The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

From Greed to Generosity:  Mt.6:19 – 24

 

6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is 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 one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

 

Journal entry on Monday, November 5, 2007

          Today, my son John (who is now 7 years old) was looking at the pictures of the two children on our wall.  We sponsor them through WorldVision.  Spontaneously, he took all his money from his wallet to send it to them.  His treasure was 6 one dollar bills.  He was about to stuff it all into an envelope when I explained that we can’t send cash through the mail, only checks.  He looked at me and asked, ‘Why?’  I replied, ‘Because other people will see it and just take it.’

          That incident gave me pause for two reasons.  First, I’m incredibly thankful for my son’s generous spirit.  This was the second time he gave up a significant amount of money for someone else.  The first time was when he said he wanted to give it to a poor child back in November of 2006.  That was when we started sponsoring the WorldVision children in the first place.  Simplicity for the sake of generosity is one of the primary Christian values that my wife and I want to pass on to our children, as part of their knowing how to follow Jesus.  John isn’t always like this – who is? – but these moments occur from time to time.  Perhaps they’re from the Lord, gifts to us as parents.

          Second, I was reminded of the fact that we don’t send cash through the mail.  Some people will steal cash, even when it’s in an envelope with a child’s writing, addressed to WorldVision.

 

          ‘Do not store up treasure on earth’ is a call to action.  Many have tried to escape Jesus by turning him into a pious Buddhist:  ‘Well, Jesus really means that I can have lots of money as long as I don’t really desire it.’  It’s not quite that detached.  Jesus did want us to be concretely generous, after all.  It doesn’t make sense to say, ‘As long as I don’t lust, I can commit adultery.’  Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to say, ‘As long as I’m not greedy, I can have lots of material possessions.’

The positive side of this call to action is, ‘Store up treasure in heaven.’  Heaven is the hidden reality that exists now.  The prayer Jesus taught us to pray reflects that:  ‘On earth, as it is in heaven.’  ‘Treasure in heaven’ is not a personal bank account that you can cash out when we die and are ‘in heaven.’  Treasure in heaven is richness of character now, at this very moment.  And the way to develop that richness of character is to be generous and sacrificial with our wealth.  Jesus calls us to be open-handed with our enemies:  ‘If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also…Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you’ (Mt.5:40 – 42).  At other times, Jesus said to give specifically ‘to the poor’ (Mt.19:21; Lk.12:33).  These are concrete activities that draw our enemies and the poor to Christ.  This is how we ‘seek first the kingdom of God,’ not as an abstraction, but as a concrete movement of God among people.

So Jesus engages us with a set of searing challenges.  He asks us what we value (treasure in v.19 – 21), what our focus is on (our eye in v.22 – 23), and who is our master (God vs. mammon in v.24).  I mention how my wife and I parent our kids because it reflects our struggle to live those things very tangibly.  When people think about kids, their true life values come out.  And if our values are really financial prosperity, guaranteeing middle and upper class opportunities, security, stability, and self-indulgence, then it shows in our parenting.  Are we serious about Jesus’ kingdom enough to want our kids to be passionate about him that much?  We hope so: 

·         We live in a lower-income, higher crime neighborhood in Boston – and the least funded school district zone – with the desire to reach out to our neighborhood with the love of Christ.  We hope our kids catch a similar vision, because when they are adults, most of the world will be urban poor.  They will have a great education from us in that sense, for the purpose of the kingdom of God.

·         We own a three story house and share our lives with other Christians in an intentional Christian community.  Our mortgage of $2000/month is paid for by our rental income.  We hope our kids catch a similar vision, since it makes a lot of financial, relational, and ministry sense.  We are teaching our kids – and others all around us – that they, too, can live lives of deep impact without earning a lot of money, but rather by making smart life decisions. 

·         We are not saving up for our kids to go to private colleges, even though my wife went to Harvard and I went to Stanford, because we would like to adopt kids at some point and may save up for that.  If our kids go to a private school and get financial aid, we’re happy for them to go, but we’re planning on affording a public school education.  Many people would say, ‘We’ll give our kids the best education possible, so they can make the choice to be poor when they’re adults if they want.’  But that’s downright evasive:  It implies that when my kids are parents, they should do well and save up for their kids, all for the sake of providing them with a theoretical choice to live radically that no generation actually makes.  If we do that, we would just be hiding our rationalizations under the cloak of parenting, revealing that we value treasure on earth more than treasure in heaven after all. 

·         We try to role model generosity to our kids.  We open our home up to our church to meet in our living room every Sunday.  We let our housemates borrow our cars and anything else we own.  We allow kids from the neighborhood to use our basketball hoop, sandbox, and swing set in the backyard.  We’ve allowed kids from our neighborhood to stay with us for certain periods of time.

·         We cut back on our own expenses.  We shop at second-hand stores, cut our own hair, and dress warmly inside during the winter so we don’t use a lot of heat.  My wife and I try to see only two movies a year in the theater.

·         We do not watch television channels with commercials.  PBS Kids is great for that.  Once, our kids turned the channel and saw an advertisement for a toy, and they immediately asked if we could buy it.  I think advertisements directed at children are just plain evil for bypassing parents.

·         We celebrate birthdays by having a gift-swap.  So rather than our kids get all the gifts, each child leaves with a gift.  This teaches our kids not to expect or hoard presents.  To our gladness, other families have started to do this. 

·         We give some of our money away to the global poor, tell our kids about it, and explain why we do it.

·         When they are older, we will describe how we regularly share our budget with other Christians who are also passionate about advancing God’s kingdom and caring for the poor.

 

Those are just some of the ways in which we live.  By no means am I suggesting that we’ve got this thing down.  In many ways, I hope you outdo my wife and me.  But I mention it because it helps to be quite specific.  I also mention it because in parenting, you pass on and role model what you value most.  We value the life and love of Christ in ourselves and in our children. 

Jesus is the treasure in heaven we value.  Every other commodity cannot be owned or consumed by multiple people at once.  Jesus can be stored up by all.  We want to be rich in his life and love, and we want others to be rich in him as well.