Matthew 6:19-34— A Savior from Worry

People spend their lives chasing wealth and running from want. The wealthiest people can still think of things they don't have. The poorest people can still think of things they can lose. No matter how far people get from want, and how much wealth they attain, they stay trapped in the zone between the two. That zone is called worry.

But there is a place that is free from worry, and it is called the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, the king, invites people into this worry-free zone. If Jesus is your king, you have true riches: you don't need to spend your life chasing wealth any more. And if Jesus is your king, you have true security: you don't need to spend your life running from want anymore either.

Let's look at what he says about it all.

The Worries of Wealth

First, Jesus saves people from the worries of wealth.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth," Jesus says, "where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal." Stocks crash. Bubbles burst. Houses burn. Ships sink. Prices rise. Bank accounts get hacked. The wealth we had today may be there tomorrow, or it may not, and we really don't know.

But the kingdom of heaven is not like that. "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven," Jesus says, "where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Heaven's riches never disappear.

How do you lay up treasures in heaven? Do you put your money in a rocket and shoot it into the sky? Of course not. In the previous passage, Jesus has been telling people how to do what pleases God with a heart that pleases God. "And your Father who sees in secret," he said, "will reward you." That's all there is to it. To lay up treasures in heaven, do what pleases God.

You lay up treasures in heaven because that's where your heart really lies. But it's also true that you lay up your heart in heaven when you lay up your treasures there. Just like you buy stock in a company because, on some level, you believe in the company, but then you care about the success of the company because you have stock in it, you lay up your treasure in heaven because you are committed to the kingdom of heaven, but you are all the more invested in the kingdom of heaven because your treasure is there.

If your treasure is in heaven, that will change your heart, and it will also change your eyes -- it will change how you look at the world. "The eye," Jesus says, "is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." This language of a "healthy eye" and a "bad eye" was probably a way of talking about being generous or stingy. If your treasure is in heaven, your heart will be in heaven, and if your heart is in heaven, your eyes will look on others with generosity. And if your eyes look on others with generosity, then you yourself will see rightly: "your whole body will be full of light." If not, your eye, which is supposed to let in light, will let in only darkness.

But can I hedge my bets, you ask? Can I be half devoted to heaven's riches and half devoted to earth's? It seems safer not to go all in. No, Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

This does not mean, of course, that you cannot serve God and use money. Using money is very different from serving money. Jesus himself used money. Later in this Gospel, he uses it to pay a tax. The real question is, Why are you doing this? Are you putting money in your bank account so that you can use it to serve God? Or is the money a means to some other end, or an end in itself?

Even the unbelieving world knows, in theory, that money is no good end in itself. If you talk to a competent financial advisor, they won't just tell you how to amass as much wealth as possible by the end of your life. They will ask you to think about what you need the money for: to buy a house? To retire? To leave something for your children? And yet, despite knowing this, the world is still trapped in greed. Jesus not only points you to the end goal of money -- to serve God -- he actually sets his people free from greed by showing them something better than earth's riches: presence of God.

The Worries of Wealth

Wealth comes with a lot of worries, but of course, so does want -- poverty. Even the possibility of poverty can plague people who aren't in poverty yet.

Are you worried about poverty, disciples of Christ? Jesus says, Do not worry. Don't worry about what you will eat, and don't worry about what you will wear. The sparrows and the crows and the robins are not very sophisticated planners. They don't keep calendars, answer email, or have a Roth IRA. But they are still alive, because God feeds them. The dandelions are not the hardest working things around. Have you ever watched a dandelion work? I just stared out my study window and watched a whole yard of dandelions for a full 60 seconds. Not one of them moved. Lazy bums. And yet you never saw a brighter yellow, because God clothes them. He can clothe you too. Don't worry.

Look: I know, and Matthew knew, and Jesus knows, and God knows, that birds die, and dandelions get mown over. And disciples of Christ die too. Every day. Jesus knows this. He's the one who said, "Take up your cross and follow me." The point is this: God knows what you need, what you really need, and he will provide it, so you do not need to worry. What do you gain by it? If God wants to give you riches in this life, you might as well use them instead of obsessing over them. If he wants to give you just enough and no more, you might as well enjoy what he gives you instead of wasting your life worrying that he might take it away. And if he chooses, in his wisdom, at some time to deny you the basic needs of food and clothing, this will serve his higher purposes and your greater good. The Apostle Paul suffered "afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger." But from these troubles he drew greater joy in the Lord and a greater ability to comfort others.

Jesus, who told us not to worry, had, you might say, more reason to worry than anyone else. He knew that he would suffer like no one else. He, God's perfect Son, would suffer the horrible death of crucifixion in the place of us sinners. He could have avoided it by a thousand different paths, but instead he committed himself to God's will. He trusted that God's plan was best.

On the other side of that cross were true riches: eternal, resurrected life, the throne of heaven, and the advance of Christ's kingdom to the ends of the earth. Likewise, for us, on the other side of our sufferings are the riches of heaven in the presence of our Savior.

And what's the use of worrying about tomorrow? Today's troubles are all you and I can handle anyway. Tomorrow's troubles, like today's, are in the hands of our merciful God.

Pastor Nate Jeffries