MT 6:19-34: Where is your treasure?
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MT 6:19-34
Don't lay up earthly treasures19 Don't lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
20 Instead, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break through and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
22 The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is in good order, then your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be full of darkness. So then, if the light within you is darkness, how dark it is!
24 No one can serve two masters. He will hate one and love the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.
25 Therefore I say to you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat and drink, nor for your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more than they?
27 Which of you, by thinking about it, can add one inch to his height?
28 And why worry about clothing? Consider how the wildflowers grow; they neither labor nor spin.
29 But, I am telling you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of them.
30 So if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and burned up tomorrow, won't he clothe you all the more, oh you of little faith?
31 So don't worry yourselves by thinking, What will we eat and drink? or, How will we be clothed?
32 (The Gentiles chase after those things.) Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But first seek God's kingdom -- and his righteousness -- and all those things will be added to you.
34 That is, don't fret about tomorrow. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Today's troubles are enough for one day.
One commentary urges caution against any tendency to "absolutize" the MT 6:19-21 saying concerning wealth. On the other hand, let us recall what Jesus told the wealthy young man: give away all your possessions and follow him. "Drop everything, and follow me." (See MK 10:17-31.)
In that passage, Jesus says, "It is harder for a rich man to enter God's kingdom than for a camel [or, possibly, rope] to squeeze through a needle's eye."
Why so? Is it because the overly affluent person hasn't time to heed God, being too busy serving self? Even a kindly rich person will have difficulty in this matter. It is just too easy to pay for what you want. You needn't wait on God and receive his blessing. You can bless yourself too easily. You are blinded to the riches of God by your material wealth. And we Americans must not point fingers. For even the poor among us is materially rich by standards of previous generations. How many poor people can these days fulfill a great many personal wants simply by swiping a debit card? I would say it is especially difficult for modern Americans to experience God's kingdom.
Verse 24: God or Mammon?
Mammon is a name used for material wealth, a name which connoted the idea of a false god. A modern way to put the verse is, "You cannot serve both God and the Almighty Dollar."
As explicit as this admonition is, a great many Christians do not take it seriously. But here, as elsewhere in the Sermon, Jesus is calling on those who would follow him to fix their eyes on the things of God, in fact to fix their eyes on God (which means emulating Jesus). You may think you love God, but if you are distracted by the pursuit of personal gain, then you are either putting God in the back seat or you keep grabbing the wheel from him, and then handing it back, as you go forward.
Then there are those who feel satisfied with their wealth and attribute it to God's blessing. Perhaps so. Could be. But let us consider the possibility that the pious words are simply rationalizing the money-chase and covering self-indulgence carried out at the price of skimping on God's teaching and work. Those persons show that they have more faith in earthly goods than in heaven's treasure, which in turn implies that they are still rooted in the soil of the world and have not turned to the light. (I plead guilty to the error of trying to serve self and God.)
If God called you to sell everything off, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Jesus -- now being forced to depend totally on him -- would you do it? Not many would be willing, like Abraham, to give up everything when called to do so. Yet that is the appeal Jesus gives to those who follow him. "You don't need anything but me. Be ready to drop everything for my sake." Those still strongly pulled by the bodily self find this call hard to accept.
PROV 14:12
Now it could be so that a born-again person who is not as focused as Paul (such as myself, whose spiritual eye is not quite as healthy as it ought to be), could dally by the roadside and hinder his sojourn by feeding such creaturely desires as the practice of trying to pile up money. Recall that when Jesus sent the 70 (a symbolic number implying that the group was well chosen) to preach to the Jews all over the Jewish region, he told those disciples to go forth with no money or shoes and to stop and salute no one. That is, he meant: Focus only on the mission I gave you, and don't be sidetracked by taking thought of what you will eat or wear on your journey, or by socializing or otherwise getting tied up in some nonessential human endeavor.5Men take roads that look good, but they all lead to death7.
In LK 9:58, Jesus told a would-be follower: "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man is homeless." Jesus had no earthly goods, not even a regular place to sleep.
Recall that Jesus is quoted earlier, in the Beatitudes, as saying,
MT 5:3
And I have heard Christians argue that the qualification "in spirit" means that it is fine to be affluent, or even rich, as long as one has a "spirit" of poverty. That may be so -- for those who can handle it!"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Now compare with the Lucan parallel, which lacks the qualifier "in spirit":
LK 6:20-31
My feeling is that Jesus wasn't saying that, after all is said and done, we need not surrender all to him. Rather, who are meant in MT's version are those poor who can do nothing but humbly depend on God. Yet we see poor people every day who are full of themselves, who are arrogant and presumptuous on God (whom they often deny). That's not the sort of poor person Jesus has in mind here, and that is what MT is clarifying.And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
Though some do make a case for having, but not abusing, wealth, note that Jesus and the 12 disciples had nothing other than what Judas carried about in the common purse. And after the resurrection, the apostles had little or nothing in material goods. The "nation that was born in one day" (IS 66:8) during the feast of Pentecost existed as a Christian commune before persecution scattered the believers.
Recall the admonition: "The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil." Let us consider that the author of that quote (1 TIM 6:10) would pick up tent-making work rather than bother his new flocks. Sporadic moneymaking had the sole purpose of helping Paul further his service to God as he went all out to fulfill the Great Commission. He did not fool around piling up money. He had no time for such trivia. He did not continuously beseech audiences to finance his ministry so that the work of God could be done.
No. Paul would here and there scoop up a bit of cash and let that suffice. God's grace was sufficient for Paul to advance the gospel. No cash cow necessary. Mammon need not be milked. His faith in God was sufficient to ensure that the job got done.
Another point: the love of money was not going to hinder Paul from entering God's kingdom. That born-again man was already in! And he wasn't about to look back toward childish fool's gold!
The only time Paul had much money on him, as far as we know, was when he was carrying a collection he had taken up to aid Christians in Jerusalem (see for example 1COR 16:1-3). The point is that Paul's material poverty did not slow him down at all; in fact, it very probably speeded him up.
The church at Thessalonica had problems with men who wouldn't pull their weight. Thus the admonition that idle men not be fed.6 The brothers were urged to a quiet discipline in which each eats his own bread (I take this to mean that no one takes more than his due). So we see that Jesus' high teaching requires wisdom in the application, but that doesn't make his advice of no account. We are to strive to rest easy in Jesus and do our best to accommodate our brothers.
Of course an implication of 2THESS 3:6-156 is that communal life was the norm for the very early church. Many of these Christians expected the Messiah at any moment and so they saw the communal life as sensible. In Acts, we are told that the newly created Christians voluntarily pooled their resources and lived in a commune.
The early Christian communes were dispersed by the persecution from Jewish authorities and by the looming Roman invasion near the year 70. Any that remained during the Second Century were dispersed after the Bar Kochba revolt was crushed around the year 130. Paul's churches were not necessarily modeled as communes, although sharing was strongly encouraged.
And of course over the centuries various groups of devout Christians have joined in communes under the auspices of the Roman Catholic or Byzantine Orthodox churches. They follow some sort of code of conduct ("rule") and are often known as monks and nuns ("Religious"). Many such groups have required a vow of poverty.
Yet I don't think Jesus' teachings about the Father providing for his children (Spirit-born sons) should be confined to the practices of various Christian communities. They are meant to grab hold of the individual, that he fear not, and rest assured that his needs will be met -- though many of us don't always think so because we are defining our needs rather than letting God do so.
Verses 22-23: If your inner light is dark
Jesus is not talking about the physics of light here. He is talking about the spirit within you that, for most of us, connects to this world through the eyes. When a person lets his light shine, people can see the radiance in his eyes. When his mind is polluted, it often shows in the eyes. Or, when your spiritual light is dark, your whole being shows it. But, more important, a person's spirit is his guide, what he uses to navigate through the world. If that spirit is healthy, he can see clearly to do the next right thing (including removing a speck from his brother's eye). But if that spirit is ill, he will be stumbling around in great darkness, even though he doesn't seem to know that.
As Jesus would show as his ministry progressed, both before and after his resurrection, human spirits have become desperately sick and so need resuscitation by being joined with the Spirit of God. That blend means that the born-again person can now see quite well, despite being hobbled by his old nature.
A parallel idea is that the world in which we live is like a deep, dark mine shaft. While down in that mine, we need to have our helmet lights in good working order. Otherwise, we will be in for a miserable and dangerous experience. We need pray to God to keep our helmet lights in good condition while we are down in the mine.
A related idea is the old saying, "The eyes are the windows of the soul." Not only does the soul peek out, but others peer in.
In other words, MT 6:22 is saying: The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be radiant, and more important, you will see clearly and function well in the world. But if your eye is diseased not only is your whole body dark, but your whole world is dark. So if your inner light is poor and leaves you in darkness, this is a very grim situation.
The light within the person is the spirit that guides him. If that spirit is dark, how can the person see much of anything? What a world he lives in!
Fallen humanity is spiritually dead. Although in that condition we think we know what we are doing, the truth is that we are lost, stumbling about inside a poorly lit maze of crazy-house mirrors. We are suffering under a strong delusion, following ways that seem right but end badly. Being dead in spirit, we are out of focus, out of tune with God until such time as we receive salvation and new life.
That is, for those whose lamps are dark (=most people), their inner lights are guiding them toward a bitter end.
Once you have the light of God within, Jesus admonishes you to "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your heavenly Father" (MT 5:16). That light really radiates when you have the Spirit within, who merges with your spirit so that you begin to be in your right mind and able to see clearly and provide light for others.
We ought acknowledge at this point that no one can follow Jesus without God first deciding so (JN 6:65). No one can turn to him before God decides he is ready (PV 16:9). Even so, we are strongly told that not later, not tomorrow, not next year, not in the next life, but, if you haven't received Christ into your heart, then right now is your time for salvation.
2COR 6:2
Also see... Look! Now is the accepted time. Look! Now is the day of salvation.
ROM 13:11
It should be evident that this idea of letting your light shine does not justify a "holier than thou" attitude: "Oh, look at me. See how good I am being."Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
The point is that if you give God more than lip service, then you will want to love your neighbor as yourself, you will want to help out others as you go along in life, and hence, you will do friendly things, thus letting your real Christian light shine.
Personal note
Verse 33: Seek the kingdom, and its righteousnessI have never had an experience of the type that is often associated with the Spirit coming in power (in a visible way), such as being slain in the Spirit (made limp by the Spirit's infusion), speaking in tongues, touching people to bring healing, and other things mentioned by Paul and others in the NT.
I have from time to time told God that I am completely willing -- as best I am able -- to receive any spiritual gift he wants to give. Yet, I know that the Spirit often comes pouring through me. He does give me a "gift of tongues" in the sense that I sometimes am able to communicate about Jesus to others with a flow of ideas that I would have never thought of on my own.
In fact, even when I am not talking or writing about Jesus, but seemingly about mundane things, the Spirit still illuminates my mind so that I get a lot of help seeing things clearly. I am not here claiming to be some super saint. I mean that, back in my old godless days, my inner light was dark indeed!
So I feel that the main gift is the Spirit himself -- and friendship with the triune God.
And the fruit of the Spirit is love, both in emotion and behavior. God's love is with me always. What's better than that!?
As Paul said (ICor13), various spiritual gifts will eventually vanish (no longer needed), but not love. God's love, which we who have been reborn eternally share, never fades.
Nevertheless, any spiritual gift God might want to give me, I am willing to accept it -- even if such a gift makes me uncomfotable!
After all, God not only gives us gifts of the Spirit, he gives us -- perhaps by deputizing the devil -- problems, hassles, even persecution. We are to pick up our crosses daily and do as he shows. I admit to more than once ducking my cross and laying up in bed all day and night. But, then -- unless I am physically ill -- I am lacking in spirit and dodging Jesus. Instead of hearing, "That's the spirit!" I may hear, "Why are you listening to the wrong spirit?"
This saying summarizes much of what Jesus has been stressing. Go for the real gold! The pearl of great price! Don't worry about routine needs! God has your back on that!
Whether the caution "and his [or, its] righteousness" is a reasonable amplification by MTp or is an exact quotation of Jesus, that phrase is meant to guard against any tendency to be overly cerebral in pursuing God's kingdom. If you don't have a desire toward God's rightness, you may well end up spinning your wheels. After all, God's kingdom is all about doing right in word, thought and deed, all about a right attitude toward God and your fellow humans.
When, before his resurrection, Jesus spoke of the divine kingdom, that kingdom had not yet arrived with power, with the descent of the Spirit in tongues of fire at the feast of Pentecost, yielding the initial harvest of born-again believers. But, after the resurrection, the Apostle Paul, on fire for the Lord and gushing over with the Spirit, was able to describe God's kingdom succinctly.
ROM 14:17
This description applies now in this life as well as in the Millennium and in Paradise. It also well summarizes the teachings of verses 19 to 34.For God's kingdom is not food and drink -- but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
As John Stott points out, "In the end, just as there are just two kinds of piety, the self-centered and the God-centered, so there are only two kinds of ambition: one can be ambitious either for oneself or for God. There is no third alternative."
Yet how many of us have great difficulty with this challenge? We're like timid swimmers who only get the toes wet, but refuse to plunge in and get moving! I fit into this category. Even worse, having gone in up to me knees, I have fled back to the comfort of the beach (creature comfort).
Even despite our timidity, for nearly all of us who yearn to be real Christians who give God much more than lip-service, MT 6:33 gives an ideal to which we all ought aspire. We should hear Paul's "high calling of God" in this challenge (PHLP 3:14).
Verse 34: Let tomorrow take care of itself
Don't be concerned about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Today has enough trouble.
As one writer puts it: "If tomorrow does bring trouble, there will be new grace to meet it."
Though the word "grace" is not attributed to Jesus in the four gospel accounts, it is surely implicit in his doctrine: Don't worry, God will provide -- just as a small child has no idea by what means his daddy provides for him. Not only does God like to surprise us -- as you like to surprise your children with good gifts -- but if you always knew by what means he would provide, how would your faith -- belief, trust -- be built up? Recall old Abraham, with his old wife, believing he would have a son. How? Who knew? God would provide.
Clearly Jesus does not mean don't plan ahead. But the sort of frenzied "planning" spurred by anxiety tends to be not only excessive but even obsessive-compulsive. We have no reason to take thought that way because we ought have the "peace of God that passes all understanding."
PHILIP 4:7
In general, Jesus tells us not to worry, because worry is pointless. Further, we might observe that anxiety -- which is an expression of insecurity and fear -- is a major source of evil, or, that is, of sick thinking that leads to sad results. Not only do people often worry themselves sick, but as a result they do sick things (for example, by being rage-aholics) that hurt those around them. Ridden and driven by anxiety, life is a rotten shame, and stays that way.And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Sometimes people who worry about their needs (and ego-driven desires) resort to criminal activity. But, we are assured that "never have I seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread." (PS 37:2). Those who trust in Jesus don't need to beg, or resort to crime, for their material needs. They don't need to worry about feeding their children either. God has that covered.
The insecurity and rage so common among our sisters and brothers can often be traced, at least in part, to fear of humiliation; some people will kill rather than tolerate humiliation (for example, jealousy is all about fear of humiliation). This very dangerous insecurity is booted right out of the believer's life, as Jesus enters and grants the born-again person the peace of God. As the Christian walks along, he learns that he doesn't have to see ahead in a human way. He steps forward in faith, claiming God's assurances that God will care for him, come what may. Faith is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (HEB 11:11). In other words, true faith is complete confidence in God's promises.
I recall driving on a lonely stretch of a two-lane Texas highway over rolling, but sparsely vegetated hills, on a very dark night. I could not see past the occasional car in front of me, because any opposing headlights were overwhelmed by the lights of the car in front of me. Texans in that area had a custom, I soon learned, of flashing their lights to signal the car behind that it was safe to pass. I had to absolutely trust the judgment of the driver ahead of me! I had to put faith in that driver's ability.
I grant that for those who have not sincerely dedicated themselves to Jesus, it would probably be imprudent to take no thought of worldly needs. Such persons are still in the Satan-ruled world. Though God sends rain to fall on the just and the unjust (MT 5:45), those who have yet to be justified by putting their trust in Jesus are not yet in God's kingdom and so must suffer the consequences.
Of course, Jesus was not only putting out the word to those who will soon become born-again disciples, but also to the crowds of eavesdroppers, most of whom listened in uncomprehending awe (on account of the miracles he had done). Yet, I suggest, that even years later some of these eavesdroppers would have suddenly grasped something Jesus had said and turned themselves over to his care. In other cases, hearers told friends and relatives some of the interesting, if peculiar, things they remembered and that discussion woke up someone else, who then turned to Jesus the Messiah.
Calvin's comment is on the mark: "If honor is rated the highest good, then ambition must take charge of a man; if money, then forthwith greed takes over the kingdom; if pleasure, then men will certainly degenerate into sheer self-indulgence."
Concerning God's provision, here is another personal account:
Just keep going
I recount all this in order to make the point that, although my faith faltered as I was traveling, yet I had enough faith to get home under the care of God, who, by the way, had a reason for letting my pocket be picked (I cannot disclose the full reason).On a pleasant day some years ago, I was sitting near the end of a path alongside the stream in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. Nearby was a place where the stream went under the adjacent road. I had taken a look and knew that around the bend the dirt came to an end. You couldn't reach the bank on the other side without wading through the water, something that would have not been all that easy.
As I sat reading, a fellow came up the path from behind and proceeded forward. I greeted him, but told him, "You can't get through there. It's washed out."
He kept going, however, but paused to say, intently, "I believe I can."
He then went around the bend, under the roadway and all I heard was -- silence. No splashing, or noise from wading. Nothing. I arose and went to take a look. He wasn't there!
I was startled. (See JN 6:21.)
Not long after that, I had to make my way from Washington to New Jersey for an important family function. So, being short of funds, I walked from D.C. to Baltimore, but then had the problem of getting across the harbor there. I tried hitchhiking, but was getting nowhere. I suppose my belief faltered and so I gave up and had my mother wire me bus fare. But, as I waited in the station, my wallet was picked from my pocket, with the thief long gone before I realized it was missing. By God's grace, I had enough in another pocket to cover fare back to D.C. and then to Philadelphia, as the fare from Baltimore north cost more than from D.C. north.
I arrived in Philadelphia flat broke, with 60 miles still to go. But I was able to walk up Route 1 as far as Princeton. Once there I was cold and tired, but, led by the Spirit, I mentioned my plight to a kindly woman who was about to board the bus I needed to take. She gave me money for my fare, which permitted me to get the rest of the way home.
The Father took care of all my needs, despite the troubles of the day, as I traveled north.
God's servants need not worry
In First Century Judea, Jewish teachers taught that it was a man's duty to teach his son a trade. To do otherwise was to make him a thief. But it is apparent that Jesus was saying much more than that you have no need to worry about tomorrow if you have a marketable skill. He was saying that if you are seeking God's kingdom -- and his righteousness -- God has your needs covered. So get rid of the worry habit. It doesn't get you anywhere anyway. Tomorrow will have troubles of some sort, true, but stop fretting. Focus on what needs doing today.
When you seek to do God's will, and nix the lip service, that is seeking his righteousness. Further, once you are born again, you are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. You have been made right in God's eyes. Once you have that, then it is time to seek to do his will, rather than to merely inflate your own ego. Choose to sit at the foot of the table, rather than up by the place of honor.
Once you have been made right on account of the price paid by Jesus' blood, you are reborn as a son of God, a member of the royal family. We are not righteous on account of our "good" deeds but because Jesus his imputed his righteousness to us, who have become his little brothers. When God's Spirit enters a person (which can't happen before he or she has been made right by Jesus), the Father and Son join in to commune with the person. Then, one has set foot into the kingdom. As the believer enters, perhaps the light is a bit dim, as it is at dawn, but as he or she walks with Jesus, the light of the kingdom brightens, and so does the love in the believer's heart.
You, as sons of God or soon-to-be sons of God (those listening would not receive full sonship before Jesus had risen and sent the Spirit), will have your needs met. Why be like the ordinary unregenerate people who are unable to wait for God to meet their needs, as they are not spiritually members of his family (though he still loves them).
In verse 32, the thought is: How are you Jewish fellows any different from the pagans when you won't rely on God? Again, we see the inference that his hearers, no matter how religious they thought they were, could not meet the high standard of God -- at least not without the Spirit of salvation.
Consider the parallel in LK 12.
LK 12:29-35
The people Jesus is recruiting into his Father's kingdom are to be so reliant on God that they should be all set to give up their worldly goods and obtain heavenly treasure.29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
Some commentators think these drastic admonitions implied that Jesus thought the end -- the Big Event -- was very close and so his followers needed no earthly goods. That's not my take. I believe he does mean what he says: true disciples need nothing but Jesus. His Father and yours will assure that you need not worry about material goods -- as long as you are doing what God wants (and Jesus is not a strict taskmaster; his yoke is easy and his burden is light).
The very earliest Christians took the idea of poverty to mean they should live in Christian communes where all material goods are pooled. I do think such an arrangement is how it will be in the Millennium. In the meantime, however, I would interpret these passages thus: Whatever you put in the way of your relationship with Jesus needs to be got rid of. Those passages don't necessarily mean you should not work for a living, especially if you have a family to support. BUT you should be willing to cut that anchor as soon as Jesus calls you. Recall Peter and Andrew dropping their fishing business and immediately following Jesus.
But perhaps he is not calling you to drop everything that you are doing. The key is to be willing to surrender all, to turn your will and your life over to God and his chief representative, Jesus.
This is why he told one potential seeker who wanted to go home and care for his father, "Let the dead bury the dead" (MT 8:22). (According to George Lamsa, bury my father was an idiom meaning take care of my father until he dies.4) Jesus' teaching here means that we are to leave the old world and enter the new, heeding him rather than other voices, including those of our spiritually dead relatives.
God provides
Another story:As a young husband and father during a severe recession, I was having a tough time paying for baby formula, diapers, groceries, rent, etc. But I was confident in God, as he had carried us through some real difficulties.
One day I brought home my meager paycheck only to find that a significant expense had accosted us. I told my wife to pay it. Though she agreed to do so, she was quite worried. She could see we only had enough to last until Tuesday. "How are we going to get through the week?" she fretted.
Yet I was cheerful, telling her that as the expense was an honest one, God would provide. Don't even worry about it, I told her.
As a matter of fact, in the following week I even forgot about the fact that we were just about out of grocery money.
Then, out of the blue, my mother rapped at our door. She gave me a money order that I had sent her years before while in the Army. She had filed it away and forgotten about it. Hence, it was now worth $78 and change. At that time, $78 was more than enough to meet our deficit for the week.
I was jubilant, because God had provided -- without me worrying at all.
I wish I could say I have always been that trusting. Many years later, single now and living in somewhat straitened circumstances, a homeless friend asked to borrow $20. I was better situated than him, driving a car and having a roof over my head. So of course I lent him the twenty. BUT, I was worried about some expense that was coming up on Friday and I admonished him to be sure to return that money by then.
When I ran into him, he was hyped up with anxiety, as he wanted to be sure to return the money, which he did. Yet, later in the day, something came up -- I don't recall exactly what -- that out of the blue put a twenty in my hand! The point? God provided. I never needed to put the arm on my friend to pay me back, and God made sure I got that message.
I was hitch-hiking across America in 1991, when I arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska, without a penny in my pocket. I was walking along Interstate 80 in 90-degree-plus heat when I noticed that one of my feet was hurting. I took my shoe off and saw a nail peeking through the heel's inner sole. As those old shoes were the only thing between the bottom of my feet and blazing hot gravel and asphalt, I was in quite a bind. But I recalled noticing on the roadside a piece of old automobile carpet and near it an old rusty razor blade. Picking up that little blade, I sat down and cut two pieces from the carpet, using them to line my shoes. Man, were those shoes comfortable! I wore those carpet-lined shoes for another year. Jehovah jireh!
Appendix to commentary on MT 6:19-34:
Concerning the divine kingdom
Some have questioned whether heaven's kingdom has really arrived on earth, as Jesus predicted it would. But those who could see, as well as hear, certainly witnessed the son of man coming "on the clouds of heaven" at the feast of Pentecost, when the church was born. Does not heaven come down to earth with the Spirit's powerful inrush, with tongues of fire burning on Mary, the apostles and other disciples? Was not a nation, the New Israel, born on that one day? Did not God's kingdom right here on earth begin then in Jerusalem -- in a brand new way that no one could have anticipated?
In an important sense, the apostles saw Jesus sitting at the right hand of power. That is, when the Spirit struck them they began to speak with "new tongues" in great power, and so they realized that their teacher, Jesus, was the source of this astonishing miracle. So when they realized that it was Jesus who had come, they in effect understood that he had come from heaven at the "right hand" of power, the power of the Holy Spirit as sent by the Father. "Right hand" as used here is similar to our idiom "right-hand man" -- an indispensable person, such as the boss's son.
And even though some of Jesus' accusers did not really see what had happened, they saw enough so that it could be said that they had seen the son of man arrive on the clouds of heaven at the right hand of power, even though they had "eyes to see, but could not see."
Moreover, as son of man was an Aramaic expression for a man or the man, we can take it to applying to the apostles and others on whom the Spirit fell in power. Witnesses indeed saw mere humans going from the former "kingdom" or dispensation into the New World. It is no exaggeration to say that, because they received the Spirit, they were sitting at the right hand of Power. Weren't they Jesus' best friends?. Did they not come into this New World on "the clouds of heaven"? There is nothing wrong with using the phrase "divine clouds" as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit and his action in this case.
When Jesus at his trial answered the question as to whether he was the son of God, he replied, "I AM. And you will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (MK 14:16).8 We know that the Father was speaking through Jesus, so that the I AM may be read as "yes" or it may be read as God asserting his presence. By using the third person "son of man," Jesus avoids testifying about himself, though he certainly was and is the preeminent son of God. In addition, Jesus here is making a strong allusion to DAN 7:13.
DAN 7:13
As God fulfills and interprets OT scripture in surprising ways, I think it is safe to say that he did so and will do so with the respect to DAN 7:13. The Scripture was, in my view, fulfilled at the Feast of Pentecost, which is not to say that it cannot be fulfilled again in some other surprising way. People who worry about MK 14:16 should remember Jesus' admonition that it is the spirit that counts. If you look with the eyes of flesh, you can't see. You're blind (JN 6:63).I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
Also consider
MK 9:1
All three synoptic writers follow this statement with an account of the Transfiguration, which no doubt does fulfill Jesus' prophetic assertion. But, under our line of reasoning, this statement also applies to the Pentecost event.And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. (Parallel passages found at MT 16:28 and LK 9:27.)
I reiterate that I do not deny Paul's prophecy that Jesus will "descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first" (1 THESS 4:16).
Many things in Scripture that seem to be mutually exclusive are not really so.
ACTS 1:13-14
13 ... they went up into an upper room, where Peter and James were staying, along with John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew. Also there were James the son of Alphaeus, Simon Zelotes and Judas the brother of James.
14 All of them continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, along with the women -- including Mary the mother of Jesus (and his brothers).
ACTS 2:1-8
1 And after dawn on Pentecost day as everyone was sitting together,
2 suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 There appeared to them pronged fiery tongues that rested on each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them voice.
5 There were at the time in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation on earth [many Jews, who spoke a variety of languages, lived outside Judea but visited that city on business and for other reasons, as did various proselytes].
6 Now when people began to hear about this event, a crowd arrived and people were confounded, because everyone heard the men speak in his own language.
7 They were all amazed. To each other they marveled, "Look here! Aren't all these who are speaking Galilaeans?
8 "So how can we each hear every one of these men in our native tongue?"
ACTS 2:22-24
22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know,
23 "was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. The one you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
24 "God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible for death to hold him."
People from all over the world, Jews and proselytes, were astonished and were converted.
ACTS 2:41
Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. That day the group of believers grew by about three thousand souls.
Footnotes
Footnotes are not in sequential order but use of
Control fshould make order irrelevant.
4. Holy Bible from the Ancient Eastern Text as rendered in English by George M. Lamsa (A.J. Holman 1933). My quotation of comments by Lamsa should not be taken as an endorsement of particulars of the translation nor of theological points implicit in Lamsa's Bible.
Lamsa's Bible is based on the Peshitta version used by Eastern Orthodox churches. According to the scholar Bruce M. Metzger, other texts are much closer to the originals than is the Peshitta.
5.
LK 10:1-4
1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
6.
2THESS 3:6-15
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
7.
PROV 14:12
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
8. MTp and LKp have Jesus reply, "As you say," or "Your words." They favored this standard means of answering a direct question with a polite indirect response because, no doubt, they wished to avoid the idea that Jesus testified about himself. But, if the Father was speaking through Jesus -- as he was -- then it was the Father who was testifying about Jesus and himself.
From this, we can rationally decide that MTp and LKp were probably incorporating the Marcan text, rather than MKp summarizing MT or LK on ground that as the Marcan reading is, in context, the more difficult, it is more likely that others would correct it or tweak it than that MT or LK would have been changed, as there would have been little motive for doing so.
In any case, let us consider what JN says on the topic of bearing witness.
JN 5:31-43
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.
35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
39 Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
41 I receive not honour from men.
42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
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