The focus and thrust of this section of the Sermon on the Mount is about maintaining a proper priority on those things that we value and treasure. It is not without design that a number of the previous passages spoke of receiving a “reward” in heaven (Matthew 6:1, 4, 6, and 18). When we think of the words reward, value, and treasure, we automatically think of monetary worth – either money itself or “things” that either have monetary worth or bring us status that reflects monetary worth. There is an American proverb that says “The one who dies with the most toys wins” (unknown). This sentiment is most iconically portrayed in the recent movie “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” when the main character says “…I once said, ‘Greed is Good.’ Now it seems that it’s legal because everyone is drinking the same Kool-Aid.”
Jesus is telling us in this passage that worldly, material treasures are only fleeting pleasures that can be taken from us at any time. Jesus’ example of moth larvae eating fabrics and rust destroying material goods spoke directly to a culture that had little defense against such forces of nature. Today, while we have greater defense against these specific forces of nature, over time all things still deteriorate. There are other forces – both natural and man-made – that ultimate bring all material goods to ruin. The stock market crash of 2008, the subsequent bank failures, and the resulting economic downturn all serve as a reminder that there is ultimately no place where our earthly treasures are safe.
Furthermore, Jesus says that what is not destroyed by natural or economic forces is subject to be taken away by thieves. A few years ago, I myself fell victim to a so-called Christian who was a scam artist that stole tens of thousands of dollars from me and cost me more than a hundred thousand dollars in lost property value. Within the past year, I have had two close friends whose homes were burglarized. Their concern was not for the televisions, DVDs, and stereos which could all be replaced by insurance. In both cases, their concern was for Grandmother’s jewelry – an earthly treasure with such sentimental value that insurance could never replace its true worth. When we place our value in such things, we can only come to grief because ultimately they are all temporary.
Having such things is not in itself bad. It is really only a problem when we “treasure” such things. In verse 21, Jesus tells us that whatever we truly value is where we place our heart. If we place our value in monetary things, our heart will be on those monetary things and we are unable to love the Lord our God with all our heart (Matthew 22:37). When we set our eyes on those things, our focus and our worth becomes on those things and we are full of darkness (see verse 23). This is essentially greed. Recently, one of my wife’s friends gave her a plaque that says “The Best Things in Life Are Not Things.” This is what Jesus was trying to say in this passage. The previous sections of Matthew 6 that all speak about ways in which the Father rewards his children are instructive to us about how to store up treasures in heaven. Our treasures in heaven are those things for which the Father rewards us – those things which have eternal, rather than temporary, earthly value. We are to set our eyes on things that bring heavenly reward – this is how our eyes remain healthy (verse 22).
Despite what the movie may say, greed is not good. As Jesus points out in verse 24, worldly wealth can enslave us if we set our hearts upon it – and it is simply not possible to be a servant to God when we are a slave to wealth. For many years, my eyes were dark and I was a very materialistic person. I truly had to humble myself before God and place him as my first heart-priority before I broke that addition of greed and materialism, but today I can honestly say that while “things” are always nice, they certainly aren’t the “best things in life” and they do not hold the mastery over me that they once did.
