you. The truly righteous one relies on God’s overflowing love and therefore can even move towards his/her enemy in loving service.

Jesus introduces this section, as with the previous five, with a saying that would be familiar to his audience, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” Unlike some of the previous sections, this quote does not come from the Old Testament. The Old Testament does, however, contain the idea that it is pious to hate God’s enemies (Ps. 109:19-22). Praying for one’s enemies did not generally characterize “even the most pious in the Old Testament”(The IVP Bible Background Commentary, p.61).

Wherever the saying came from, it must have been one that Jesus’ listeners would have readily recognized and generally approved of. It was a generally accepted idea that we love those we consider to be like us, our neighbors, those that are “on our side” and we hate those whom we believe oppose us, are on “the other side,” our enemies. In the previous section we give back to others according to what they give to us, tit for tat. Our action toward them is determined b their actions towards us. Here we have the same mindset. We love or hate others depending on whether they are for or against us. A friend is a friend and an enemy is an enemy–one is just reacting to what already is.

Jesus’ definition of righteousness involves a freedom that enables us to move towards our enemies in a new and surprising way. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” Jesus is saying that the one who is righteous will treat his/her enemy with love, the same way he treats his neighbor. To deal righteously with those who persecute you is to bring them to the Father in prayer.

This is true of Jesus, the One who fulfills all righteousness. He loves those who oppose him and prays for his persecutors. What amazing good news it is that Jesus does not allow his enemies to determine how he will treat them. Therefore, they do not need to remain his enemies. From Jesus’ side, there is no reason for them to remain so.

This freedom is what Jesus shares with us in His fulfilling of God’s will. His intent for us is to give us this same capacity to refuse to treat our enemies as enemies, but instead to extend God’s love to them, to bring them before the Father in prayer with the hope that from their own side as well, we will not remain enemies.

Jesus goes on to clearly connect this righteousness with God’s heart towards us. As we love and pray for our enemies, Jesus indicates that we are living as God’s own children, mirroring the life and character of our heavenly Father. We share the family resemblance when we love in this way. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares that the peacemakers are blessed because they shall be called the children of God. Peacemakers are those who offer God’s shalom in the midst of conflict. God is the Peacemaker. He is the One, through and in His Son, who makes peace where there is no possibility of peace, provides forgiveness and healing in the face of evil and brokenness.

Furthermore, peace becomes possible when we love our enemies. Jesus goes on to point out that God “makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God pours out blessing on all, regardless of their present state of goodness or evil. God does not look to us to decide how to behave towards us. His love is not dependent on our behavior or our attitude towards him. He acts first, moving to love us, to bless us.

It is in receiving His love that we are freed and enabled to love our enemies. Our enemies cannot tell us who we are, they cannot give us our lives. We are not stuck, being able only to react to others. We have a mediator between us and others in Christ. Jesus does not leave us empty-handed or with a mere command to fulfill on our own power. It is in recognizing the true poverty of our souls, our real inability to love those we see as enemies, that we are able to receive the Father’s deep love for us. And that’s what we have to pass on to others.

It is clear that Jesus intends for us to go beyond what we could do on our own. After His description of the impartial grace of our heavenly Father, Jesus asks His listeners, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? do not even the Gentiles do the same?” There is nothing surprising or unusual about loving those that treat you well and opposing those who don’t. It is not a sign of anything extraordinary. We can do this without help. Jesus points out that even those who do not know or trust in God can manage this much.

But what about those times when we see or experience reconciliation between enemies? When Corrie Ten Boom, who spent several months in a German prison camp during World War II, met one of the soldiers from that same camp a few years after the war, she was able to forgive him. That is amazing! It takes our breath away to consider it. How can anger and hate be transformed to forgiveness and love? It seems truly impossible. I remember hearing of a man to who traveled some distance to a prison in order to extend forgiveness to the man who murdered his wife. We all know stories like this. And they always thrill and baffle us. These stories give us hope that what is horribly broken can be changed, healed and made right.

This hope extends really to all of our relationships. Who we recognize as our enemies can change. I don’t think Jesus is just talking about national, political, family or clan enemies. Who we perceive to be our enemy can be any one who at this moment is opposing us, or not caring for us as we want and who we are tempted to treat us with anger and hurt. Sometimes when I am angry at someone I am close to, I don’t see him/her clearly anymore. For that moment, he/she is my “enemy.” Our enemies might be those we are supposed to get along with, someone in our extended family, our church, or at work, that we have great difficulty dealing well with.

In all of these various situations of conflict, we count on God’s grace to transform our hearts. We are to bring our “enemies”, and ourselves, to God in prayer for His intervention in our lives. Remembering the truth of God’s great love for us and His ability to work in the midst of our frailty can enable us to count on Him to change our hearts, to have hope that He can transform us to move forward in His love. And every time we see him change our hearts, it is a wonder and a miracle.

We can count on Him to transform our hearts because this is who God is. The gospel is the story of God wooing and loving us, His enemies. He cared for us before we even knew or cared that He existed. Transforming conflict into peace and well-being is at the heart of who He is. And His ability and desire to bring about reconciliation will never run out. His continuing work is to reconcile everything to Himself in Christ. It is God who continually accomplishes the impossible–of enabling me to love, when on my own I only experience anger and hate.

God’s will for us, Jesus’ concludes, is that we will finally, in the end, be able to move towards others out of grace, love, and hope all the time, like God does. “You must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” The Greek verb is future tense, so a more literal translation is “You will be perfect, as you heavenly father is perfect.” God’s desire for us is nothing less than for us to be as free from hate, anger, and brokenness as He is, that we become able to experience and live in His true love, a free giving and receiving that always blesses.

Jesus began this section telling His listeners that He fulfills God’s will, that He is the righteous One. He is here to give us a share in that righteousness, that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees and is here described as being perfect or mature. The righteousness Christ is and shares with us is being in right relationship with God and therefore with all things created by God. God is ready to lead us to this perfection and He will not love us less than to make us truly His children.

I am so thankful that God loves us to perfection. There may be times when I think I want Him to love me less, to let me hold onto my petty thoughts of revenge, my hate and anger, but I see the foolishness of being left there. He works to bring us to our full completion in Him, to finally truly be who He created us to be. Hallelujah!

¹ Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. ² Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:1-4

Jesus has been teaching His disciples about the nature of righteousness. In the beatitudes He gave them a new understanding of who is blessed. To be blessed is to know your longing and need for God and for His righteousness to fill everything. We are blessed when we are willing to receive from God His life for us, when we are willing to let Him tell us who we really are. This poverty of spirit comes from a realization that everything else in this creation, including ourselves, cannot get us life.

Jesus then went on to tell His listeners that true righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. He told them that He Himself is the One who does this, who fulfills God’s will for righteousness. God’s will for us is not just to do righteous things, but to be truly set right from the inside out. He intends to satisfy our deepest, built-in longing to see all things, all of creation, set right. And this He does in Jesus, who takes on our fallen humanity and fulfills the whole will of God, making all things right. In our poverty of spirit, in our longing for righteousness, we receive and share in Jesus’ righteousness which is partially and imperfectly manifested in us now, but will, in the end, totally transform us by the power of the Spirit into Christ’s likeness.

Having spoken on the need to be truly righteous, Jesus gives several illustrations to help His readers understand what this righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees looks like. Righteousness is first of all living in and enjoying the relationship with God for which we were created. From there, true righteousness works itself out in truly right relationships with others–right from our side regardless of how the other behaves towards us. As we receive God’s love and life to fill our poverty of spirit, He gives us His righteousness, which involves a freedom to move towards others with grace and love regardless of how they may regard and treat us. Jesus concludes the section on true righteousness telling His hearers that God’s will for them is that they become perfect. God’s love for us will not be satisfied until we are complete and whole in Him. He loves us–to perfection.

Now Jesus turns to the practice of piety, as it is seen in almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Piety is the personal practice of one’s faith. He begins by speaking on almsgiving. Giving alms is providing for the needs of the poor. It was a central practice to the Jews–their form of assistance to the poor, since the government offered little or none. But it would seem by Jesus’ words, that this practice was now done by many in a public way that held the prospect of gaining the giver the recognition and adulation of others.

The issue Jesus is dealing with in this passage is motive. Why do we give to others who are less fortunate than ourselves? It would seem that Jesus exposes an underlying motive to giving, namely having our generosity recognized or acknowledged. We don’t like giving in a vacuum–we want there to be a return for our effort, a positive, affirming response.

What is interesting to see in this passage is that Jesus does not tell his listeners that their desire for recognition is bad and that they should work to rid themselves of it. Instead, He tells them that they are seeking recognition, or reward, from the wrong place. How does Jesus motivate them to give their alms in secret? He does so with the statement that “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Jesus tells His listeners, not that they should not desire reward, but that they should desire the proper reward for their deeds, from the only One who can give it.

Jesus reminds His listeners who God is. God is the Father who sees in secret. We may be tempted at times to live as if God doesn’t care about us personally, that He is not watching, He is not paying attention to our lives. We begin to live as if He is distant, and not close by, with us. Or we are tempted to think that God doesn’t really care about what we do, or if He does, it is only to make sure that we are doing our job–but certainly not to reward us! Can God be truly interested in rewarding us fragile creatures? According to Jesus, yes, He is! We are not just His creatures, we are His children. God is our Father. And as our Father He is intensely interested in us. He is present even when no one else is. When we think no one is there and no one cares, God our Father is watching, even in those secret places and moments.

Jesus wants to motivate His listeners by faith. He wants them to live out of a counting on their Heavenly Father to be truly ever present and watchful. Nothing is lost on God. He sees even the smallest acts of kindness or goodness that we do. And, Jesus is saying, God takes our giving as if we are giving to Him. He is the One who rewards us. This to me is truly amazing. God takes me so seriously that He is willing to actually reward me–as if my small and feeble gifts mean something to Him!

But what about this phrase “in secret”? Why does our Father see in secret? Does this mean that when we are charitable in a public way, so as to draw attention to ourselves, God does not see it? Apparently, this is the case. God does not recognize and reward us when we are looking for the approval and recognition of others for our deeds. If we hope to find our identity, our significance from those around us, then we get only what they might be able to give us, which often isn’t much. There are great limitations to what other human beings can provide for us in response to watching our acts of generosity. Why are we so often tempted to ask others to give us a feeling of value and purpose? As fallen human beings, they are suffering from the same frailties and brokenness that we are and are often looking to us for the same sense of significance that we are hoping to get from them. More often than not, we stir up envy and jealousy in others when trying to show how “giving and kind” we are.

Only God, our Father, can give to us the response that is truly fitting and appropriate to our actions. Our almsgiving is meant to be one way we participate in God’s giving to His creation, giving to us. The Jews gave alms because God commanded it, and He commanded it because of His concern for the poor, a concern He desires that we share in. In our sharing with others, we come to recognize that we too are dependent on the generosity of Another. We are all receivers of grace, unable to give ourselves life and meaning. We can give to others out of our counting on our heavenly Father to take care of us, to truly be our Father. This is the right, appropriate reason to give alms. When we give in a public way, for others to see and recognize, then that is the reason we are giving. We are being charitable so that others will be impressed. Such giving counts on , puts faith in, what other people can give us. So God leaves us to receive whatever they may have to offer.

Jesus invites His listeners to give up the inadequate and elusive reward they can receive from others and to give in such a way that they receive a response from their Heavenly Father. Unlike humans, who only see each other on display in public, God sees in secret because He is watching us, He is paying attention to us. He can see what other cannot. He can see our hearts as well as our acts.

What a tremendous freedom and assurance Jesus is speaking of here! God so desires that we participate in His generosity by giving to others that He is committed to being present and active in every action of our giving that we do out of trust in Him. We can count on Him to be so interested and involved in our charity that no small, quiet act of giving will go unnoticed by Him. If we grab hold of this truth, we can be freed to give freely and joyfully, never wondering or concerned about who might see or recognize its true value, because we know God has already received the action and rewarded it. We can always play to this audience of One, because He is always there.

There are many and varied ways we may try to let people know what we have done and how hard we have worked so that they will appreciate us. What a waste of time and energy! When I count on God to be intimately involved, interested, and responsive in my life, I am free to give without regard to the circumstances. Gaining the recognition of others becomes completely irrelevant. I don’t even need to pay particular attention to it myself. Jesus encourages His listeners that when they give, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” We can be so free of concern in our giving, that we are not focusing on it, trying to give ourselves recognition and reward for what we have done. We are to turn away from ourselves and rather focus on and count on our Father to be the Father He reveals Himself to be.

God is not distant and slow to pay attention to us. He is present, near, and ready to recognize and encourage any tiny step in His direction. With a heavenly Father like this, we are free to enjoy giving to others with a freedom and an abandon, because we know our Father receives it all and gives us the response we so long for. He is willing to have our actions count and be worthy of reward from Him. I have to wonder when I see this why I ever settle for something so much less.

⁵ And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:5-6

We are in a section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is speaking to His listeners about the practice of their personal piety. Jesus first spoke on the giving of alms. Here He addresses prayer. These two sections are very similar, as will be the last section on fasting. In all three of these sections, Jesus deals with the motivation for the practice of one s faith in these particular areas. Here, as in the section on almsgiving, the motivation, for those who Jesus refers to as “hypocrites,” is–to “be seen by men.”

The desire to be recognized by others in one s prayer life is especially interesting because prayer, by definition, is our communication with God. In our prayers, we are speaking not to those around us but directly to God Himself. We thank Him for His grace in our lives, we praise Him in response to seeing His goodness and glory, we hand Him our sins in confession, and we unburden ourselves of our concerns in petition.

So what happened with these people Jesus calls hypocrites? Why did their prayer life become something that had to do with people around them? Jesus said that these people had come to a point where they loved to pray in public places so “that they may be seen by men.” No longer was their primary purpose in praying to communicate with God. Their main reason to pray was to impress others, to build themselves up by having the admiration, or at least gaining the attention of those around them. For various reasons they had ceased to pray as a way to count on God to be at work in their lives. Possibly they came to equate God s reaction to their piety with the reaction of others. If people were impressed with the wording or fervency of their prayers, surely God would be as well. Or it had just become more important to them to find favor with the people around them. Getting attention from others was now their primary motivation in life

Certainly the opinions of those around us can often seem more immediate and influential in our lives than God s presence. We know people see and hear us–after all, they are solidly right here with us. I wonder if that motivation begins with the deep desire to be heard, to be recognized or acknowledged. We all long to be seen clearly by others, to meet with a positive response from those around us. This longing comes from our very creation, for we were created to be in relationship, to participate in a mutual giving and receiving, loving and being loved, hearing and being heard.

It is not a bad thing that we long to be heard and accepted. It is woven into the deepest part of our being. Because Jesus speaks negatively about the hypocrites who are driven by the desire to be heard by people, it can be tempting to believe that the longing itself to be truly heard is selfish, sinful, wrong.

But it is not the longing that Jesus here condemns. Jesus calls the group that He is speaking against “hypocrites.” A hypocrite is someone who is divided between their outside behavior and their inner convictions and motivations. These people were praying supposedly to God, but they were doing it in such a way as to be heard by those around them. They didn t want to directly call attention to themselves by speaking to the people because they wanted to appear pious and therefore, worthy of respect. They wanted to be heard as people who were devoted to their God. So they used their prayer time as an opportunity to influence the opinions of others in their favor. Their piety, expressed here by their prayers to God, had become a means to another end.

Jesus tells His listeners that these people have already received their reward. They desire to be “seen by men” and so they are. Since the purpose of their praying is not speaking to God, but gaining a certain reputation among others, their actions are seen by others and not by God. God does not receive the prayers as if they are directed at Him, for in truth they are not.

Jesus purpose in this teaching is to encourage His listeners to pray. He speaks against the hypocrites lest His audience believe that these people really are more pious and therefore are far more likely to be heard by God than they are. They see these people often, out at the public places praying and are tempted to be impressed. They seem so much more pious than me, why would God listen to my prayers?

To motivate His listeners to pray, Jesus tells them about their heavenly Father. He is a Father, Jesus assures them, who is “in secret” and “sees in secret.” God is paying attention. He does not need us to be loud, or out in public places so that He can find us. God is already actively listening to us in those private places where no one else can hear our thoughts and aches. We are created with longings to be clearly seen and heard. Jesus tells His listeners that God is the One who can clearly see, who sees where no one else can. Our heavenly Father does indeed hear us, and He is ready to fill that longing for us when we pour out our hearts to Him.

Jesus tells us that our Father will reward us when we pray to Him in secret. What does He mean? In the context, it seems to me that the reward is the reward of being truly heard and responded to. In the first part of this passage Jesus says that the hypocrites have received their reward. He has told us that they are seeking to be seen by men, so the reward they have already received is that they have been seen. In the second half, Jesus continues the idea of “seeing.” God sees in secret and when we pray to Him in secret He will reward us by truly being seen by Him.

We live in a world today that is not that different from the world of Jesus listeners. We feel pressure to be noticed and validated by others around us. We fear that we are insignificant, that what we do will go unnoticed. We wonder if anyone out there is truly able to see us as we are, to hear us. So we are tempted to make sure someone sees us, and rewards us with some admiration and respect. The funny thing is, this is already available to us in God while the people around us are often oblivious and sometimes even reluctant to reward us with anything (perhaps because they are often looking to us, rather than God, to reward them first!). There’s no need to do something religious or impressive to get God to pay attention. Jesus tells us that God is in secret, watching and listening for His children to come to Him, ready to reward them with his divine attention. That’s what prayer is really all about.

⁷ And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹ Pray then like this:

Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
¹⁰ Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread;
¹² And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors;
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

¹⁴ For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6:7-15

We are working through the section in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is addressing issues of personal piety. In the first two sections, on alms giving and prayer, Jesus emphasizes the close, watchful presence for our heavenly Father. Our Father is in secret, there in the quiet lonely place where we are tempted to believe no one can see or hear us. He is listening and looking over us, waiting to reward us with His presence, His welcome.

Before moving to the next topic of fasting, Jesus continues to talk about prayer and teaches His listeners how to pray. This is a fairly long section, but it is better to see it as a piece.

In the previous section Jesus told His listeners that when they pray, they are not to pray like those who pray only to be seen and heard by others. The reason that He gives is because the reward they receive, being heard by men, is not as wonderful as the reward of being seen and heard by God which they have when they pray in secret to Him. In other words, their prayer life needs to conform to and reflect the truth about the character of the One to whom they are praying.

Jesus follows in this section with an admonition to not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do when they pray. The reason the Gentiles pray this way, Jesus goes on, is because they think that they will be heard for their many words. The Gentiles, who believed in many gods, thought that it was necessary to get a god s attention, to secure a god s interest. One of the ways that they did this was to attempt to flatter the gods with lots of words. Do we sometimes believe that we will be heard because of our many words? Do we ever find ourselves praying loudly or repeating ourselves in hopes that God will be more likely to hear us and grant us our request?

Jesus tells His listeners that they are not to pray like the Gentiles because …your Father knows what you need before you ask him. The problem with this kind of prayer, Jesus says, is that it betrays a lack of knowledge of or trust in the God that is being prayed to. This is the underlying point in the previous passage on prayer as well. Jesus wants His listeners to understand the character of their loving Father so that they will pray in a way that reflects the One to whom they are praying. In order to know how to pray, we first need to know something about Who we are praying to. When we pray in such a way that others might be impressed, it is because we don t know or we forget that our heavenly Father is waiting for and listening to us in secret. When we attempt to find ways to gain attention and favor with God, it is because we don t realize or recall that our Father already knows what we need before we even ask Him.

I have been mulling this passage over for the past month or so now and this one statement by Jesus is so profound! I have been like the Gentiles many times in my prayers! I have found various ways to try to pressure God into fulfilling my requests. I have reminded Him of His promises, begged, even insinuated that I would not be so happy with Him if He didn t do what I asked. Behind all this, I realize, is a doubt that God really does see me, know me, and know my real needs before I ask Him. I can even forget that He is most deeply my Father, not my genie, a magician, or a taskmaster with whom I can bargain.

I have real, ongoing concerns in my life, as I am sure you do. I am sure that those who were listening to Jesus did as well. They were living under the often oppressive rule of a foreign country. Many, I am sure, had physical pain, illness, or disabilities. Some may have been wondering how they were going to provide for their families. They, like us, were tempted to heap up empty phrases in hope of being heard. They too were tempted to forget, and needed to be reminded that the God they prayed to was their loving Father, who did see them, and knew all their needs. He is not distant, slow to listen or consider His children. He knows before us, and often in spite of us, what we truly need.

How does it affect our prayers to come before God as to our Father who already knows what we need? This is a wonderful truth worth pondering over. How quickly I find I forget it! When I am anxious, impatient, or frustrated in my life, I find that I have forgotten this word from Jesus. I am tempted again to doubt God s presence, concern, or activity in my life. What a relief it is to hear this about our Father! It gives me room to rest in His Fatherhood and to trust that, if He is not answering me in the ways that I desire, it is not because He doesn t know what I need. Maybe it is I who don t know what I really need at this time.

So is Jesus then suggesting that we do not actually need to pray at all? After all, if God knows what we need before we ask them, then what point is there is asking? Not at all! Jesus assumes that we will be praying. He says that in praying we mustn t be like the Gentiles. Prayer is a given for a believing person. But Jesus wants them to know better the character of the One they are praying to. I also think that Jesus, in telling us how to pray, is tuning us into what we most deeply need. Our Father does indeed know what our deepest needs are, and in teaching us to pray, Jesus is helping us to tune in to these needs. This prayer gives us a context, a framework, to hand God all the concerns and longings of our heart that we are aware of, knowing that He knows us better than we know ourselves and is really to give us what we need.

Now Jesus goes on to teach his listeners how to pray. Because you have a Father who knows what you need before you ask Him, Jesus tells us, pray then like this…

Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

We begin our prayer addressing God as Our Father. The reason for this is because He is most truly our Heavenly Father and we come to Him then as the children who belong to Him and are loved by Him. Our first request is that our Father s name be hallowed, followed immediately by requests of the coming of His kingdom and the doing of His will. All three of these requests are closely related. Remember that Jesus tells us to pray like this because God our Father already knows our needs before we ask Him. Since this is true, we ask God to reveal who He is and what He is up to, to all. When we ask that God s name is hallowed, we are asking that it receive the recognition and glory it so aptly deserves. We want His name, His good character to shine forth. We then are to ask for His kingdom to come and His will to be done here on earth as it is already done in heaven. God s kingdom is where His will is being done, where His ways are seen, where His good purposes for His subjects are accomplished. Since our heavenly Father knows our needs before we pray to Him then, in prayer, we want to first simply ask that this Father is known and that His good will is obeyed by more and more people. And, we pray this because this is what we most deeply need. We need to know God as our Father, and ourselves as His children. We need to see His goodness and ways become established more and more in all areas of our lives.

Give us our daily bread,

We can ask in confidence of our Father who knows us, to provide us daily with our bread. We do not need to beg out of fear or uncertainty that maybe God is arbitrary, doesn t know our needs or isn t interested in or able to care for us. Notice that Jesus tells us to ask for our daily bread. Our love relationship with our heavenly Father is a dynamic one. We are to continually receive from Him that which we need and so continually remember and enjoy our identity as beloved children of a caring Father.

And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors;

In teaching His listeners what to pray, Jesus now instructs them to pray for forgiveness. It is interesting to remember that the context of this lesson on prayer is Jesus emphatic statement that God already knows what we need before we ask Him–in other words, we are praying, not to an imposing judge, or a distracted master, but to a Father who knows us intimately and loves us greatly. And it would seem that forgiveness is what we need, more basically and deeply than the other needs we may be more immediately focused on. We ask our heavenly Father to forgive us our wrong doings, our neglects, our failures to love or upbuild because He knows that this is what we need and that He can provide this for us, His children. He knows that what we most deeply need is healing, a new beginning, and the assurance that our misdeeds and our bent thoughts are not the last word on who we are.

Notice that this request is tied to a statement about our forgiving those who have done wrong to us. This echoes the earlier statement in the beatitudes Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. To forgive another is to not want to give up on another person, or to give up on God. Even when you are angry at the other person and you can t believe they did it again, you can t quite give up hope that they can change and that the relationship can get better. When you are merciful, you are willing to give another a second chance. Often when someone has made a mistake, has hurt us, we are tempted to think of that person only in terms of what they did. When we forgive them, we are hoping that there is more to the person than their mistake or sin–that that mistake does not tell us all of who they are. Forgiving another is not pretending that what they did wasn t that bad, or wasn t wrong. If that were the case, there would be no need of forgiveness. To forgive is to acknowledge being sinned against, but to hand that person and that sin over to God to deal with Himself so that it is not what stands between us any longer.

The reason we want to look beyond the sin, even very horrible sins, is because we want others to look beyond our own sin. We hope that we are not able to be reduced to our flaws or brokenness. We hope that our sin will not get to be the last word on who we are and where we are going. When we ourselves long for mercy, for another chance, we realize that we are not that different from the person who stands before us. We are alike–broken, hurting, and in need of hope that this is not the end.

And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

This is the last request Jesus tells His listeners to make in their prayer to the Father who knows them and their needs. Again, Jesus is helping them to have a better understanding of what is the deepest longings and needs of their hearts. Our Father knows that we need to be protected, that we are fragile and unable to handle all the temptations that surround us. Daily we are bombarded by temptations to not count on God for our lives and our identities, to put our trust into other things that are not God. So we not only are to ask God for forgiveness for what we have both done and failed to do, but we are to turn to Him for help in living in a world always ready to pull us off of our center in God. We may not realize our own frailty and therefore our deep need for help in times of trial.

We need God to deliver us from evil. We are not as capable of taking care of ourselves as we may think. We live in a broken, marred, evil world where great pain is inflicted and great injustices are permitted every day. Our heavenly Father is the One who knows our need for deliverance, He is the One we are to turn to for rescue.

We don t ask God for this deliverance because He is unwilling to do this otherwise. This is what the Father is up to, because He loves His children. He is the One who does His own good will, ushers His kingdom in, provides food for His creation, forgives and redeems, and protects. We ask for our own sakes–to put ourselves in a place where we can receive all that our Father is towards us and does for us. As I have stated, it is very important to remember the context of this prayer. Otherwise we might be tempted to believe that we pray to condition God to do these things for us. Jesus tells them first of God s character so that they ask, they pray, in response to seeing their heavenly Father clearly. When we ask, we place ourselves before God to receive Him and His blessings.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

To conclude His teaching on prayer Jesus goes back to the topic of forgiveness and re-emphasizes the connection between receiving God s forgiveness and extending forgiveness to others. This time it comes to us in the form of a warning. Warnings are often times difficult because we are tempted think that when someone turns to warning us they have taken on a completely different attitude towards us. Sometimes we fear that the warning indicates an outcome that the one warning would like to come to pass. In this case we could be tempted to conclude that the Father is just as happy to withhold forgiveness as to offer it and that what we do completely conditions the Father s desire to forgive.

If we only had this verse and thought of God being mostly like us, this interpretation would be a possibility. However, given the whole context of Jesus teaching studied above and the consistent character he displays throughout his whole ministry and which shows us his Father s character , this view of a conditioned God who can be of two minds about us is really ruled out. Actually, if we remember the nature of a warning,–to prevent an unwanted outcome or result, and not express a change of attitude or indifference to the outcome,–then we have no reason to believe that Jesus is contradicting himself in what he is now telling us about the Father here. The Father, and so the Son, want us to receive their forgiveness even when we resist it.

The strong warning is aimed to prevent us from failing to receive it. It warns that, if we somehow manage to hang on to unforgiveness and harbor ill will rather than the restoration of a relationship, we will not have the Father s forgiveness. Our unforgiveness will block our reception of God and the blessings of God s forgiveness. Hearts closed toward the neighbor are also closed towards God. Hearts open to receive from God will pass on to the neighbor what we have received from God. Jesus puts it in this conditional way to point out a real possibility, not being/having forgiveness; a possibility that is against His will and opposed to His purposes–to forgive. Our refusal may prevent us from experiencing the blessing of God s forgiveness (and so are not or don t have forgiveness in this way) but our rejection has no power to change God s mind about us or undo Christ s work and intentions for us. God in Christ has made up his mind once and for all about us. That is his unconditioned grace which call for our unconditional response of reception of that grace.

[Some may wonder how this fits grammatically the translation: If you do not forgive….neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you. Besides the fact that biblical interpretation can never be reduced to grammar, but always involves taking the context into consideration (the ultimate context being the character of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus) a lot seems to depends upon how we interpret the word neither that introduces the possible result That this is a warning, and one which uses a weaker (subjunctive) form of condition, seems to guard against taking the neither in a tit for tat way, as if God is looking for an excuse to not forgive us. Although it is easy to infer a purpose from the result that we are not forgiven, we should remember that such an inference is not necessarily (or even logically necessarily) true. God does not necessarily purpose or aim to assure that we are not forgiven even if the result is that we are not.

Grammatically we often have to discern between a result and a purpose. But it is very easy to confuse these two aspects of meaning. Sometimes what results is not what is purposed even for God. This distinction is especially important in the context of a warning. A warning is essentially descriptive of a condition and warning of a potential result or consequence and not proscriptive (telling us something about the heart and character of God). The potential results of warnings aim to convey the practical results as related to us. The consequence is descriptive not proscriptive. And, practically speaking, from our side, the result of not having forgiveness and not being forgiven are not distinguishable. The consequence contained in warnings appeal to things as viewed from the side of the one in danger and so speak of the potential resulting danger to us. But results described from our side can t be directly translated into insight into the purpose and heart of God on the other side, especially in the context of a warning. Grammatically then there is every reason to interpret the consequence to be a result rather than a purpose hidden in God heart. The described result does not answer the matter of purpose, even though we often want to (wrongly) infer purpose from the result.

In answer to the question about purpose we ought to place the interpretive weight on the nature or purpose of someone giving a warning:, namely, to avoid the possible result rather than deriving it from the potential result. The purpose of God can be derived from the purpose of a given warning. In this case then, the purpose of this warning is to avoid prevent someone from not being/receiving forgiveness. That is consistent with the character of God throughout the Beatitudes. A descriptive result clause in the warning ought not overthrow this clear revelation. Giving consideration to the larger biblical context as related to God s forgiveness, whenever Scripture speaks from God s side, and tells us directly of God s character and purpose we see that God is not conditioned by us, and is of one mind and character towards us. He is gracious, forgiving, redeeming. It is clearly his purpose to save, not condemn.

So even thought the result in this warning is expressed in the indicative, since it is set in the context of a warning there is no grammatical reason to take it as purposive, revealing the aim and intention of God. The consequence should only serve to indicate a result and one that is contrary to God s purposes. It should not initiate a reinterpretation of the character of God. Note that even here God is addressed as our Heavenly Father. Whether we receive it or somehow manage to refuse his forgiveness, God remains our Heavenly Father because Jesus remains our Heavenly Brother.]

¹⁶ And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, anoint your hear and wash your face, ¹⁸ that your fasting may not be seen by men but by you Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

This is the third section on the practice of our piety in the Sermon on the Mount. This whole piece begins, back in verses 1 and 2 of this chapter, with Jesus saying, Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. This appears to be a very important point for Jesus, because he then proceeds to illustrate this truth with three examples: giving alms, praying, and fasting. These three examples contain a lot of repetition. In all three Jesus urges His listeners not to be like the hypocrites who practice these things in such a way that they are seen by others. Instead, He urges His readers to give, pray, or fast in such a way that they are seen by their Father. Each time He calls God Father, and tells His listeners that their Father is One who is in secret and that He is One who rewards.

Why the repetition? Couldn t He have made His point more quickly and efficiently by lumping these three examples together? What do we gain by having Jesus repeat Himself almost verbatim three times?

Jesus repeats for emphasis. Repitition was the main device teachers used to emphasize important truths. Jesus wants us drive home His point to His listeners and to us.

And what is His point? It is two-fold. First of all, Jesus wants to reveal the utter uselessness of trying to receive our affirmation, our identity, from others. Secondly, and more fundamentally, He wants to reveal to and remind His listeners of the character of their heavenly Father so that they will draw near to Him and receive His reward.

Jesus describes all of these actions: giving to the poor, praying, and fasting as practicing our piety. This means that these are actions or behaviors come out of, essentially have to do with, our relationship with God. We give to those in need because we see and respond to God s gracious giving to us. Our giving comes out of our receiving from Him. Praying is more obviously connected to our relationship with God. Praying is how we communicate with Him. Fasting was primarily a way to express sorrow over sin. Everyone was expected to fast on the Day of Atonement. Fasting was meant to give expression to grief over the ways that the people had not trusted God, had not lived as if He was their God and they were His people. Over time there came to be only a few other days set aside for fasting by everyone. Fasting became associated with special times also involving prayer as a way to focus more completely on God.

Somehow though, over time, all of these actions came to be done by many in such a way that they were recognized or noticed by others. These people, whom Jesus called hypocrites found ways to make sure that when they were giving, praying, or fasting, the people around them would be aware of them. They announced their giving, prayed loudly in public, or fasted in such a way that it was obvious to others

Jesus warns that this approach to our piety has a huge price tag. Those who practice their piety in such a way so as to get noticed by others, get exactly that. The reward for their efforts is the notice of others, which may turn out not to be worth that much. As we have noted in the previous passages, other people are really not able to tell us who we are. They may affirm us, and for a moment help us to feel valuable, important. But they themselves are also often looking to be affirmed and loved by us. They cannot see us clearly–we cannot even see ourselves clearly most of the time!

But the inconsistent, half-hearted attention of others is all you get. And in the attempt to gain the notice of others, you lose the notice of God. And, as I have pointed out in our discussion of the previous two examples, Jesus is not telling His listeners that wanting to be noticed, the longing to belong, is an evil thing. We are created with a longing to belong, to be affirmed, loved, cherished by another. But that longing has a proper direction and object. God put that longing there to draw us to Himself, and He is the only One who can satisfy that longing.

Jesus reveals the wonderful character of our God to His listeners here, repeated for the third time. God is our Father–not just some disinterested Creator, or first and foremost our Master. He is our Father, we are His children–not just His creation. Our Father is present with us at all times, even in those moments where we are alone–and He is paying attention to us. He is the One who sees in secret. Our Father, in other words, is already here, already with us, and already watching for us to turn to Him. His attention to us, unlike what these hypocrites seek from others, is not a response to our initiative. He is there, as our Father, before we even consider Him. The One who created us then, far from being a disinterested and distant God, far from holding back from His creation until we prove ourselves worthy, is present and interested in our actual lives. This is truly good news. We are, born with a longing, as C. S. Lewis describes it to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality… He goes on to say, Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. ( The Weight of Glory )

This deep longing is put in our hearts by God Himself, and far from forcing us to search hopelessly on our own to discover how to meet this desire, Jesus tells us that Our Father comes to us, to fill us with His presence. Thus the last point Jesus repeats here for His listeners about the character of the Father is that He is a rewarder of those who come to Him. So Jesus motivates His listeners in the practice of their piety by emphasizing the ready and waiting heart of the Father to hear and see them, and to reward them, to answer that longing in them to belong, to come home.

Why is it that God will not reward those who are seeking to be noticed by others? Is it because He is just angry that we are seeking their attention instead of His?

I think, from this and the previous passages, that the fundamental reason we are not rewarded is that we are not putting ourselves in a place to receive anything from God. When we are praying or fasting or being charitable in such a way as to gain attention from others, then that is where our focus is–on others. Our hands, our hearts, are open to receive whatever affirmation may come from them. In a very real way, we are praying, giving, or fasting, with our focus on those around us instead of our heavenly Father.

In mulling over this passage, and this whole section, I have tried to consider how this applies to us. Most likely most of us are not announcing our gifts at church with trumpets, or standing and praying out loud in public places, or fasting in such a way as to make it obvious to others. I think what happens to us is that we get caught up in the doing of our faith. In church we are so often encouraged to serve in a variety of ways–to be on committees, teach Sunday School, reach out to our neighbors, etc. All of these tasks can be good things to be involved with, but sometimes what happens is that performing these tasks comes to be the essence of our Christian lives. These things are tangible, measurable, and we can receive some attention and sometimes maybe even affirmation for doing them. But after a while there is no real sense of a living God, a heavenly Father in our lives. We go on doing and doing, and sometimes we may feel our whole identity and life begin to depend on our performance of these tasks. We may come to a place where we feel burned-out and discouraged.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this we have stopped coming to our Father who is in secret, to receive His presence, His delight in us, His rest and direction. Maybe we started thinking that making time to be with Him was perfunctory, or just not as important as tangibly serving Him. Maybe we even tried to tell ourselves that God is more pleased with how we serve Him than in our receiving His loving word and presence to us. But this passage teaches us that knowing things about God and working for God are no substitute for feeding on Him every day. After all, this is not a God who is reluctant to meet us, to see us and to reward us. How wonderful He is! We can enjoy knowing ourselves as His beloved children, receiving again and again His love. I am so thankful for this reminder. We are given so much in the presence of our heavenly Father and yet often turn to live on so much less. May this reminder of the character of the Father draw us to Him again and again.

¹⁹ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Jesus has just finished speaking at length about the foolishness of practicing one s piety in front of others, and the need to remember that God is a Father who is present and ready to reward those who come to Him. If we have become preoccupied with getting noticed by others, with getting our value, our identity from others, then we are no longer putting ourselves in a place where we can receive anything from our heavenly Father. We cannot both seek to find the affirmation we were created to long for from those around us and from the triune God.

Jesus now turns to another place that we often seek to receive our affirmation, our value and identity from–possessions, or wealth. In the previous section, Jesus drove home the point that seeking to receive our identity and value simultaneously from others and from God is impossible. He makes the same point here about wealth. Jesus depicts the person who treasures and serves wealth or earthly treasures as one who is deeply divided in his/her very core. Jesus emphasizes His points by the use of three different images.

In the first section Jesus contrasts treasuring the treasures on earth with the treasures that are in heaven. Laying up is not actually in the Greek text. It literally reads Do not treasure to yourselves treasures on the earth… The idea of laying up is too narrow I think, because it mainly leads one to think in terms of working for, gathering, storing away. If this is what the meaning is, then when you look at the idea of laying up treasures in heaven you are tempted to think of things you need to do to store up for yourself treasures in heaven. Treasuring to yourself can include the idea of laying up –because if you are treasuring these things, you may also work to keep or store them up for yourself. But I think the meaning is broader and deeper than this. Jesus is warning against treasuring, that is, setting our desires on, whatever are considered to be treasures here on earth.

So what does it mean to treasure to yourselves ? It means to think highly of, to focus on, to believe that this thing, whatever it is, is crucial to your livelihood and happiness. You can know what you treasure by considering what you think about, hope for, dream of, and spend time working towards owning or keeping. If it is something you must have or if you have it, you believe that you must keep it, then you treasure it. What are some of the things we are tempted to treasure on earth?–the latest fashions or technologies, success in business, an easy retirement, a lovely home, ageless skin, a perfect body, power and control over others, or our circumstances? If you treasure something to yourself, you have your affections, your passions, your heart set on it. Its presence in your life is of supreme importance to you. You will put in a lot of time and effort in acquiring, maintaining and keeping it.

Why are we tempted to treasure to ourselves these earthly riches? I think that ultimately we treasure something else much deeper, than what we (mistakenly) think these riches will give us. We treasure our lives, our well-being, feeling valuable or important, security. We want to hold onto our lives, to make sure that we count, to be sure of our identity. We treasure material wealth, power, physical beauty, etc. because we think that they hold some key to what is deeper: our lives or our identities. We want our wealth to give us the security we crave. We choose to believe that obsessing about our physical appearance will bring us the attention that will show our value. We tell ourselves that our wealth, our possessions, or our lifestyles will guarantee that we won t suffer or die.

I think this is what Jesus means when He says that where our treasure is, that is where are hearts are also. For Jesus Jewish audience, the heart didn t merely mean the source of our feelings. The heart was the center of one s very will. The heart was at the core of one s life. You, your very life and identity, become connected to what you are treasuring. We can certainly understand this when we consider our fears of losing what we treasure. If we have come to believe that our very life, or security, or worth is bound up in that thing we treasure, then its loss would be devastating.

How does Jesus appeal to His audience here in His telling them not to treasure to themselves earthly treasures? He reminds them of the temporary and corruptible nature of all earthly treasure. Earthly treasure, whether it is wealth, beauty, or power, is transient and susceptible to change. When Jesus tells His listeners, and us, this truth, He is reminding them and us of what we already know. Our wealth doesn t guarantee happiness, security, or long life. We have no guarantees that our efforts at looking good will keep us eternally youthful and pain-free. We see evidence of the transience of life every day. We hear of changes in fortune, or diseases, natural disasters, or accidents that suddenly take away all that others have been treasuring. Deep down inside, we know the things we are tempted to cling to can offer no permanent life or sense of belonging to us.

Rather than discouraging His listeners from treasuring anything, Jesus tells them to care for, treasure, love and desire, and work for, heavenly treasures. Both earth and heaven have treasures. Jesus points out to His readers the superiority of the heavenly treasures and so encourages them to set their hearts on those. And what are the heavenly treasures Jesus wants us to treasure to ourselves? To speak of “the heavenly” for a Jew meant to speak of God–it was a reverential way to refer to Him. So, the heavenly treasures are God Himself and all of His blessings to be received in relationship with God. Jesus has already talked about these treasures in the Beatitudes. The treasures God has for us are the well-being of shalom, knowing ourselves as His true children, inheriting the earth–in short, having a share in the very life and love of the triune God. And, Jesus reminds us, these treasures are permanent, eternal. It would not be foolish to treasure these treasures for they will never fail us as earthly treasures will.

As with the previous teaching on seeking notice from others or from God, it seems here that the issue is not so much whether to treasure or desire something outside of ourselves, but what to treasure. We are indeed created with strong longings: longings to belong, to be secure, to know ourselves as having worth. Only God and His life are able to truly satisfy these longings. And we are created to treasure or cherish. We are created to see the value of something or someone outside of ourselves and to cherish, love, treasure, and ultimately use up our lives for that which is truly worthy. This is an amazing gift God has given us and reflects His own nature. God knows, sees, and rejoices in what is good–we see this in the Genesis account of creation.

What we treasure, desire, love, reflects who we believe we are, and where we draw our life from. This need to treasure is deeply wrapped up in our very lives: for where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. This longing to know and treasure to ourselves that which is truly valuable and worthy is not a light thing. It is actually our longing to worship. And we can see the strength of this pull in us every day. People get caught up in treasuring, giving their best efforts to, all kinds of things here on earth. The passion, the commitment, that we see others, or ourselves, exhibit over various things or causes is really quite remarkable. We can have a hard time taking what we do or care about lightly. We move from being involved in something to being obsessed by it. And we don t just give it more time and attention. We want to believe that it is worthy of our best, and we treasure it to ourselves. Whether it is our possessions, our success in the work or business world, our commitment to a particular ideology, our fame in athletics or entertainment–when we treasure it to ourselves, we really worship it. We give it the best that we have, our whole being, because to do less would be not to treasure it.

What Jesus is telling His listeners here, is that we should not treasure, worship, give our best to, that which is not worthy. Because we are fallen and distorted human beings, we often attach this God-given longing to worship to inferior objects. We give our best, and therefore our lives, to that which cannot give life, and can never satisfy this deep, deep longing in us. How sad to worship that which can only break the heart of the worshiper!

We have a great capacity for passion and devotion. Because of this, we will try to believe that what we treasure to ourselves is worthy of our passion and devotion. But in the end, everything except for God Himself is just too small, too inferior a focus for our hearts and our lives. The British writer, C. S. Lewis, understood this very well. He once wrote:

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea … We are far too easily pleased. (Transposition and Other Addresses, ch. 2)

Of course, in our sin and ignorance, we do not know the Object for whom we were created to long for. Jesus, as God incarnate, reveals to us the true nature of our Creator and the true nature of ourselves. In this sermon, as in all of His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus reveals to us the heart of the triune God. This God, in His overflowing love, created us to have a share in His own triune life. He desires to give us Himself, nothing less, and for us to know ourselves, finally and truly, as His children, brothers and sisters of the Son, Jesus. He gives us a share in His very life, love, joy, peace, blessing, and creativity. Wow! No wonder our desire to treasure, our longing, is so deep and consuming. And when we see who He is and what He desires for us, we see how puny the earthly objects of our longings truly are. So in the end, Jesus does not tell us it is wrong to treasure something for ourselves, but rather that our hearts must only treasure the one and only Someone, who deserves our complete worship and can fulfill our true longings.

²² The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
²⁴ 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 mammon.

Matthew 6:22-24

In this section of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is continuing to warn His listeners about the danger of making earthly treasures the object of their devotion, their longing, and ultimately their worship. As we saw in the section preceding this, Jesus is not telling His audience, nor us, to kill that deep longing in us to treasure something that is outside of us, that desire to give ourselves and the best that we have in pursuit of that treasure. But he is directing us to attach that God-given longing to the Object it was created for, the only treasure worth treasuring–God Himself. Nothing, no one else, is worthy of valuing so highly. All other treasures, all other idols, will, in the end, break the hearts of their worshippers. Jesus continues His warning with two more images–a healthy vs. an unhealthy eye, and trying to serve two masters.

Jesus uses the analogy of the eye and the light it lets into your body to highlight the darkness that one lives in when he or she treasures what is not God, what is not eternal. “The eye is the lamp of the body,” Jesus says. Many commentators will mention here that in the time of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry, people believed that the eye, rather than taking in light from outside, actually shone light on the objects it was looking at. However, this is not really that important in trying to understand Jesus’ point. Jesus is saying that the eye is the gateway to light for the entire body. How well or sound the eye is doesn’t just affect the eye, it affects all of your body and how well you are able to function. And this we can understand, regardless of how the mechanics of light and the eye are understood. To have unhealthy eyes has a profound effect on one’s whole life. Everything is affected–how you get around, your ability to enter into social situations, what you can do to earn your living.

Since this image follows immediately from Jesus’ speaking about what we treasure and set our hearts on, it makes sense to see that an eye being healthy or sound has to do with what we have decided to treasure. We “set our eyes” on what we truly treasure. The person who has a sound eye is the person who treasures to themselves heavenly treasures. He knows who he is and draws his life from his heavenly Father. She longs for all that God is and gives His children: His peace, His righteousness, His justice, His purity, His love and joy. These people recognize the infinite superiority of treasuring God over all earthly treasures. Therefore, since what they treasure is connected with having a sound eye, then to treasure heavenly treasures is to have your whole life full of light.

This means that if we treasure, worship, receive God first into our lives, then this sheds light on, makes us wise about, everything else in our lives. We are able to see more clearly the correct, proper place of earthly life and it various lesser “treasures.” Our relationships, our work, our wealth, the political situation under which we live, all comes to be seen in light of God, His purposes and work, and therefore are seen in their proper place. They are no longer the place where we seek our identity, our life. Only then can we enjoy, receive from, and participate in all those secondary things that we have here on earth in a way that is healthy for the whole body for they then serve to show God’s wonderful purposes. With all of our strings attached to God we can take everything else as we should, we can receive what is proper and possible from others and from our work, and we can give in such a way as to be truly a blessing. We can give and receive with no strings attached.

However, when we treasure to ourselves earthly treasures, then our whole life is dark. When we attach our longings to, cling to, depend upon and give our best to them, we then end up ultimately worshipping our earthly relationships, possessions, causes, etc. But then we are not able to see anything clearly for what they are and really what they can give and the purpose for them. So in the end nothing is in its proper place. We cannot properly enjoy or appreciate even what we do treasure because we are trying to gain our identity and life from it when these things are incapable of giving us what we seek. And, of course, then we are not receiving our true identity or living in real life, because we are not longing for the only One who can give us those things. Instead, our full attentions, our hopes and dreams, are centered elsewhere.

C.S. Lewis, the British Christian author from the last century, wrote about this problem in an essay entitled “First and Second Things.” He noticed that when people elevate something: art, music, certain relationships, wealth, etc, to be the first thing in their lives things that were never meant to be first, they lose both that thing and everything else. “The longer I looked into it the more I came to suspect that I was perceiving a universal law…The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping…. It (the law) may be stated as follows: every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made.”

Have you ever noticed that when you count on another person to be the one who gives you your identity or life, when you ask them to be “god” to you, that you cannot then see that person for who they really are and can’t or become unwilling to receive from them what they are actually able to give you? You are projecting on them out of your unrealistic expectations of them. When we “worship” our children, doesn’t this make helping them grow up to be whatever God is calling them to more difficult? We end up trying to live through them. To treasure to yourself the riches of this world can lead you to have a distorted view of your true value and ability as well as render you unable to enjoy the riches for what they can do because you have placed your security in them. As Lewis says, when we worship what is not God, it becomes a demon that we hate, but can’t quite seem to let go of.

God is the One who created us, in and through and for His Son Jesus. To treasure to ourselves heavenly things, all that is and belongs to our triune God, is to be lined up with the grain of reality. With Him as our center, we can enjoy and appreciate our lives here because they are kept in right relation to us, in their “proper” place. In loving God with all that we are and have, we get everything else properly thrown in. We get both the first and second things.

Jesus concludes this teaching with these words, “‘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 mammon.’” You cannot, Jesus is saying have two things vying for first place in your life, as the focus of your eye. Doing this will make you a divided person, unable to be whole in the relationships and activities of your life. In the previous section, we found that we need to put what truly is first. Here Jesus warns against trying to have two “firsts.”

As we have seen, to treasure to oneself is truly to give one’s best to that thing we treasure. To treasure to oneself is to worship. What we treasure to ourselves is, in a very real way, our master. And Jesus is saying here that we cannot have two masters. We cannot set our eyes on two things, have two centers, two “treasures” that we devote ourselves to. Attempting to serve two masters will result in our coming to resent, despise, and resist one or the other–endlessly! Our whole lives will be filled with darkness, not just our eyes! Jesus continues to point out the only source of true blessing, true life, both here and now, and for eternity. He calls us to surrender in trust to the Living God who is present and offering himself to us in Jesus Christ.

²⁵ Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his own span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” ³² For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all shall be yours as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Matthew 6:25-33

Jesus has been teaching His listeners about the uselessness of treasuring to themselves anything besides God Himself and all that He offers us. This section, beginning with the word “Therefore” would appear to be a conclusion to that teaching.

The main point that Jesus is making in this section is “do not be anxious.” He gives several reasons why we should not be anxious, which we will consider in a moment. First we want to consider the connection between this section and the previous one. In what way is this a conclusion? What is the connection that Jesus sees between treasuring to oneself God or mammon, and being anxious?

Jesus has just illustrated, in several ways, the barrenness, the impossibility of being able to put both God and others, or earthly treasures at the center of your life. Since this is not possible, Jesus tells His listeners, “do not be anxious.” It seems to me that the connection is that anxiety is what underlies our efforts to treasure to ourselves earthly treasures, and our trying to serve both God and mammon.

Jesus’ listeners knew they lived in an insecure world. Most of them had only the bare essentials of life, and all of them were dependent on the weather and the soil for the crops that were needed to sustain them. They were keenly aware of this dependence, as were the pagans around them, who worshipped the sun, the rain, and the rivers in hopes of securing a good harvest each year.

It was this insecurity that led people to be anxious. What if there isn’t enough rain this year? What if the crops are diseased? What if I cannot provide food for my family? There were no guarantees in life and people were painfully reminded of that fact all the time. This anxiety tempted many of Jesus’ listeners to try to serve mammon as well as God. Mammon is concrete, wealth can be seen and used here. So it seems to offer a security against the capriciousness of life. When one considers the anxiety produced by living in a inconstant world, it is easy to understand the drive to treasure to oneself the treasures on earth.

This is why Jesus now turns to the underlying issue of anxiety. He knows why the people are tempted by the appearance of security that accumulated wealth seems to offer. Jesus makes several points to help His listeners, and us, to combat the temptation to live out of anxiety. First Jesus asks His listeners to consider the truth that life is more than just food and clothing. By asking the question, Jesus is trying to get them, and us, to stop in our tracks and consider just what life is about. In our anxiety to obtain even basic things for ourselves, aren’t we beginning to live as if this is all that life is about, that this is the deepest and truest thing about life? And it seems to me that the implication of this question is that if we have reduced our lives to the accumulation of stuff, even basic stuff, then we are missing out on life in its deeper, truer sense.

Now Jesus turns to the birds and the flowers and, in doing so, begins to deal with the deepest answer that He gives to our anxiety: the character of our heavenly Father. Jesus asks His listeners to look at the birds. They do not work for their food by sowing or reaping or by storing some away for the future. Yet they are still fed. How? Jesus says that it is “your” heavenly Father that feeds them. Notice that He doesn’t say “their”, i.e. the birds’, Father, but “your,” His listeners’, our, Father. Our Father, Jesus says, is the One who sustains and takes care of His creation. Jesus tells us that God, our Father, has a direct interest in, and takes direct action in the lives of the creatures He has made. He doesn’t just provide food for them to find. Jesus says that our Father’s involvement with His creation is so intimate that He can be said to be actively feeding the birds.

God is not aloof and uninvolved in His world, as we may be tempted to believe. If the birds of the air are fed, it is not an accident or a fortunate outcome of a diestic being who made a world that could run on its own. If the birds are fed, it is because our heavenly Father feeds them. In His second comparison, when He is dealing with our anxiety about clothing, Jesus includes even the grasses of the fields as being within the scope of God’s direct care and gracious and creative oversight. Even though they are “thrown into the oven” tomorrow, our heavenly Father “clothes” them.

The point Jesus is making is that if our Father is this involved and good to the rest of His creation, then how much more will He be involved with us, who are His children. He concludes His comments on the birds with “Are you not of more value than they?” And His question to His hearers after speaking of the grasses of the field is: “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” Jesus then repeats His command to not be anxious, this time detailing what we should not be anxious about–our food, drink, and clothing. He grounds this command clearly in the loving, involved, and good character of our heavenly Father. The reason we are not to be anxious is because we are not alone or abandoned in the world. Rather, we are children of a watchful and active Father.

In between His teaching on the birds and the grasses, Jesus makes a point about the uselessness of our anxiety. He asks, “And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his own span of life?” This is a rhetorical question. Jesus is reminding them of something that they should already know. The truth is that we are not able, by our anxiety, to add to our own span of life. Our stress over our physical well being, our security on this earth, does not have the power to prolong our life.

After emphasizing to His listeners the fact that they are truly children of their gracious heavenly Father, Jesus now draws their attention for a moment to the Gentiles. These people did not know God as their loving Father. They did not know of His direct care for all of His creation. And they were anxiously seeking after their food, clothing, etc. By mentioning the Gentiles Jesus is making the point that when His listeners are anxious about their physical needs, their security, then they were living as if they were pagans. They were living as if they did not have a heavenly Father or, if they did, He was distant and unaware of His children and their needs.

Now Jesus gives His positive command; His answer to what we are to do instead of being anxious. He tells His audience that they are to seek first the kingdom, and that, in doing so, their secondary needs, like food and clothing will be taken care of. So what does it mean to seek God’s kingdom? Well, from the context, seeking the kingdom has to mean living as if you are a loved child of an active, good, and gracious Father. The kingdom, as we have seen earlier in this sermon, is where God’s good, life-giving will is done, where the character of this loving, just, Father is fully known and enjoyed. We are to live as if we are the children of this God, and that He is actively present. When we participate in His will out of hope and trust, we are seeking the kingdom.

What does Jesus mean when He says “and all shall be yours as well”? Does He mean that this is some sort of contract? That if we seek His kingdom first, He will reward us by giving us everything we need in this world? Could the people listening to Him expect that if they sought Him first, they would no longer be vulnerable to the need for rainfall and good sun for their crops? This is a difficult passage, and I think that we are tempted to understand it that way. But I don’t think that Jesus is saying that we shouldn’t be anxious because God is willing to help us out, but only if and when we seek Him first. If He was, He wouldn’t go on to mention the troubles that we will have today. To think Jesus is offering us a conditional contract to get God’s blessings is to misunderstand what it means to seek the kingdom, and why Jesus told us about His Father’s care for the birds and the grass.

We are tempted to think that there are some things that are outside of our faith. Like food, drink and clothing. We need these things to live, and so we must work to have them. Because our world is capricious, unpredictable, and because we think there is only so much stuff out there, we are very tempted to become anxious and to feel that we are thrown back on ourselves to make sure that we are secure. We compete with each other, fighting to make sure we get “our piece of the pie.” We think God made the earth, the food, etc., but is distant and doesn’t really see each of us individually, isn’t directly active in such things as our financial situation. So, we act as if we are unseen and unknown by the Father we “believe” in.

Jesus assures His listeners, and us, that this is not the case. The “all” that shall be yours as well is yours because all these things are God’s. Our lives are truly in His hands, and in seeking to live in, abide in, Him we can trust that He remains our caring, active Father. It isn’t that we are now guaranteed that we will never be in want or without worldy financial security because we are Christians. What this means is that our rock solid, true security is not in our circumstances, but in our heavenly Father. Our security is not in our ability to get and keep a good job, or obtain food and clothing for ourselves. When we lose our jobs, or face uncertainty about our present or future needs, even basic bodily needs, we continue to seek the kingdom because our security, the reality of where we really go to receive what we need, hasn’t changed. So seeking the kingdom means continually going to our triune God to receive from Him what He has for us, whether we receive something through currently having a job or not. And in trusting that we truly are dependent on Him, we are freed to participate in what He is doing in this world to have His good will done here “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus concludes this teaching by telling His listeners not to be anxious about tomorrow. We are to focus only on the actual troubles that we face today rather than worrying over possibilities for the future. He connects this command with the previous statement with the word “therefore.” Since we can trust that in seeking the kingdom of our Father we will be receiving continually His care, we are freed to live in the present moment and leave the future in His hands.

I want to make a couple more points in closing. First of all, it is wonderful to realize that the God who made us is a Father who desires that we not be anxious. His primary concern for His human creation is that we live as children who are beloved and cared for, moment by moment, by our heavenly Father. When we are tempted to be anxious, and certainly the world wants us to be anxious, we need to remember that that is not coming from God. He is truly a loving Father who seeks to have His children know who He is and that we can find our secure home in Him.

Secondly, trusting in God and not being anxious are not automatic things and Jesus knows that. He is speaking to a Jewish audience–people who knew who God was and how He had provided for them. But their present circumstances, which included being under Roman rule, tempted them to forget what they knew about God. So Jesus reminds them about the character of their Father. It wasn’t going to do any good just to bark the command at them to not be anxious. Jesus shows us that God wants to feed our faith in Him so that we no longer feel a need to be anxious. He reminds us of the good character of our Father so that we can respond by placing ourselves back in His hands. We need to hear this word again and again, in the midst of the cacophony of voices that tempt us towards anxiety. I hope that today this word reminds you of the truth, and allows you to rest in Him.