As Jesus continues teaching, He wants to reveal how we handle our finances affect every part of our life. He does something He has done before. He says the same thing in a different way, inviting His hearers to slow down and ponder what He had just said.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:22-23Jesus started the conversation by grabbing their attention with a familiar topic and is now moving it to a deeper level. Jesus wants to make the point that a person’s use of money reveals the intentions of that person’s heart.
If a person’s treasure is found within their heart, then their eye will be focused on that treasure. The eye is the lamp of the body, letting light into the body and focusing on where the body will go. When the eye is focused on Heaven and Kingdom aspects, it will bring light and health to the rest of the body because that is what humans were made for. But, if the eye is focused on wealth accumulation, then the whole body is going to be dark and the actions of the person will be focused on dark things. Another way to say it is, what you look at is what you think about. What attracts your eyes is what captures your heart. Where your eyes are focused reveals the desires of the heart.
Jesus tells a parable in the New Testament about a man who thought that all he had was his. He was a rich man who had just had an abundant harvest. He was overjoyed with all the grain he just harvested. It’s like when “WhatsApp” was bought by Facebook. One day they didn’t have much, and then the next day they have everything. This man in the parable decides the best thing to do is to build a bigger barn to store all his grain. His rationale is that this extra grain will equal security. But that night he dies in his sleep and everything he thought was his, is no longer his.
The story is so popular because it reveals the inner human condition many people struggle with, but no one wants to admit. It’s no secret that the love of money has consumed the heart of many. This story reveals the inner working of the human heart. The story exposes that many people trust more in money and feel more secure with money than they do with God. God gives us money to steward and share in order to build His Kingdom not to hoard or amass for ourselves.
In this parable, Jesus is talking about grain and not money, but as in all parables there is a deeper truth. We can use what we have to bless others or we can be selfish. It’s not bad to own a car or a home or to have an iPad. There are great Christians who have been blessed with financial resources and who have not allowed money to own them. God still owns their heart and they have learned how to be fantastic stewards who build His Kingdom.
The point is that we need to evaluate what has more of our heart. Andy Stanley once said, “Greed is not a financial issue. It's a heart issue.” Jesus is essentially saying, “The way you handle your finances affect every part of your life; either for the good or the bad.”
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