CHOOSE YOUR MASTER


No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 
(Matthew 6: 24 – NAS)


Jesus had just been talking about how we choose to see the world around us, about whether we choose to see with clear eyes and to take in and give out light, or whether we choose to see darkly, taking darkness into our hearts and radiating that upon all around us. In the next verse after this one, He will remind us of God’s hand on the world and how we can trust the Almighty. 

But smack! right here between those two, He makes this declaration about serving masters, and He is very blunt about it. Why is that? 

Jesus understands that one of the most powerful things that can darken a person’s world is anxiety about “making ends meet.” He knows we worry about providing food and clothing for ourselves and our families (in fact, He’ll comment on that shortly). And because we require money to attend to those needs, we worry about having money, or not having money. The medium of exchange can quickly become an end in itself. 

But Jesus talks about serving masters. So let’s look at that general observation first. 

“No one can serve two masters.” 

How often does this happen? We generally like a clear “chain of command” for our activities. We prefer to be answerable to one specific person in our jobs. When we have to please two people, things get complicated. There is no guarantee that both of those who have an immediate authority over us will have similar goals or desires regarding the work we are to perform. The clash of conflicting requirements makes our work-load harder, and leads us to resentment directed at one (or both) of those supervisors.  

Jesus points out the results of being stuck with two masters: we’ll hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. Resentment intensifies our emotions in such a situation. The master we prefer gets the focus of our attention, while the master we resent gets bitterness from us. We do not like to divide our focus and we resist situations that seem to require it of us.  

It’s one thing when the situation of two masters is imposed on us by others. That does happen from time to time, and we have to find a way to prioritize the demands of those over us. But what about those occasions when we actually choose to try and serve two masters?  

Are we being honest about how well we can serve both? Even if emotional resentment and devotion does not enter into the picture, divided attention and focus does not generate the best quality work. And that is just when we are considering serving two human masters who can interact with us. 

Jesus drives home the point He is making with the final sentence: “You cannot serve God and wealth."  

Our first reaction is “Well, okay. I don’t have a problem with that.” None of us want to consider ourselves as being greedy. We feel that if we are judicious about money, not misusing it, not plugging into ostentatious display, that we’ve avoided the “serving wealth” pit-fall. But have we really done so?  

Certainly, Jesus was aware that many people are greedy and fall in love with the idea of having lots of money. Whatever the Having of Money represents to them, whether power or influence or endless comfort, such people clutch money to themselves and hold onto it “for dear life.” But is that the same as “serving” wealth? It comes close, but is not what I think Jesus is addressing at this point. 

What is it that we do when we choose to serve something? We answer to the demands it makes on our lives, in terms of use of time and energy. We subdue other desires and impulses, in order to serve “the Master” first. 

And how does that appear when we fall into serving Wealth (or Money)?  

Jesus has just been talking about our sense of vision, about choosing to take light into ourselves instead of darkness. He then makes this comment about serving two masters. He will then follow it with recommending that we trust God to provide for us. But in His sequence of points, He drives home how we tend to shape our lives and our outlooks: we worry about money. We worry about making “enough” money. We let our anxieties about meeting our financial obligations darken our vision and our hearts. 

That is such an easy thing to fall into! Our sense of responsibility tells us that we should be able to take care of our obligations, that dealing fairly with those around us involves paying our bills, paying for services received, buying our food. Are those not proper considerations? 

They are. But only so long as we remember that they are simply the means by which we conduct our lives. They are not ends in themselves. Having a home should not be an end in itself: it provides us with a place to rest, it gives us a base that allows us to extend hospitality to others, it provides regular shelter from the elements. But it is only the means by which we reach the goal of living – of interacting with others with rested ease, of using the talents the Lord has given us. 

Having money enables us to live with greater ease, but it is not Living in and of itself. Do we stop living if we have no money? There are certainly times when we feel that we will stop living if we don’t have money: how shall we get food to eat without money? How shall we get to work if we don’t have money? How will we clothe ourselves if we don’t have money? 

But if we don’t know how to live because we think living depends entirely on having money, we wouldn’t really know what to do with the funds if we really “had enough.” 

Look again: you are serving a Master, one way or another. What sort of Master are you serving? 

Master Money, what is he like? He cares nothing for you or your desires. He cannot love you. If he is small, he is never enough. If he is large, he consumes all your time in protecting him. If you fall in love with him, you devote all your time to expanding his size and power. But no matter how much devotion you pour into him, he can never love you, never approve of your works and talents, never smile upon you. 

Master God, on the other hand, cares deeply for you. He loves you. He smiles on your endeavors and is pleased to see you exercise your talents well. He is large beyond our comprehension, vaster than we can imagine. He needs no protection from us, so we need not be spending our energy on shielding Him. Nothing we can do can ever make Him greater than He already is, so His requirements of us are never geared toward filling Him up. 

What are those requirements He has made of us again? What service is it that this Master has asked of us? 

To be humble, to be peacemakers, to seek righteousness, to be merciful. To care for those around us, to offer prayers is secret, to be generous to others in secret, to not waste our devotion upon things that can be easily stolen or destroyed. 

Does this service require money to be accomplished? 

No, it does not. Still, we frequently get into the mindset of “If I had This Much Money, I could do all these wonderful things for the Lord!” But why, Jesus seems to be asking, do you think Money is required, when God is the Lord of the Universe? He never required “money” of you in the first place, but rather “the fruits of your labor.” It is our fixation on money that has turned the tithe into mere coinage. 

You cannot serve two masters. Choose the one who actually loves you.