Post details: Jesus on the mountain
Jesus on the mountain
"you cannot serve God and wealth"
Interesting comment by Jesus; I wonder what he meant?
Going back several paragraphs, he has made three comparisons of religious practices--each of which could be supported as approved by God.
(1) giving to the poor
(2) praying
(3) fasting
For each Jesus compares two people groups, both of which perform the religious activity--that's got to be good in some sense. So it cannot be the "doing" of the event that Jesus contrasts.
A simple model results--somehow Jesus is a common sense teacher, practical theology: One gives to the poor, but does so publicly; another does it in secret. The first receives his reward from the praises of those who observed, what must have been a most generous gift. The second receives no earthly reward for his gift, no third party observed the act, but God does, and he in his way does count the behavior. The same model applies to prayer and fasting.
Jesus then gives the meaning: do not store up treasures on earth; that is, do not do the right behavior in a manner that brings praise from men. Rather, store up treasures in heaven by doing the right behavior in secret. So, it's not the act but its motivation that Jesus here points to.
Thus "you cannot serve God and wealth" does not contrast serving God vs. making money, since both parties in the model give money away, likewise neither praying nor fasting are income generating activities.
Jesus seeks not the what but the how. Do I live my life--to the fullest extent for God--so that I would receive the praise of men--the american idol, christian version? Or do I do it only before him? Do I strive to earn a good reputation among men, or one before God? There not the same thing!
The closer one examines themselves, the more one will see that we follow the public-praise oriented model; God hardly needs our good deeds to get his job accomplished, what he desires is our unselfish behavior in our obedience to his will.
Comments:
· http://leshemshamayim.wordpress.com/ I like that, the work is redemptive, sanctifying, or whatever, but not just the work itself—something of how someone does it, who that person is characterizes the work itself. Pardon me for over philosophizing.
The Jesus model, then, would qualify the act of the service as always being rewarded, but the manner in which the act is done decides the nature and meaningfulness of the reward: public= immediate, temporal; secret= deferred, eternal. Whatever an eternal reward is… I don’t like thinking of God playing a brownie point system, but I am sure I have lost who He really is by my impositions on Him.
I think an honest soul that knows God, even a little, has to “Amen” Jesus right there on the storing of reward: a person’s good opinion of me lasts only as long as they remember it… God never forgets.
I like how you tied in the how over the what, because money itself isn’t inherently sinful… we human wretches make it so. Like everything else we get our self-loving, mangling little paws on.
So its still how over what. So sure God can get the job done with out me… He doesn’t need me to get His way. However, I need Him, I feed off of His pleasure, my soul perishes when He turns His face away from displeasure. Maybe removing myself from the “what” mentality… being caught up with Jesus makes the what good enough… God knows that’s hard enough.
Can I press further and ask if God’s just prioritizing, cause in the end, all factors in? He needs me to be serving Him, but if I really am seeking Him, the what matters far less than the how? I guess I still want it to matter.
Permalink
01/11/08 @ 09:57 · http://leshemshamayim.wordpress.com/ Permalink
01/11/08 @ 12:21 Leave a comment:
