“Darkness and Light – Choose One”

Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34

Jesus was all about comparison. By that, I don’t mean relativeness, but rather difference. For him, there was no compromise, no blending, no middle of the road position. In him, it was either right or it was wrong.
And humanity also has so many words to express contrast in this life – issues can be seen as white or black, moral or immoral, good or evil, worthwhile or worthless, day or night – and our list could get much longer. And while these words all imply extremes, humanity never quite seems content with them – we don’t like extremes and absolutes. We prefer “moderate” over radical, “center” over right or left, “gray” over black or white, “maybe” over yes or no, and we are content to “straddle the fence”, even though it can get to be very painful at times.

Jesus, on the other hand, was always about absolutes, and “compromise” would never darken his doorstep. But even though he offered many absolute statements such as “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”, there were still many ways that people can satisfy his truths. In this passage from John 14:6, he doesn’t say how we are to come to and through him, just that we must. Sometimes he allowed options in the means to his absolute to fit the gifts that he has given to us, and other times, there is simply no choice, and we have to do it exactly his way.

Consider the Lord’s thoughts on the things we treasure.

Read Matthew 6:19-21

The earthly versus heavenly treasures that he speaks about are those things that we will look to for comfort and hope in the last days. For many folks, and probably more than a few that each of us know well, their lives seem to be centered on accumulating fiscal security. For them, it’s all about looking to the things of earth in their search for the “meaning of life”. But how quickly it can all disappear.
The stock market crash in 1929, and more recently in 2008, should have been wakeup calls to this world, but the lesson was never learned. People would end their own lives before facing the uncertainties that came with the loss of their “security”. For others, losses have come from identity theft, or unwise investments, or excessive spending, or any number of other missteps. And even if our investments appear to be sound, there is still the question of how much is sufficient. One of my favorite quotations comes from John D. Rockefeller. He was once asked by a reporter “How much is enough?” Rockefeller’s telling answer was “Just a little bit more!” The things of earth will never satisfy our fears and insecurity in life, no matter how hard we work and how much we accumulate. As a matter of fact, they will most certainly be the means to our downfall.

But Jesus says that there is an alternative that will satisfy our every need, and that this is the treasure that will be laid up for us in heaven. Of course, he doesn’t tell us what those treasures are, or how they will be ensured, or how they will benefit us, but he is quite emphatic that they are the only ones that will last.
So what are these treasures? I’m no great scholar, but it seems to me that they would be the things that we do and give to others. Earthly treasure is all about satisfying our self. Heavenly treasure is all about using the gifts that God has given us, to provide for the needs of others. The things we gather for our own pocket are fragile and are always on the verge of being lost. But when we give to another, the act is, for us, final. Nothing can break it, nothing can damage it, nothing can steal it away.
Are there good acts and not so good ones? If the gift that we bring is offered with an honest and loving heart, I believe that it is good. If it is to make the giver look good in the eyes of the recipient, it isn’t.
And when we read John 14:6 again, we discover that these treasures will be stored up in heaven by Jesus. We can do all the good works we want to do, but unless we know the Savior, unless we have a relationship with the one who holds the keys to the treasure store, unless our good works are for the glory of God, they won’t do us much good.

Read Matthew 6:22-24

Note that the passage doesn’t say that the eye is a window that lets the “light of truth” into our lives – it is a lamp that shines our inner light – the light that comes to all in faith - on the world so that we can see all things for what they truly are. If the eye is bad, it can only project darkness from our soul, and the truth that awaits us will be missed.
It is very possible that Jesus offers this as an explanation of his words regarding our treasure. If our inner lamp is weak or extinguished, how will we ever discover the truth about what is important and what is not?

And the last verse in this passage is the icing on the cake. You can’t have it both ways. Unless the “Light of Heaven” shines within us, our vision will be clouded, and one treasure trove will look just as good as any other, and our choices will be just as clouded and our judgment will be unreliable. It is only God’s light that reveals in a truthful and reliable way.

So where does our loyalty, our trust, really lay? Where do we pin our hopes for eternity? If it’s in our own abilities, if we trust the “good things” that the world can bring to our lives, Jesus says that this is all we can hope for. Throughout this Sermon, Jesus tells us over and over that if we seek the rewards that come from this life, if we believe that earthly treasure is important and sufficient, then that is all we will get. But when we turn to the eternal rewards that can only come through faith in him, the blessings will never end.

Read Matthew 6:25-34

Both the previous passage and this one are, basically, about idolatry. The first details our trust in the things of earth, which is the worship of things instead of God. The second passage is about worrying whether God’s providence can ever be sufficient! Isn’t it odd that some folks believe that they can do a better job at caring for their needs than God can! And the wealthy of earth have no exclusive hold on this attitude.
There is no difference whether we are anxious over what we have and how we are going to keep it, or whether we are anxious over what we do not have and how we are going to get by without it! Either way, it shows a general lack of confidence in the Lord and his plan for our lives.

Why are we so reluctant to put it all in the Lord’s hands? We can see the extent that God has gone to to prove his love for us, we can see the power of his Being, we can see the wisdom of his guidance throughout the centuries and the lack of wisdom when we try to take life into our own hands. We constantly get proof that our own decisions, at best, are inadequate, and yet many never change.
But that is exactly what Jesus taught and expected from those who follow him. Change, trust, growth, follow, and give our lives to him so they can be made right.

Pastor Ron Mehl wrote:
Jesus is able to take what I've entrusted to him in the dark and work it all together in the light.
--Ron Mehl

His Light, and our darkness. Those are the choices that are before us. We can live within his perfection, or stumble in our inadequacy; it can be his eternal life, or our narrow and limited one; his immeasurable joy, or our anxiety and fears and hopelessness; his grace and glory, or our condemnation and sin.
Which sounds better to you? Letting Jesus rework us into something that is righteous and holy, or trying, (and failing!), to do it all in our own way? The choice should be obvious, but the people of earth still think that their way is best, and our Lord has called his church to share his message with all who will stand still long enough to listen.

And our opportunity to do that very thing will be coming to us in September at the community tent revival. And once again, we will have a choice to make – will we heartily embrace the effort and be an integral part of the event, or will we decide that there are other things that will be better uses of our time.

Will you choose the Light of Jesus, or the darkness of earth? We must choose carefully!