An Advent meditation excerpted from “Christ as the Seed of the Woman” by Daniel Moore, in Meditations for Advent, 1884.
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ” — Genesis. 3:15. “That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil .” — Hebrews. 2:14.
“The two seeds are severally contending for empire: and neither can have a throne, except on the overthrow and destruction of the other. The Seed of the woman avowed this to be His purpose from all eternity. To this end came He into the world, -to crush, to break, to overturn, to abolish. “For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
“See a fulfillment of the prophecy which has respect to the bruising of the “ heel” of Messiah, in the wounds, and scars, and stripes, which Christ was to endure in His lower nature. These began with His life and only ended with His life. From the first day of our Lord’s manifestation, the seed of the serpent began to contrive against Him his deadly plots. First, Herod was set on destroying the child Jesus in infancy. On commencing His public ministry, the Holy One has to sustain those forty days’ fierce encounter in the wilderness. On coming to His own city Nazareth, the maddened populace is stirred up by Satan to “cast Him down headlong” from the brow of the hill. (Luke 4:29). And, in all the subsequent trials and insults, endured by the Blessed Saviour, we see the work of the subtle serpent of evil, devising new plots and agencies to bruise and distress the human soul of Christ. He moved Herod to mock, Pilate to scourge, and the priests to revile, and the rabble to shout. He was with the false witnesses who accused, and the apostate disciple who betrayed, with the thief who cast railing in His teeth, and with the heartless soldier who pierced His side. Yes, behind all this machinery of evil did Satan plant himself. Mistaken, short-sighted, utterly suicidal as his policy was, it originated in that sentence promise of Paradise. It was so “written in the bond.” Our salvation had been an imperfect thing without it. All that was mortal in the Incarnate One, all that was capable of suffering, all that belonged to the nature which He had assumed, was to be bruised, insulted, dishonored, shamed. Hunger pinched Him. Thirst distressed Him. Fatigue wearied Him. Pain rent His limbs, and anguish cast down His soul. Oh! it was indeed the sharpness of the serpent’s tooth He felt, when, out of the deep agony of His spirit, He cried out: “ Father, save me from this hour.” But instantly the thought occurred: “For this cause came I unto this hour.” (John 12:27). The Scripture had said that thus it must be: “Thou shalt bruise His heel. But then, blessed be God, the Scripture had also said: “It shall bruise thy head. “And here the triumph of Divine mercy culminates. The two parts of the sentence are found to be correlative: that is to say, it is the very bruising of the heel of Messiah, that leads to the crushing of the head of the serpent. For how stood the case? The head of Satan, that wherein his great strength lies, consists in his having the power of death, — a death of which the sting is sin, and the strength is a violated law. But the bruised heel of Christ has rendered both of these powerless. His submission to all the experiences of the Incarnation was a perfect satisfaction to all the demands of the law, and His death upon the cross provided an infinite propitiation for all sin. Hence, as the Apostle argues in his Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ has purchased salvation for every man by tasting death for every man. By making His righteousness ours, and our sin His, He casts in His lot with us. “For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one :(Hebrews 2:11). He has made us one, says the Apostle, to this end, “that through death,” that is, His own death, ” He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Here, then, we have the prophetic promise,— the sentence-blessing laid out in its complete fulfillment. Satan is allowed to bruise the heel of Messiah, but meanwhile, and in the very act of submitting to this bruising, Christ is Himself bruising Satan in his most vital part. He is casting out the god of this world. He is destroying him that had the power of death.
The typical way of explaining the words of Jesus in today’s text is that when he talks about going through the narrow gate, he is referring to those who want to be Christians. All other religions take the wide gate and walk the spacious way to their own destruction. But there is a problem with that approach. These are the words of Jesus directed toward the apostles who had already sworn their allegiance to him as their master. Everyone that he spoke to had already committed themselves to enter his coming kingdom.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
So, what Jesus is talking about in today’s text is two ways of trying to enter the kingdom: the hard way and the easy way. The gate to the hard way is narrow, so people are less likely to choose it. The gate to the easy way is wide. It is very popular. He warns that only those who enter through the narrow gate will find life on the other side. Those who look for the easy way in will find destruction. Eternal life is not something everyone is born with. It is conditional, the result of the right choice.
Look at what Jesus says after this:
“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves.” (7:15).
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven — only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?’ “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!'” (7:21-23).
Leaders of the easy way are false prophets, but they look genuine. They prophesy and exorcise demons and do mighty works in Jesus’ name, and call him their lord. Jesus does not know them, and he didn’t send them, but they will be here claiming to do his will all the same. Inside they are wolves, not sheep.
These false prophets are a problem because they will appear within the visible church. If they actually represented other religions, we would not be tempted to listen to them. But they will come to us in sheep’s clothing. Some will actually be convinced that they are true believers.
How will we know a true Christian leader from a false one? Jesus also answered that question:
“You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit.” (7:16-20).
The leaders of the easy way will look like any other tree of the orchard, but the fruit they bear will be bad. The lives of those they lead will be disobedient and ungodly. That is how they can be recognized. The promoters of the easy way will end in destruction – by fire. The people who follow them will suffer the same fate. They will have built their houses on the wrong foundation, and it is only a matter of time in a world of rain, floods, and winds before such shoddy workmanship will be revealed.
Our Lord wants us to seek his kingdom the hard way, not the easy way. We see that in today’s text.
The wide gate is the default (13c).
Jesus said that “the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” In modern terms, it is the default — the choice that everyone makes unless presented with some reason not to. This would be no problem if the gate one chooses does not matter. But it does matter. The default gate leads to a spacious road — a road where there is plenty of room for lots of people to travel on. Unfortunately, the destination of that road is destruction.
There was a large crowd listening to Jesus as he preached the sermon on the mount to his apostles. Many of them were considering committing their lives to Jesus and becoming his disciples. He was warning them that simply deciding to follow him was not enough. There would be many hard choices that they would have to make. Life as a Christian would not be easy. They would be tempted to casually accept Christ as their savior, and then live their normal lives otherwise. Jesus warned them that the Christian life is not a normal life, and if they tried to stay normal, it would lead them in the opposite direction, no matter what they professed.
That is his message to you and me today. The default gate is always accessible. There are no obstacles to it. It is the easiest choice to make, and the life it promises looks like the best of both worlds. We can get our names on God’s list, but can still live like we want to.
But the problem is…
Those who enter the wide gate will be destroyed (13b).
The future destiny of those who are looking to enter the easy way is clear and plain. Those who look for the easy way in will find destruction. Eternal life is not something everyone is born with. It is conditional, the result of the right choice.
Jesus is not the only one who said that the fate of the lost is destruction.
Paul says that they are “objects of wrath ready for destruction” (Romans 9:22). He says their “end is destruction” (Philippians 3:19). He says they “will undergo the penalty of” permanent destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
Peter agrees with Jesus and Paul on the fate of the lost as well; He says that “the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:7).
Now with all this evidence in favor of what Jesus said about the fate of the lost, it might come as a surprise that most churches and most preachers are afraid to say what I just said. They insist that when Jesus and Paul and Peter talk about destruction they mean something else. Don’t believe it. Destruction means destruction. The second death is a second death, which will be permanent because there will be no resurrection from it. That is why choosing the right gate is so important.
The narrow gate is difficult to enter (14a).
Jesus said, “the gate is narrow and the way is difficult.” We have been studying the commands of Christ for many months now, and we can all agree that once we know what Jesus actually commanded, obeying those commands will be tough. He tells poor and suffering people to rejoice. It’s hard for us to do that. He tells ordinary people to influence the world when the world wants us to just be like them. It’s hard for us to do that. He tells ordinary Christians that their righteousness has to exceed that of religious professionals. It’s hard for us to do that. He tells us to reconcile with those who make us angry. It’s hard for us to do that. He tells us to stop lusting and be faithful to our spouses. It’s hard for us to do that. He tells us to be true to our word. It’s hard for us to do that. He tells us to love our enemies. It’s hard for us to do that.
The narrow gate is difficult to enter, but unfortunately…
The narrow gate is the only way to permanent life (14b).
He said, “the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” You and I have a choice. It’s not a simple choice of claiming to be a Christian or not. Remember, everyone that Jesus was talking to in today’s text had publically committed to following him. But Jesus warned them that there would be false teachers who would try to trip them up. He warned them that there would be those who claimed to be sheep but were actually wolves. He warned them that if they wanted to build true Christian lives they would have to build on the rock, not the sand.
The narrow gate is the only way to permanent life. People will tell you that everyone has a permanent life, and the issue is where you will spend it. Do not believe that lie. Only one way leads to life. The other way — the spacious way — the easy way — leads to destruction. Whoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but have eternal life. Two permanent destinies.
Paul spoke of those two destinies. He said, “the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). If you are not in Christ Jesus, you won’t have life. Your payoff is death.
John spoke of those two destinies. He said that the “one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life” (1 John 5:12).
The author of Hebrews spoke of those two destinies. He said those who shrink back will perish, but those who have faith will preserve their souls (Hebrews 10:39).
Peter spoke of those two destinies. He said that those who are born again will be resurrected and receive a permanent inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-4). But the ungodly will experience destruction (2 Peter 3:7).
Now that we know what is at stake, let us return to the command of Christ highlighted in today’s text.
Christ commands us to enter through the narrow gate (13a).
Suppose you have decided to become a Christian. That is a good thing. You want to enter the kingdom that is coming down from the sky. That is a good ambition. Jesus warns us that there are two ways to take, the hard way and the easy way. The easy way will be a well-beaten path, a wide gate, and a spacious road that lots of people have taken before you. It will not make any demands on you other than what you claim. You claim to believe in Jesus — there will be many others on that road who make the same claim. You want to be a good person — lots of good people take that road.
It would seem to me that if we are really serious about entering the kingdom we would follow the instructions of the king. The king tells us to stay away from the wide gate. He warns us to stay off the spacious road. Actually following Jesus is going to be a tight squeeze. Staying on the narrow road is going to be a hard thing to do. But our king commands it.
When he returns, king Jesus is going to gather all the nations before him. He is going to “separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32). He will know every soul. He will determine who has taken the easy way, and who has taken the hard way. He will put the true sheep on his right, and the goats on his left. The goats will be condemned to the permanent punishment of the second death. The sheep will inherit permanent life. The choices we make today will determine which destiny we will experience.
Brothers and sisters, don’t take the easy way. Enter the narrow gate!
19 “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light 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 the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Jesus wants us all to obey his commands and teach others to do so. So far, in Matthew six, we have seen Jesus highlight three commands. By following these three commands, we display the righteousness associated with the kingdom of which Jesus is the king. When we display that righteousness, we show that we are sons of the Father in heaven. We can also influence the world around us to join the kingdom.
Unfortunately, the hypocrites have hijacked each of these commands. They give to the needy, not because they have the Father’s compassion for the needy. No, they give so that they can be praised by others. They give in order to get a reputation for being generous. They also pray — or at least look like they are praying. They give long, repetitive public prayers. Their motivation for praying is the same as their motivation for charitable giving. They pray in order to be seen praying. Their words are designed to impress the human ears who hear them. The hypocrites even fast in order to impress other human beings with their humility. They are proud of their fasting because it makes them look so spiritual.
Now, the reason that I gave that summary of the first eighteen verses of Matthew six is that Jesus is continuing the same line of thought in this section of his sermon. He is not introducing a new subject. He is still talking about those hypocrites. He is still warning us not to do what they are doing. Every good deed they do is for their own personal enrichment.
You know what a hoarder is. A hoarder collects stuff. He has piles of stuff in his garage, in his closets, and stacked all over his house. Wherever he goes, he gets more stuff. He is obsessed with accumulating stuff. He’s not collecting this stuff for someone else. He is hoarding it for himself. He can’t seem to give away any of his stuff. It’s not for the needy, his stuff is for himself.
The hypocrites were hoarders. Their motivation was always self. Even the things that people are supposed to do for God, these hypocrites insisted on doing for themselves. All their daily decisions were being made on the basis of how it could benefit them personally. When they gave to others, it was to benefit themselves. When they prayed and fasted, it was for their benefit. God had nothing to do with it.
All the stuff done for self is temporary (19-21).
Jesus is not just talking about collecting money here. But he uses that language because what happens when people just want to get richer and richer is a perfect example of what he is talking about. If you spend all your time and make all your decision based on how big it is going to make your bank account, the best thing that can happen is that you keep most of your money until you die.
Jesus warns his apostles not to accumulate for themselves treasures on earth. Back in Jesus’ day, people did not put their money in banks. They invested it in things that they could store in their houses, or in money they would hide in their houses. But the moths got to the stuff, causing it to become worthless. The stuff would decay, causing it to become worthless.
If the moths and rust did not get to it, the thieves would. Thieves would break into your house at night and find where you have hidden your stash. Then all that work would be for nothing. If it wasn’t thieves, it would be unemployment, bad investments, sickness, or family needs, or the government. Either way, that stash was not going to last.
But Jesus recommended laying up treasures in heaven. He was not talking about tithing as such, although tithing is not wrong. He was talking about all the things you can do to serve God and honor him. Some people take this passage to mean that all the money you invest in God is being reserved for you up there. That’s ridiculous. When Jesus returns, all the money in the world is going to be worthless. Money is for this age, not the next one.
I’m reminded of that story of the rich man who had a wheelbarrow full of gold bars, and he asked permission to bring it with him into the new Jerusalem. The Lord gave him permission, but then all the people gathered around him. They wanted to know what he planned to do with all those paving stones. The streets were already paved with gold!
All the stuff done for self turns your light into darkness (22-23; cf. 5:14-16).
Jesus had already taught his apostles that they are the light of the world. He said that a city located on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, he said, let your light shine before people so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.
Now, he is returning to that subject. He tells the apostles that their eye is the lamp of the body. If then their eye is healthy, their whole body will be full of light. But if their eye is diseased, their whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
We see through our eyes. If something interferes with our eyes and keeps them from seeing, it will not be just our eyes that are turned dark. Our whole person will be blinded.
The word translated “diseased” in verse 23 is the Greek word πονηρὸς, which is just a generic word for “bad.” An eye can be bad if it is diseased, but it can also be bad if its owner chooses to focus on the wrong thing. If you are driving and you choose to focus on your cell phone instead of the road, it doesn’t matter how well you see. A bad eye is one that is focused on the wrong thing.
What Jesus is telling us is that if we are not being the light of the world as he called us to be, then the world will not have any light, and neither will we. Selfishness puts out our light. The light is God’s love. When we show God’s love by giving to the needy, God’s light shines through us. When we choose to hold on to our hoarded stash, the light goes out.
It is not just giving though. All the stuff done for yourself turns your light into darkness. Praying to be seen, fasting to be seen, everything we do for ourselves is flicking the switch.
Your eye is the lamp of your life. If it focuses on your stuff, then all that stuff will block the light. If your light does not shine, then people who need the Father will not find him
All the stuff done for yourself can prevent you from serving God (24).
Jesus says “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The word translated money here is μαμωνᾷ, the name of the Syrian god Mammon. It represents stuff people waste their lives on. The word sounded like the Aramaic for “what (ma) you trust in (amõn).” In the end, we serve what we trust in. Jesus warns his disciples that trusting in a closet full of treasures is a stupid thing to do. Trusting in a reputation for good deeds is a stupid thing to do. Trusting in a reputation of spirituality is a stupid thing to do.
You may join a church, and call yourself a Christian, but your daily decisions are based on your loyalty to your real master. We accumulate treasures in heaven every time we love others with God’s love and compassion, putting their needs above our own. We accumulate treasures in heaven every time we seek God in prayer when nobody else is watching. We accumulate treasures in heaven every time we give up what we want in favor of getting what God wants.
What we have to understand is that when we signed on to be part of Christ’s coming kingdom, we declared that from now on, Jesus is going to be our king. We have no other master. We may have a whole bunch of bosses, but we can only have one master. Previously, the self was on the throne. Now, there’s a new king.
Our master is the one that we are serving. Every choice we make has to be informed by his wishes — his commands. We can obey the laws of the land — as long as those laws do not contradict his law. We can please our families as long as our families do not demand that we disobey him.
If we try to live for and serve two masters, we are always going to fail. This is especially true if the other master is essentially ourselves. Mammon — what we trust in — is a terrible master. It will force you to betray Christ. It will make you a hypocrite like it did the Pharisees. It will make you spend your entire life accumulating worthless stuff that has no eternal value.
But we do not have to live like that. We can choose to obey Jesus with every choice we make. We can choose to deny ourselves and take up our crosses, following him. Every step we take in following Christ gets us closer to our eternal inheritance. That is what it means to accumulate treasures in heaven.
NOTES:
“If he is single-minded, of ‘sound eye,’ he will choose rightly” (Albright, William F, David N. Freedman, and Christopher S. Mann. The Anchor Bible: 26. New-York: Doubleday, 1971., p. 82).
“A person decides what constitutes a treasure in life, and the heart and energies of that person will soon follow” (Anderson, William A. Gospel of Matthew. Place of publication not identified: Liguori Pubns, 1999., p. 26).
“Heavenly wealth (fellowship with God and the service of God) is incorruptible, and very different from the amassing of earthly riches, which so far from decreasing worry about the future, actually increase worry lest they be stolen or perish” (Argyle, A W. The Gospel According to Matthew: Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979., p. 58).
““Mammon” is a Chaldean word for the money-god. It is a word which speaks of the systems of materialism which are so very dominant in human experience. The disciple is to give undivided loyalty to the Master; mammon is to take a very inferior place” (Augsburger, Myron S. Matthew. , 1982., p. 92).
“The reference here is to the man who had hoarded up in his house a little store of gold, only to find, when he comes home one day, that the burglars have dug through his flimsy walls and that his treasure is gone. There is no permanency about a treasure which is at the mercy of any enterprising thief” (Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew. , 1958., p. 242).
“Thieves ‘break through (and steal)’—literally ‘dig through’—either by digging up a pot of coins that has been buried in the soil (a common way of safeguarding money; cf. Mt.13:44), or (more likely) by digging under the wall of the house. All this is cast in terms of the ways of the ancient world, where there were no safe deposit boxes and no police forces; everyone had to take his own precautions for protecting his goods. Often enough, all such precautions are vain; one way or another, the hoarded treasure is apt to disappear” (Beare, Francis W. The Gospel According to Matthew: Translation, Introduction, and Commentary. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982., p. 182).
“Mamona is not inherently unrighteous; but it acquires this character when it is enthroned as a god, and receives monotheistic worship from those who possess it, who crave it (1 Tim. 6:9) and who steal it. Jesus later warns that ‘the deceitfulness of wealth [ploutou] will choke the word’ of the kingdom (Matt. 13:22) by convincing people that they will prosper more under wealth’s rule than under God’s. While love for God results in many a good (22:37-40), ‘the love of money [hé philargyria] is a root of all kinds of evil’ (1 Tim. 6:10; cf. 2 Tim. 3:2-4: [philargyroi, ‘lovers of money,’ versus philotheoi, ‘lovers of God’] and 1 Tim. 3:3 and Hebrews 13:5 [aphilargyros, ‘not loving money’]. (In Luke 16:14, immediately after the parallel to Matthew 6:24, Jesus calls the Pharisees philargyroi, ‘lovers of money’: which suggests that one important respect in which disciples’ righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees [Matt. 5:20] is their attitude toward wealth” (Chamblin, J K. Matthew: A Mentor Commentary. Fearn, Tain: Christian Focus Pub, 2010., pp. 442-443).
“Like the happiness it brings, earthly treasure is only for a season; it is destined to pass away” (Davies, W D, and Dale C. Allison. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Volume I: Introduction and Commentary on Matthew I-Vii. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988., p. 629).
“What a person covets or lusts after shapes his or her life” (Fair, Ian A, Stephen Leston, and Mark L. Strauss. Matthew & Mark: Good News for Everyone. Uhrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Pub, 2008., p.39).
“the single eye corresponding to the single (undivided) heart (v. 21)” (Green, H B. The Gospel According to Matthew in the Revised Standard Version: Introduction and Commentary. Oxford: University Press, 1975., p. 93).
“depending on where we put our hearts, we can become people of light before God or we can become useless people. When we devote our hearts to God, we can be useful people to God and other people” (Jong, Paul C. The Gospel of Matthew: I. Seoul, Korea: Hephzibah Pub. House, 2005., p. 197).
“Treasure on earth, such as clothing and linens, can be consumed by moths or insects or stolen by thieves. They also consume one’s attention and one’s heart. The lasting treasure is the heart centered on God, which cannot be dislodged” (Reid, Barbara E. The Gospel According to Matthew. Collegeville, Minn: Liturgical Press, 2005., p. 46).
“Matthew uses “treasure” as a metaphor for that which commands the allegiance of one’s “heart”” (Senior, Donald. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Matthew. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011., p. 87).
1 “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. 3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
We are beginning a study of Matthew’s sixth chapter today, which is the second of three chapters he reserves for Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Just before Jesus had begun to expound upon the principles of the kingdom, he told his apostles that “…unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
The experts in the law and the Pharisees were considered to be the super-spiritual class. When someone thought of a saint, they thought of someone from these groups. When a person decided to devote themselves to the things of the Spirit, it was one of these people that he decided to mimic. But Jesus set the bar higher. He told his apostles that they had to be more spiritual that these with the reputation of being super-spiritual. In fact, if they decided to commit themselves to just doing what the experts in the law and the Pharisees were doing, then they would not even enter the kingdom.
Lange said that these super-spiritual in Jesus’ day ” imagined that they had reached the highest eminence in these three phases of spiritual life, which mark a right relationship toward our neighbor (alms-giving), toward God (prayer), and toward ourselves (fasting)” (122).
These super-spiritual saints of Jesus’ day wanted to cover all the bases of their obedience. They wanted to do their duty to everyone, and that was commendable. As MacLaren puts it, they wanted to practice “the beneficence which is (their) duty to (their) neighbour, the devotion which is (their) duty to God, and the abstinence which is (their) duty to (themselves)” (87).
But Jesus had already warned his apostles that that commitment was not enough. In today’s text, he explains why. These four verses specifically talk about charitable giving. Jesus explains why the charitable giving of these hypocrites was not a display of God’s kind of righteousness.
The hypocrites were not giving out of love (2).
They were giving, and giving is good — except when it is not. The hypocrites gave “so that people will praise them.” Parker says “The spring of all true service in Christ’s kingdom is love; whatever is less than this, though collateral and subsidiary, will be burnt up by the final fire” (63).
Jesus had specifically told his apostles to let their light shine before people, so that the people can see their good deeds and give honor to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). So the hypocrites’ problem was not that they were giving in public. Nast says their problem was “ostentatious display before men, which is very forcibly expressed by the Greek πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι, for the purpose of being gazed at as a show” (261). There is a difference between giving in public and giving to be praised by the public.
Maas says “our alms-deeds must be done with as little ostentation as possible” (78). MacLaren says “Christ condemned ostentation. His followers too often try to make use of it” (89). I Googled ostentation. It is “pretentious and vulgar display, especially of wealth and luxury, intended to impress or attract notice.” When we give to our neighbor in order to impress our other neighbors, we are not giving out of love.
On the word hypocrites, Williams says it “was derived from one which meant to act upon the stage. A hypocrite was an actor. As stage-playing implied that the actor did not feel but only pretended to feel, so the Pharisees only pretended to feel for the poor, and were therefore called hypocrites” (82).
The hypocrites thought that giving itself would be rewarded by God (1).
Rice said “”The scribes, like the Moslems and Roman Catholics of now, held that alms-giving was meritorious before God. The rabbins said, ‘For one farthing given to the poor, a man will gain heaven.’ The names of large givers to the poor were announced in the synagogue. The religion of that day was ostentatious, for display. Jesus unmasks this pharisaical ‘acting’ in religion by setting over against it the spirit of true worship” (76).
If you give to the poor so that your name shows up on the plaque honoring the contributors, that’s great. Just don’t expect to be rewarded by God for the gift.
The hypocrites would get their reward from the ones they were trying to impress (2).
Jesus said that when these hypocrites give in order to be seen by people, they have their reward. The reputation that they were seeking would be all the reward they get.
Chamblin says “In the Judaism of Jesus’ day, trumpets were blown to announce times for prayer and fasting …, for worship and sacrifice, for feasting and celebrating.” There is no evidence, beyond that of verse 2, that almsgivers used real trumpets to summon the poor; and while there were horn-shaped chests in the temple and elsewhere for depositing offerings, the language of 6:2 does not suggest such an act.” The words, ‘Do not sound a trumpet before you,’ are in all probability a metaphor — one readily suggested by trumpets’ actual usage… and well suited (once captured by the imagination) for showing how ludicrous such a performance is” (392).
Livermore said “Our Lord had been speaking (in chapter 5) of the wrong construction put upon many of the Mosaic precepts by the Scribes and Pharisees; and he sets up a much higher and purer standard of virtue than theirs. He now proceeds to show that in their religious acts, as well as opinions, there was a corrupt motive; and that his disciples should act from far better principles” (87).
But for these hypocrites, Maclaren says “Their charity was no charity, for what they did was not to give, but to buy. Their gift was a speculation. They invested in charity, and looked for a profit of praise” (89).
The Bible does teach us to give to the needy.
“If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the LORD your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition” (Deuteronomy 15:7).
“A generous person will be enriched, and the one who provides water for others will himself be satisfied” (Proverbs 11:25).
“I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the LORD’s splendor will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 58:7-8).
We also have an example from Israelite history. David announced that he was going to contribute towards building a temple in Jerusalem — a project that his son Solomon would oversee. Then the Chronicler said this happened:
“The leaders of the families, the leaders of the Israelite tribes, the commanders of units of a thousand and a hundred, and the supervisors of the king’s work contributed willingly. They donated for the service of God’s temple 5,000 talents and ten thousand darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron. All who possessed precious stones donated them to the treasury of the LORD’s temple, which was under the supervision of Jehiel the Gershonite. The people were delighted with their donations, for they contributed to the LORD with a willing attitude; King David was also very happy” (1 Chronicles 29:6-9). The people who had, gave, and gave willingly.
The apostle Paul tells us that New Testament churches should give like that:
“Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
Jesus himself had taught this principle:
“Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42).
Jesus also commended a poor widow who gave out of her poverty:
“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all offered their gifts out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on” (Luke 21:1-4).
So, Jesus is not discouraging giving, any more than he is discouraging the other visible displays of righteousness: praying (vss. 5-15) and fasting (vss. 16-18). But Harrington says “these acts of piety are really intended as worship of God, then they should be practiced without excessive display intended to impress other people. In each case—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting—Jesus contrasts how the hypocrites do it and what their reward is (a reputation for piety), and how ‘you’ should do it and what your reward will be (from God)” (29).
Jesus commands us to be careful about how we give (1, 3-4).
The command from our Lord with reference to giving is “Be careful.” The Greek word is προσέχω, which means to be on the alert. He uses the same word when he tells us to “watch out for false prophets, who come to (us) in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). The idea is that there is a danger here, but it might be like those wolves. They come in sheep’s clothing, so they don’t look dangerous. That is why we need to be careful.
A packet of cigarettes does not look dangerous. But that is why the government requires that the manufacturer puts warning labels on them. There is a danger there. Everyone who ever smokes a cigarette does not immediately die of lung cancer. But that is why they are dangerous.
Jesus is telling us that our charitable giving should also have a warning label. It can be a sign of our love for God and our fellow humans. But it can also be an ostentatious display of our own pride, or seeking praise from others. So, Jesus says that when we do our giving, we should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing, so that our gift may be in secret. And our Father, who sees in secret, will reward us.
Before we drop that offering in the collection plate, we should ask if we are doing this as part of our worship. We should ask if we would still give the gift if there was no one around to see it. We should ask if there is a way to give that does not draw attention to ourselves. Our church has a benevolent fund that we use to help the needy in our community. No one knows who gives to this fund. It is a way helping us remove the wrong motives from our charitable giving. Those gifts help others, but our giving is between the Father and ourselves, which is the way it should be.
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Chamblin, J K. Matthew:A Mentor Commentary. Fearn, Tain: Christian Focus Pub, 2010.
Harrington, Daniel J. Meeting St. Matthew Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2010.
Lange, Johann Peter, and Philip Schaff. The Gospel According to Matthew. New York: C. Scribner, 1865.
Maas, A J. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary. St. Louis, Mo: Herder, 1898
Maclaren, Alexander. The Gospel of St. Matthew. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892
Nast, Wilhelm. A Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, 1864.
Parker, Joseph. A Homiletic Analysis of the Gospel by Matthew. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1870.
Rice, Edwin W. Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew. Philadelphia: The American Sunday-school union, 1909.
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