Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up

Gaining Through Giving Up
Upside-Down
January 5/6, 2008
Digging Deeper (Questions are on the last page)
Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up
(Robert Ismon Brown)

Study Notes
Key Scripture Text: Matthew 6:19-34

Matthew 6:19-34 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where 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 your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money. 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Introduction to the Upside-Down Series
3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken (Isaiah 40:3-5; compare Luke 3:4-6).

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty (Part of Mary's Magnificat from Luke 1:49-53).

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? (Isaiah 29:16)

I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down (2 Kings 21:13).

6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king -- Jesus" (Spoken about the followers of Jesus in the first century, from Acts 17:6-7).

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, are you upside-down? Spherical geometry has its own paradoxes, though none of them at all troubling to the mathematician (watch an episode of Numbers), or the geographer (remember Columbus?)! Orientation is a question of location, and one's point of view. I recently read about "The Upside-Down House", a project created by a Polish businessman and philanthropist named Daniel Czapiewski. The house is located in the tiny village of Szymbark, Poland. Rather than simply being a bizarre tourist attraction, this house is meant to be a profound statement about the Communist era and the state of the world. Czapiewski’s company would normally take three weeks to construct a house, but this one took 114 days because the workers were disorientated by the strange angles of the walls. Many tourists who visit complain of mild seasickness and dizziness after just a few minutes of being in the structure, most likely due to the body's need to calibrate out its equilibrium. The building was to be an allegory of the modern world where everything is turned upside-down. Upside-Down House looks like God’s cruel joke on the construction industry, but Daniel intends it to have a serious message. However, it will likely take more than a disoriented house to alter human behavior, Czapiewski's activism notwithstanding.

Our new, three-part weekend series explores living an "upside-down" life in an already "upside-down" world. As the Scripture passages above indicate, crooked paths needs straightening, valleys need filling, mountains need to be leveled, and rough roads need paving. What happens when "up is down" and "down is up"? It is the cultural equivalent of feeling dizzy and seasick. The story told by the Bible is about the world turned upside-down, and the continuing need to make things right again. When Mary sings her Magnificat (see above), she speaks of scattering the proud and pulling down mighty kings from their thrones, while, at the same time, lifting up the lowly and feeding the hungry. Had you asked anybody in Mary's generation what her situation was in the world at the time of Jesus' birth, this is the sort of answer you would have received:
Who are we? We are Israel, the chosen people of the Creator God.
Where are we? We are in the holy land, focused on the Temple; but ironically we feel like we are still in exile.
What is wrong? We have the wrong rulers; pagans on the one hand, compromised Jews on the other, or half-way between, Herod and his family. We are all involved in a less-than-ideal situation.
What is the solution? Our God must act again to give us the true sort of rule, that is, his own kingship exercised through properly appointed officials; and in the meantime, Israel must be faithful to this covenant charter.

Into such a world stepped Jesus of Nazareth, preaching "good news" and calling people "to repent" because something called "the kingdom of God" was coming. Change was on the way, as the prophet Isaiah wrote (see above), "Prepare the way of the Lord". "To repent" meant a radical change of agenda, giving up one's own view of the world, upside-down as it was, and adopt Jesus' view which was upside-down in its own way. And so when we read through the early chapters of the Gospels, such as Matthew, Mark and Luke, we discover Jesus saying things like: The way up is down. The way home is first to go into exile. The way to be first is to be last. You want to rule? Then learn to serve. You want to live, truly? Then die. You want to follow Jesus? Then "deny yourself, take up your cross" and follow him (Luke 9:23). Hardly a page of the Gospels is turned without meeting these ideas. Jesus was turning the world and its viewpoint upside-down and "on its head" (or was it "on its feet"?). The parables of Jesus reflect this "upside-down" way of thinking. In a real sense, they embody it by telling stories that have unexpected endings; stories with a "twist in the tail", so to speak. When Jesus tells us about The Prodigal Son, he's really telling us about the "prodigal father" who did wholly unexpected things, such as racing out to meet his lost son, when all along the townsfolk would have written the kid off as a lost cause for taking the family inheritance and leaving home before his dad was dead. In an upside-down fashion, the father gives him the royal robe, the family ring, and kills the fatted calf in celebration. What sort of father does such outrageous things for a wayward and seemingly ungrateful son (Luke 15:11-32)?

Time and time again Jesus said and did things wholly counter-cultural, such as eating with all the wrong people—tax collectors, Samaritans and other "sinners", yet railing against "important people"—high priests, Pharisees and King Herod Antipas, by calling them to repent of their sins and return to God. He would have agreed that the wrong people are on the throne, and that power alone cannot bring in the kingdom of God. Yet, unlike Zealots or right-wing Pharisees or dissident Essenes, Jesus did not think the answer came from acts of violence or revolutionary reprisals. Instead, he called on people to love their enemies, do good to those who misused them. And if a Roman soldier asked you for your coat or demanded that you walk with him for a mile, you should double up the favor in return.

Then, when the end of his earthly life approached, this same Jesus talked about bringing in the kingdom by going to the cross. That made no sense to his followers, and the outspoken leader of his disciples, Simon Peter, begged him--in fact "beseeched him"--not to walk that road, a path that seemed "unworthy" of a person wanting to be the Messiah, the deliverer of Israel (Mark 8:31-33; Matthew 16:21-28; Luke 9:22-27). Still, Jesus set his eyes on the cross, laying down his life in company with revolutionary criminals, those lestes, resistance fighters. But once more, the unexpected happened. Through dying, Jesus lived again, beating the odds makers, pulling off the most remarkable coup-d'etat in human history. Evil imagined its triumph over Jesus by killing him. Evil was wrong, because evil had it upside-down.

The ways of God are not the ways of humankind in an upside-down world. Consider the words of the prophet:
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:6-9).
In Kingdom thinking, there is an "up", and it is God; there is "a down", and it is us. God's thoughts are high, while ours are low. But when the two are confused, and attempt to live counterpoised to each other, the result is an upside-down world that will need to be righted, will need to be upended once more. Jesus came for that express purpose, namely, to put the world to rights, to turn the upside-down world, upside-down. And his efforts were not in vain. Within a short time after his return to heaven, we read the stories of the early Christians "turning the world upside-down" (see the Acts passage above). That's what Kingdom revolutions do. That's what revolutions in general do: they cause things to "revolve", "to turn". Revolutions are needed because the tilt of human life is inverted, and human values disoriented, like the tourists in Daniel Czapiewski's house.

In his wonderfully written book, The Upside-Down Kingdom, Donald Kraybill writes:
Jesus was a revolutionary in violating Sabbath laws, criticizing the greedy, eating with sinners, and provoking the Pharisees. His message of the kingdom threatened the power of vested interest groups. The Romans considered him a threat to their false political tranquility. The right-wing Sadducees hated his condemnation of their lucrative temple operation. Progressive Pharisees decried his disrespect for their laws of ritual purity. And the freedom fighters couldn't stand his talk about suffering. The temptation to use violence was difficult to shove aside. But to endorse violence would have negated his entire platform of suffering love.

Jesus was revolutionary when he attacked the root of the problem--the evil which often laces human intentions and institutions. He called for repentance. He pled for love. He announced that only God should be worshipped. He admitted before Pilate that indeed he was Lord of this new kingdom. But his upside-down revolution replaced force with suffering and violence with love.

Jesus did threaten the status quo. He rocked the cozy boats of Sadducees, Pharisees, Romans and rebels alike. In some ways he looked like other insurrectionists of his day. But his revolution was upside-down. It touted acts of compassion, not daggers. Love was the new Torah, the standard of his upside-down kingdom. [pp.54-44].

Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, had become accustomed to having Yahweh, the God of Israel, radically alter the course of its life. In two distinct passages we read:
See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant (Jeremiah 1:10)

27 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," declares the LORD (Jeremiah 31:27-28).
Now that's revolution! The same God who tears down, also builds up; the same Lord who uproots, also plants.

It was the same with Jesus. He came as the upside-down Messiah, revealing nothing of what people expected, but uprooting all of their popular expectations, and tearing down their falsely pinned hopes on a violent overthrow of Roman rule. But Jesus also had no use for "right-side-up" religion, and even ridiculed the sort of religion practiced by Second Temple Judaism, calling the Temple itself a "den of brigands" (Mark 11:17; Matthew 21:13; Luke 19:46). Yet, he affirmed the Torah, sending cured lepers to see a priest as Moses required, and he instructed Peter to pay the temple tax. But Jesus could not countenance dead-letter interpretations of Torah, and often denounced the structures of the religious elite. He talked about himself in ways people normally talked about the Temple, calling people to come to him for the things they would have gone to the Temple to receive. No longer, he told the woman at Samaria's well, would people sanctify physical space, such as Jerusalem or Gerazim, and call them places of worship (see John 4). Worship would have little to do with ornate buildings or convoluted ritual, for, Jesus said, "Someone greater than the Temple stands here!" (Matthew 12:6). Worship must be "in Spirit and truth" instead.

Life was about sacrifice, proclaimed Jesus, not about "burnt offerings". In place of ritual, he erected love for God and neighbor. He had no place for gaudy shows, but often required his followers to keep the notion of his Messiahship "a secret", not wanting all the wrong political connotations to contaminate it. He loved the riddle, the parable, the puzzling and seemingly paradoxical saying. He didn't toot his own horn or wave a magical wand, often refusing to perform miracles when people demanded he do so. Lost people attracted his compassion, sinners his forgiveness, outcasts his acceptance, and enemies his love. Once again, Kraybill hits the nail on the head:

The new heroes were the castaways of institutional religion. They were repentant sinners, publicans, confessing tax collectors, and harlots. And what of the old heroes--scribes, priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees--the guardians of sacred ritual? They now were dethroned, brought low, and told to become like children. No wonder his message annoyed them. No wonder they killed him. [p.70]

To paraphrase a few chapter titles from Kraybill's book, Jesus offered bread people in the wilderness, freedom for slaves, luxury to the poor, right-side-up detours to the lost. He spoke of impious piety, lovable enemies, inside outsiders in a world where low is high and failure is success. Jesus was not simply trying to tell people how to succeed or how to be happy. His kingdom message proclaimed the establishment of a community created by Yahweh, under a covenant renewal enacted by Jesus. The main text of his kingdom program is found in the so-called "Sermon on the Mount" (according to Matthew 5-7), or "Sermon on the Plain" (according to Luke 6:17-49), an interesting contrast in itself! Throughout this provocative instruction, Jesus formulates what is required by God if Israel is to become God's restored kingdom people once again. His words do not set forth some ritualized way for a person to "get saved", but instead they are invitations for Israel to truly be God's people. Kingdom work is community building work. Most of what Jesus says calls us to live together in righteous ways under the rule of God. But such a vocation flies in the face of conventional values. It sounds like an upside-down agenda in an upside-down world. And Jesus intended it to be just that.

Like the words of the prophets we have cited above, Jesus' words call on us to "overturn", "uproot", "tear down", before they invite us to "build up" and "plant". When Jesus speaks, we shudder. When Jesus preaches, we cringe. We cannot help but be disturbed by him. He challenges our most cherished beliefs about how the world should be put together, and how it should be ruled. To the Western mind, he gives no comfort, for he rejects the foundations of an economy built on greed and selfishness, and the reigns of power tethered to coercion, might and fear. To the Eastern ear, he refuses the course of personal violence and retaliation, and unmasks the deception of state terrorism and injustice. In a world marked by gross inequities, where 90% of the Jewish population lived as peasant farmers, and 10% as ruling elite and their retainers, his words about wealth and poverty, power and slavery, had a ready audience in his own time. They still do. Third world countries, strapped by overwhelming debt and exploited by multi-national corporations, cannot help but synchronize with Jesus' kingdom message. And if the community of Jesus would allow themselves to hear his message truly, they would surely rise up and call for a year of Jubilee and the cancellation of debt as Yahweh's Torah required in sabbatical years. Such is the message of the upside-down Messiah.

Among the most violent enemies of the Jesus' community was the right-wing Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. In the Jesus message he instantly saw a real threat to his own agenda. The thought of "low-lives" being brought into the fellowship of Israel turned his stomach. His anger turned to zeal, and zeal to murder, as Saul dragged the Jesus followers into court and threatened them with death. On the road to the Syrian capital of Damascus, Saul's life encountered its own revolution. He lost more than his sight that day. He fell off more than his horse. Struck blind by the blazing light from heaven, and blistered by the words of the risen Jesus, Saul's life was turned upside-down. And before many years past, he did an odd thing. He began using his Roman name, Paul, given him by his father, a Roman citizen. He did so because Yahweh was calling him to yet more unexpected things: to bring the kingdom message of Israel to, of all people, the Gentiles, the goyim, the unclean and uncircumcised multitudes of the Roman Empire. Nothing could have been more out of character for him.

Writing about his new perspective some years later, Paul penned these "upside-down" words, in a lengthy passage from his first letter to the Corinthians:
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-- and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).
Perhaps we should simply allow Paul's words to sink in without further comment. They express, in his own way, what we mean when we say that God calls us to live "the upside-down life in an upside-down world". And they offer us a fitting introduction to this three-part series. For Paul, center of the upside-down life lies within the cross, the central paradox of the Christian faith. Although the symbol of the cross has come to represent God's gracious offer of salvation, it once meant nothing less than the execution instrument of criminals against Rome. How did that transformation of meaning take place? Paul's words above supply the answer. And as we explore three aspects of this paradox in the weeks ahead, perhaps the power of this transformation will become even clearer to us.

☼

This Week's Topic: Gaining through Giving Up
Our Scripture this week, taken from Matthew 6:19-34, appears in the middle of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount". To his Jewish audience, the symbolism of Jesus ascending a hillside and then making the sort of statements he made in Matthew 5-7, must have been powerful indeed. People had become accustomed to hearing about would-be messiahs taking their followers up into the hills where they would plan raids against the Romans or against their Jewish retainers within the court of Herod. But they also remembered their history. Was it not on a mountain that Yahweh had originally delivered the Torah to Israel? And was not Torah the foundation of Jewish belief and practice? It was, in fact, the written form of the covenant which Yahweh had made with his people, transforming them into a nation. as they gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. Therefore, when Jesus takes his place on the "mount", and starts to speak, those gathered would have gotten the idea that he was up to something quite important, and, perhaps, quite subversive. Through his "Sermon", Jesus would remind his audience, "I have come to fulfill Torah and the Prophets, not destroy them (Matthew 5:17). He would accomplish this by "filling full" what had already been given, but needed "renewing", in fresh ways, for Israel.
1. "Blessed are..." he began each hopeful line, offering hope to the "poor, the mournful, the meek, the hungry" and the like (5:1-12).
2. Israel was, in his words, to be the "light of the world" and "the salt of the earth" (5:13-16). The vocation to which Jesus called Israel was not only for itself, but for the world.
3. Then, with precise detail, laced with powerful figures of speech and provocative similes, Jesus fills in the practical instructions for living in "the kingdom of God". In previous Background Notes (see "Greatest Hero" in the Real Heroes series, August 18/19, 2007) we presented a comprehensive list of what Jesus taught the people:
a. Manage anger and forswear hatred
b. Control your lust
c. Preserve marriage
d. Don't make hasty promises
e. Reject retaliation against your enemies (even if they are Romans!)
f. Love your enemies instead
g. Give to the poor
h. Pray meaningfully to God as your Father ("Abba")
i. Don't make self-righteous displays of disciplines like fasting
j. Make God your true treasure
k. See the future through God's eyes not your anxious ones
l. Stop judging others
m. See God as responsive to your requests
n. Live the unique life of treating others as you wish to be treated
o. True prophets live fruitful lives; false ones do not
p. Following Jesus means more than saying a few words (such as "Lord")
q. Kingdom life is about building on "a rock", not on the sifting sands
4. The seriousness of his words and the symbolic setting in which they were placed lead some scholars to see this whole event (Matthew 5-7) as a covenant renewal event. What does that mean? Throughout Israel's history, when the nation had significant drifted off course, Yahweh would send his prophets to call the people back in wholehearted faithfulness to Himself. The words of Torah would be read, often with special explanations of their meaning, and the people were given renewed encouragement to live the righteous life. This usually meant a significant "overturning" of old ways of living into which they had fallen. It meant an "upside-down" correction of failures and sins which required repentance (that is, a change of mind and heart). A good example of such renewals is the entire book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. Likewise, Jesus, on this occasion recorded by Matthew, calls the people to start living the life of the kingdom once again. But to do so would be, for many, an "upside-down" transformation.
5. Jesus was inaugurating a "kingdom revolution"--an overturning of the way things had been, and their replacement by a fresh reading of Torah and its application to people's lives. When he was finished, the people were left breathless, and Matthew records their response: "And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes" (7:28-29). When they heard him speak, it was as if they heard the voice of God Himself, for that is the implication of the word "authority" used here. When Jesus spoke, God spoke and was turning their world upside-down.

Our text, Matthew 6:19-34, belongs to this covenant renewal narration. The main theme is material things and how the children of the kingdom should view them. The commentators usually see two main divisions within this passage, outlined as:
Storing Treasures (6:19-24)
Worrying about Necessities (6:25-34)

To be sure, both sections address the problem of wealth, but from rather different perspectives. We'd like to make that distinction from the outset. In the first section, 6:19-24, Jesus teaches the proper attitude to "storing up", that is, to saving, investing, and protecting wealth. But in the second section, 6:25-34, his focus shifts to the necessities of day-to-day existence: what to wear, what to eat, what to drink. Jesus likely had a two-fold audience in view. On the one hand, there were those who had sufficient success with material things which allowed them to "store up" and "accumulate" the excess beyond what was required for daily existence. Such persons could easily be called "the rich". But most people in Jesus' time did not have the luxury to "store up". Their existence was always "on the edge", having sufficient resources to meet the daily obligations, perhaps, but nothing left over to "save". These were "the poor", and they made up some 90% of Jewish society, while the rich and their retainers made up the rest.

Prevailing Economic Conditions
To put this economic situation in sharper focus, consider the analysis offered by Marcus Borg, New Testament scholar:
Many Jewish farmers were still small landholders, producing primarily grain, vegetables, fruits, wine, oil and dates, as well as sheep, cattle, and goats. As did most farmers in the ancient world, they produced everything (and little more) for their own use; a small portion would be sold or battered for absolute necessities, and there was little opportunity for saving. One or two years of bad crops could easily result in the loss of the farm, with the farmer then becoming a "hireling" or worse. [Borg, Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teaching of Jesus, p.47, emphasis mine].

But the economic pressures on Jewish life were intensified by the extraction of the "tithes". Borg continues:
Jewish agriculture was tied to the sabbatical cycle; in every seventh year, the land was to be left fallow. During the other six years, the tithes referred to in various portions of the written Torah combined as follows:
1. Every year, the "wave offering" or "first fruits" offering; the exact amount was not specified, but ranged from 1 percent to 3 percent of the produce.
2. Every year, the first tithe of 10 percent, to be given to the priests or Levites for the support of the theocracy.
3. In the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the cycle, a "second tithe," also of 10 percent.
4. In the third and sixth years, the "poor man's tithe" of 10 percent.
There were other taxes as well, such as the annual Temple tax of a half shekel (about one day's wages), but these were relatively minor. The amount of taxation on agricultural produce, required by the Torah, was slightly over 20 percent.

To this system of taxation, the Romans added their own: crop and land taxes, a poll tax (the famous "tribute" tax), customs, and tolls. Many of these could be exorbitant, especially customs and tolls; though certainty about exact percentage is impossible, the figure of 25 percent has been cited; moreover, since they were added each time a product crossed an administrative boundary, they accumulated. The famous poll tax was comparatively modest. Levied on everybody except children and old people, it amounted to about one day's wages. Though all of these taxes affected the farmer directly or indirectly, the land and crop taxes had the greatest impact. The former was 1 percent of the value of the land; the latter we 12.5 percent of the produce.

Thus Jews in Palestine were subject to two systems of taxation, both of which they were powerful to affect. The one was dictated by Roman policy, over which they had no control, and the second was required by divine revelation. For the small landowner who farmed his own land, the burden was extraordinary: in addition to his need to save for the sabbatical year, the double system demanded from 35 to 40 percent of his produce, perhaps even more.

The impact of the economic crunch was severe, producing signs of social disintegration, such as widespread emigration, a growing number of landless "hirelings", and a social class of robbers and beggars. Moreover, the double obligation faced the population with an economic dilemma which was at the same time a test of religious loyalty. In addition to paying the Roman taxes, enforced by Roman police power, should one, could one, also pay the taxes required by Torah? Many could survive only by being nonobservant. The price paid for nonobservance was social and religious ostracism by those who sought to be faithful. Under Roman rule, such ostracism was the only form of Jewish sanction left, and a large social class was born, known as "the people of the land," the amme ha aretz. Hence the double system of taxation, in addition to causing economic hardship and political resentment, also accelerated the tendency toward assimilation and loss of Jewish identity, not because of the attractiveness of Hellenistic (Greek) culture, but because of economic exigency [Borg, pp.47-49, emphasis mine].

We include this background material to show the severity of Israel's economic condition at the time of Jesus. These circumstances were a hotbed of revolutionary irritation. Resistance fighters, dubbed the lestai (bandits or brigands) continued to espouse the use of violence to free true Jews from their foreign masters and Jewish retainers. From the brief summary of taxation given above, the reader can see why. Every time Rome talked about a census for taxation, yet one more seed for revolt was planted. And Jesus was aware of the hardships as well.
In announcing the coming kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 4:17), Jesus called for a complete change of heart about all things, including material possessions. The times required it, and Yahweh, most of all, desired it.

Storing Treasure
Our text opens with the words "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth" (6:19). Matthew uses the Greek word for "treasure" in both its verb and noun forms: literally, "do not treasure (me thesaurizete) to yourselves treasures (thesaurous)." The English reader recognizes the word "thesaurus" embedded in the Greek root: "a resource for words and their synonyms". The Greek scholar, Hauck, points out the following connotations for thesaurus and its derivatives, especially in classical Greek usage:
What is deposited.
Store of what is valuable.
Treasure.
The place where a thing is stored.
Treasure chamber, chest or house, including the state warehouse, temple treasury, or temple storehouse for offerings in kind.
Payments into the thesauros are temple offerings, sacrificial and guilt offerings, or thanks offerings.
The erection of a thesauros in the temple seems to have spread to Greece from Egypt.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint (abbreviated, LXX), commonly translates the Hebrew word 'otzar into this word.
The Old Testament uses this idea for material treasures (see Joshua 6:19, 24), including the ones found in Yahweh's temple (see 1 Kings 7:51; 14:26; 15:18).
The Wisdom Writer warns about trusting in material treasures (Proverbs 10:2).
Wisdom and the fear of God are treasures in Isaiah 33:6, and He also dispenses the elements of nature from his heavenly storehouses (Jeremiah 51:16, Job 38:22).
Later Jewish thought (outside the Old and New Testaments) taught that the good works of the righteous, such as almsgiving, are a thesauros which is laid up with God in heaven. Interest on this "treasure" may accrue to man in this life in the form of happy results, while the capital remains in heaven until the day of judgment when it will be paid back (see Tobit 4:8, 4 Esdras 6:5 where the phrase "to lay up treasures of faith" is used; 7:7). From the Targums we read "My fathers have laid up treasures for below, I have laid up treasures for above…My fathers have laid up treasures which pay no interest, I have laid up treasures which pay interest" (Strack and Billerbeck, Commentary on the New Testament, Talmud and Midrash, I, 430). A Jewish commentary on Deuteronomy affirmed: "All that Israel lays up in the form of fulfillments of Torah and good works, it lays up for its Father in heaven" (Ibid, 431).
Eternal life itself is called a thesauros. In Jewish thought the seventh heaven is the place where the souls of those who are not yet born reside. During the lifetime of man these are in the hand of the Creator (Job 12:10). At death they mount up to heaven. The souls of the righteous go into a treasure house (Hebrew: 'otzar) of life and are preserved by God, being bound in the bundle (Greek: desmos) of the living (1 Samuel 25:29), while the ungodly are rejected.

In the New Testament, some of these meanings are taken up and others expanded:
The word is used for actual "treasure" (Matthew 13:44; Hebrews 11:26).
But also refers to the inner store in the heart of man (Matthew 12:35).
The New Testament places it in contexts where there is a contrast between heavenly and earthly treasure. Jesus picks up the Jewish thought that we should not hoard earthly and material things, but that we should do good actions by which the righteous lay up treasure in heaven (the present text, Mark 10:21 and Luke 12:33).
However, for the Christ follower, this treasure does not store up merit with God, to later be paid back.
Paul writes about treasures of wisdom and knowledge found in Christ (Colossians 2:3) and contrasts them with human wisdom (2:4, 8). The glory of the new life in Christ is called a treasure contained in clay pots (2 Corinthians 4:7) which are frail and rough.

The teachings of Jesus address the problem of "treasures" and give guidance on their proper importance in the kingdom of God:
Jesus repudiates the laying up of earthly goods, and instead, urges the pursuit of loving actions and obedience to God in light of the coming day of judgment.
To heap up earthly goods is to express a this-worldly and selfish attitude in contradiction to God (Luke 12:21; James 5:3).
At times earthly goods have to be given up (Matthew 6:19-21).
Paul sees the setting aside of monetary offerings out of love as a true treasure (2 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Corinthians 16:2).
By contrast, Paul sees the unrepentant as laying up treasure for the coming day of wrath (Romans 2:5), as does Peter (2 Peter 3:7).

Keeping these insights in mind, we hear Jesus telling his audience about the perils of relying on earthly storehouses. He, like his Jewish forebears, contrasted "heavenly" with "earthly" treasures, noting that the earthly ones will one day fail through moth, rust and theft. Earthly storehouses cannot be trusted. They are not secure against destruction and loss. Ironically, the reason people "store up" is to preserve against the coming day of famine, war, or depression. Jesus warns that, in kingdom terms, that thinking is upside-down. No earthly storehouse is that secure. Even the one found in the sacred precincts of the Temple would one day succumb to the invading armies of Rome, who would strip the gold from Herod's temple and carry off the sacred treasures to Rome where they would be used to build the Coliseum. Titus' arch of triumph engraved that scene in stone.

But the loss of material thesauros is the least of our worries. Jesus reminds the listener that "where your thesauros is, there is also your heart (Greek: kardia). To ask the question "where is your treasure?" is the same thing as asking, "where is your heart?" We draw some thoughts from an earlier series Punching In, "Treasure", November 17/18, 2007):
The "heart", in Jewish understanding, was the center of one's thought and choice. Not referring to the physical heart, the term however is a metaphor expressing the true "pulse" of human life. To summarize:
The heart (Greek: kardia; Hebrew: leb) consists of four elements: emotion (John 14: 1, Matthew 5: 28), will or volition (Exodus 35: 5), the intellect (John 12: 40, Romans 1: 21), and the conscience (Acts 2: 37). Each is essential. Man is to "obey from the heart …" (Romans 6: 17). Obedience from the heart involves will and emotion and to obey requires the intellect to understand and determine. [Note: the world of Jesus' time did not think the "brain" was very important as an organ of thought or feeling. Instead, the "head" was viewed as a "source" of life for the body in some unknown way. The heart functioned as we now know the brain does. The Bible simply follows common usage so as to be understood by its readers.]
When Jesus connects heart and treasure, he implies that what influences our pursuit of possessions, ultimately reveals the true intentions of our inward life. Show me your "treasures", and I will tell you what you really want out of life. This is no small claim. It lays bare our motivations, as well as our ambitions. Possessions are outward and quite visible expressions of our life project. They become symbols easily used to define us. If I have possession x, it may well be a status marker. And the amount of energy I consume in acquiring and keeping it, can only be drawn from the "nerve center" of my life, namely, my heart. Such preoccupations have my attention and my commitment. The real question is are they worth it? Jesus says, "No," for they cannot be preserved, since they are vulnerable to destruction from all sides.

Considering the disproportionate distribution of wealth in Jewish society at that time, the command not to store up ran against the cultural norms of the ruling elite and their retainers. For them, the thesauros truly defined them and was the mark of their success. But the idea of "storing up" was remote for the 90% who barely met their daily necessities. For them, there was, to use Borg's words, "little to save", in material terms. And Jesus knew this as well. It would be tempting for the have-nots to envy those who were able to "store up". What Jesus tells them in this passage is to consider the deeper treasure, namely, the values found in the human heart. Whereas in their eyes, the world was badly upside-down, and they were not dealt into the financial game at all, in God's eyes things looked quite different. Though poor in human terms, they were capable of far greater wealth in God's heavenly kingdom.

To reinforce his argument, Jesus borrows a well-known analogy and common saying. His focus is on "the eye" where light enters into the body, as well as all of the images light has captured from the world outside. What we see with our eyes, floods our bodies with desire. And that can yield either a good result or a bad one. Jewish writers used two expressions to describe this:
If you had a "good eye" (Hebrew: 'ayin tobah), it meant you were "generous".
If you had a "bad eye" (Hebrew: 'ayin ra'ah), it meant you were "stingy".
Jesus, in effect, quotes that proverb in what he says here. Of special interest to us is the connection of the "eye" to the corrosive sin of "covetousness". Recall the commandment: "Do no covet" (Exodus 20:17). This sin begins with the "eye" and spawns desire in the heart. 1 John 2:15-17 elaborates:
5 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:15-17)
As with Jesus' instructions in Matthew 6:19-21, the stress is on the "lust of the eyes" which kindles an all-encompassing desire that one day will "pass away". But, by contrast, doing God's will, as with laying up of treasures in heaven, leads to everlasting life. Even Paul picks up this idea when, in Romans 7, he provides his rendition of how covetousness is, in the end, the root of sin's desires: "But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire" (Romans 7:8).

From Jesus' perspective, a false understanding of treasures damages the heart, as well as the body, since he mentions both human dimensions in Matthew 6:19-23. And, of the body, he warns, that the darkness brought by a covetous eye is the darkest of darkness! (Greek: to skotos poson) Once afflicted by the greed of hoarding material things on earth, the whole of human life is changed. Whereas, the heavenly things of God should matter most, under the influence of covetous greed, they matter least. In effect, the world of spiritual value is turned upside-down. Although heaven is more secure than earth, the hoarder of treasures imagines just the opposite.

Then, to cinch his argument about "storing up", Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter. Beyond the simple questions of what we store-up and what consumes our lives, is the larger issue of "who is our master". Of course, for the top 10% of the Jewish population, they were their own masters, owner of their estates, and of their workers. To the 90% of the dependent peasant farmers, they wanted to be the masters of all they had. But Jesus places both groups on notice: "You cannot serve two masters (oudeis dunatai dusoi kuriois doulein)", literally, "You are not able to serve two masters." Matthew uses the word kurios to translate Jesus' Aramaic word for "master". This is the word "lord" used frequently throughout the New Testament (as in Lord Jesus Christ). Kurios implies absolute lordship without equal and without competition. Caesar was called kurios. Jesus tells his audience that they must choose: God (theos) or Money (mamon). This later word is actually a transliteration of the name of the Syria god of riches, a pagan deity. "Riches" will have become your god if you try to serve them by "storing up" for them.
Jesus may well be using a double entendre here. Even as the Temple had its thesauros where the tithes were securely stored, so, implies Jesus, individuals, and even whole nations, may erect treasure stores within the temples of the hearts and bodies. But these are not for the one true God, but for a pagan god of materialism; the god Mamon. Jesus' hearers would have been stunned by this accusation. How could he think they were like the pagans? Didn't they try to keep Torah and satisfy all of Yahweh's tithes? Still, Jesus rejoins, this is a matter of where your love lies. He uses the familiar Greek word agape, "love", in the first instance, and then parallels it with the word "to cleave or hold onto" in the second (Greek: antecho). Love, devotion--these are the marks of "serving" God or money. Hate, contempt--these are the signs of refusal to serve. All of the words have emotional and volitional components in them. Our relationship to the "treasures" in our lives are never merely questions of intellect. They are absolutely matters of the heart. And it is from the heart that we offer obedience to the one or the other.

For those who have "discretionary resources", the temptation to store-up is significant. As Borg reminded us in his analysis of economic life in the first century, the power to tax was significant for both the Roman and Jewish ruling classes. In their minds, the ability to "lay up treasures" was the ultimate security. But in the upside-down kingdom of Jesus it was the ultimate insecurity. The damage is done, not to wealth itself, but to the heart of its possessor. And so the rich are at peril, precisely through their riches. To them Jesus declares, "Choose your master".

Worrying about Necessities
But what about the rest of the population? Distressed economically and taxed exorbitantly, their constant companion was "worry" about psuche, "human life in all its dimensions". Using the word merimnao, Matthew draws out the meaning of "worry": to care for, be anxious about, think earnestly upon, scan minutely. The ancient Greeks even had a word for "the mother of worries" (merimno-tokos)! The peasant farmer lived on the margins of human existence. To him, worry came naturally and focused on the necessities of life, as Jesus plainly concedes in his list: "eat, drink, wear". Ordinary folks need these things, and Jesus does not intend to minimize that need. What he does intend to do is counsel against the "worry" such needs provoke. He would be the first to challenge the exploitation of the poor by the rich (see James 5 for a further indictment of this inequity by Jesus' half-brother).

But the spiritual peril of the less fortunate is different from the rich. The rich stand in danger of losing everything they possess, and losing their souls as well. The poor stand in danger of losing faith in their heavenly Father who takes care of them. When a person's economic life hangs in the balance, the whole world looks different. Indeed, the whole world seems to be falling down all around--upside-down. The poor wants to be where the rich now lives, but more importantly, the poor somehow sees the situation as hopeless. "You have", Jesus tells them, "a real opportunity to strip the mask off the wealthy, and show them to be pagans after all!" (Matthew 6:31). Jesus teaches a foundational creation ethic to the poor. "This is my Father's world", he is saying in effect. "The birds of the air, the lilies of the field are also God's children. But they lack conscious thought and so are incapable of worry, yet they lack nothing. The Father feeds them, the Father clothes them. So what does that mean for you, the poor, who are in constant vigilance about eating, drinking and clothing?"

Enormous energy is consumed by the poor in maintaining life. Jesus accepts that premise. He does not deny the needs. What he wants to do is relieve the poor of worry, the daily preoccupation with tomorrow's necessities. How does he accomplish this without seeming heartless and passive?
The person in need is important to God (6:26). The need does not define the poor. On the contrary, "Are you not more valuable" than the birds of the air? Jesus asks. The word commonly translated "valuable or important" is the Greek word diaphero having the basic meaning "to carry over or across", and so, metaphorically, "to surpass, excel, be better". In arriving at this latter meaning, we need to take into consideration the notion of "being different". It is as if Jesus is saying to the person, living at subsistence, worrying about where his next meal is coming from, "Are you not, in the eyes of your heavenly Father, radically different from the birds of the air?" And so, the reason why the person in need is important to God is because God is their Father, the Creator of all things, but especially the personal Father of the one in need.
Worry cannot add an hour to one's life (6:27). Jesus sets aside the usefulness of worry by citing its overwhelming failure to accomplish anything. Desperate worry leads to desperate actions. Second Temple Judaism had already discovered that. Living on the margins, men are driven to violent actions, and the rudiments of the Zealot movement had already, more than once, gone into action with deadly results. Worried about Roman encroachment of Jewish liberties, Judas the Galilean struck a blow for the resistance movement, only to meet a crushing defeat and the death of three thousand on Roman crosses. Not only does worry not add an hour to one's life, it can shorten life noticeably!
Don't let your needs turn you into a pagan. "For the pagans run after all these things:" (6:32). Once again, Jesus turns the tables on prevailing belief, that is, he turns it upside-down. "Run after" (from the Greek: epizeteo, "to seek, wish for, miss") has a "hunting-for-game" connotation. But, as the word suggests, the pursuit may well be lengthened when the "game" is not easily found. "Chase after" might also capture the essence of the meaning here. "Ironic", Jesus seems to be implying, "that as the children of the heavenly Father you should live like pagans when it comes to food, drink and clothing. These are the most basic of human necessities, yet you live like pagans in trying to secure them. You act as if your Father doesn't know that you need every one of these things (Greek: hapanton, a variation of pas, meaning "all").Why would someone not know this? How could a Jewish person, blessed with a rich history of covenant promises, come to the place where he no longer trusted Yahweh for the basic necessities of life? Why must Jesus teach them such a basic truth? Once again, we need to consider the circumstances of first century life in Israel, and the constant sense that the exile has not ended, that Israel still lives under the continuing judgment of Yahweh for its sins. Poor people can falsely believe that they are victims, and that their condition has no remedy. Jesus underscores this when he says, "O you of little faith" (6:30). We should not see callousness in those words. Believing under such harsh economic conditions is not easy. But then again, ancient Israel in Egypt, or in Babylonian exile, or under Roman occupation faced similar challenges to faith. It's easy to slip into paganism under such pressures of life. Israel had done it before, and risked doing so again.
Embrace the Kingdom message and its way of life, and you will discover afresh that God will be faithful to you through His covenant blessings.
"Seek first God's kingdom". Recall that the word "kingdom", as used by Jesus, refers to the active rule or reign of God. Jesus has already announced that God is becoming King once again, and He calls on His subjects to recommit themselves to His will and purpose. We have noted that the larger "Sermon on the Mount" message belongs to a covenant renewal context. With the arrival of Jesus, God's Son and Heir, the business of the kingdom is taking a leap forward. But the harsh reality of economic life could easily sidetrack God's people from this new development. Chasing after basic necessities or storing up wealth for the future are actions of those who don't really believe God's kingdom has arrived with fresh vigor and power. That is why Jesus enjoins his audience to "seek first" the kingdom. Yet, that sounds like upside-down thinking to those for whom life's needs are uppermost in their minds. "How can we devote ourselves to this coming kingdom if we can't be sure about foot, drink and clothing?" people might well be asking. To which Jesus lays down his challenge and then offers his promise.
"and His righteousness" (dikaiosune). Early in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made three unvarnished declarations about "righteousness": Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10).For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).This "righteousness" is God's activity in ruling His world through His Word, whereby he makes known His will and purposes for human beings, and seeks to bring them into line with those purposes. Throughout the Sermon, Jesus has been setting forth that "will", reminding the people of Israel what the Lord requires of them. To "seek…righteousness" means to pursue what God wants, and to embrace His purposes for the world, while laying aside our own agendas. In this teaching, we hear echoes of the prophet Micah:He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).The instruction Jesus gives in Matthew 6:19-34 comes down to this finely focused requirement to seek the kingdom purposes of God above all other purposes. And while this might not make sense in a world where people face intense economic need, yet, in God's upside-down kingdom, people gain by giving up. In this case, they give up the wanton pursuit of material things in deference to the higher intentions of the God who, through His Son, is bringing righteous rule into the world. In Jesus, God has come to put the world to rights, and through the preaching of Jesus He calls on covetous and worried Israel to lay aside its own agendas and take up His.
"and all these things will be added to you" (tauta panta prostethesetai humin). Matthew employs the passive voice of the verb "to add", making it clear that the Christ-followers are not the agents of their material well-being: God is. This is a hard saying, but wholly consistent with the covenant model of the Old Testament. It has always been God's pattern to seek obedience and then to offer blessing. Among the most powerful texts from the Hebrew Bible is this one:15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).When Jesus calls on the people of his day to "seek the kingdom", he is, in effect, telling them what Yahweh had already told Moses during the great covenant renewal ceremony recorded in Deuteronomy: "love Yahweh your God, walk in his way, keep his commands, decrees and laws". If they obeyed, "then you will live and increase and Yahweh your God will bless you…"
The "benefit" offered by Jesus in response to obedient faith is not the work of "storing up" or the consequence of "worrying about tomorrow". Rather, the "gain" comes from "giving up" control of the entire economic process, and surrendering it to God. God's coming kingdom offers the promise of covenant blessings on those who will devote themselves to His purposes as Jesus has instructed. Somehow, during the years since the exile, Israel had lost its sense of this larger "rule of God". Perhaps the silence of the prophets and certainly the Roman occupation have robbed Israel of its confidence in the presence and activity of God in their midst. Now with the coming of Jesus also arrives a new hope, but one that is found, not in the cleverness of human plans, but in seeking God's kingdom and His righteous rule in the world.
The shadows of tomorrow cannot destroy the blessings God gives forever. The language of "moth, rust, and thieves" was used earlier by Jesus to warn about the temporal and fleeting nature of material treasures. Contrary to every attempt to keep our "gains" safe, this three-fold enemy will, at a moment's notice, invades the storehouse and makes off with what we thought was secure. To this list of "thieves" Jesus now adds "time". Of course, the fuel for worry is preoccupation with the future. In a sense, time becomes its own "treasure". For the person who invests, time ought to be a friendly partner. For the needy soul, caught in the vicious cycle of poverty and want, time is a hateful enemy, bringing worry and care in its retinue. But, Jesus counsels, in Matthew 6:34, "… do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". What is his point?"Tomorrow" is personified in this verse, and becomes its own "worrier". In effect, Jesus lifts the anxiety of worry from the hearts of "kingdom people", and places it back on "tomorrow". Time is not king, Jesus is telling his audience, but God is. Time rules time, but it cannot rule us. Tomorrow has its "realm", but it is not supreme over all. Between today and tomorrow there exists no iron-clad law by which tomorrow rules today, or today rules tomorrow. All of time is ruled by the same kingdom which Jesus asks us to "seek". Such ways of "kingdom thinking" radically "overturn" how we ordinarily look at time and its power over us. Philosophers write about "the inevitable and merciless march of time" over which no one has control, and human beings are invariably caught within its tyrannical rule. To such fatalistic perspectives Jesus addresses this simple proverb: tomorrow only rules tomorrow and has no power over today. Each day must take its stand before the Lord of all time, and the evil each day might do must, in the end, submit to the righteous rule of God's everlasting kingdom.

Placing Gain and Loss in Perspective: Upside-Down Thinking
In light of Jesus' teaching, the words "gain" and "loss" acquire new meanings. It is not tomorrow which promises either gain or loss, but God instead, who "adds all things these". Our value in His eyes does not depend on the return-on-investment (ROI) which time affords. We are of "much more value" than that, Jesus reminds us. Gain and loss acquire importance only in the context of eternity, not only in terms of today or tomorrow. James, the half-brother of Jesus, penned these words, supporting this point of view:

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).

"Upside-down thinking" is "kingdom of God thinking". Through this new vision of the world, we see all our possessions in a different light. Humanly speaking, we propose our own projects, and cast our own business plans. We gamble on the business cycle, and exact a promise from the future. We become much like the man of whom Jesus spoke in Luke. Having had a run of "good luck" with his crops, the farmer began "feeling his oats" in other ways:

17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' 20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:17-21).

Much like the text in James, this story shows a man who presumes on the future, and, in Jesus' words, "is not rich toward God", an expression implying that he does not rely on God for his "gain", but on himself instead. Both passages encourage a change in thinking about the future and its promise for "gain". True repentance requires us to exchange "I will"-thinking for "God's will"-thinking. Once confronted with James' sobering question, "What is your life?" and God's frank assessment of the successful farmer, "You fool!", we are driven to reassess the things that matter for the long-term. Upside-down thinking tells us "let go" and "give away", not because we are encouraged to become careless, but because we are being called into a kingdom where God rules over all. Glory to God! Amen.
Digger Deeper: Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up
(Bob Brown)

To gain a deeper understanding of Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up, carefully read the selected passages below. To aid you in your study, we invite you to visit the website http://notes.chicagofirstnaz.org, or pick up a copy of the notes at the Connect desk, or from your ABF leader. Now consider the following questions, as you ask the Lord to teach you.

Special Note: The Background Notes are especially useful in working through some of these questions. You are encouraged to secure a copy as you begin.

1. God looks at things differently than we do. Read the following passages, and comment on the differences: Luke 1:49-53, Isaiah 29:16, 2 Kings 21:13, Isaiah 55:6-9, and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.
2. According to the following Scriptures, what must God do to this world to make it right? Isaiah 40:3-5, Jeremiah 1:10, 31:27-28.
3. What did Jesus do in the Temple, according to Mark 11:12-17? What do his actions and his words tells us about how he viewed Israel's religious life?
4. Our key passage, Matthew 6:19-34, belongs to a larger speech given by Jesus. What is this speech commonly called? Skimming Matthew 5-7, what seem to be the "big themes" Jesus is emphasizing?
5. If we divide our key passage into 1) 6:19-24 and 2) 6:25-34, how would you label each section? List the main ideas stressed in each section.
6. Examining Matthew 6:19-24, what are the characteristics of a "treasure"? What are the biggest concerns people have about their "treasures"?
7. What reasons does Jesus give for not "storing up" treasures? Why does he contrast "heaven" and "earth"?
8. What connection does Jesus make between treasure and the "heart"?
9. Examining Matthew 6:25-34, what kinds of things do people "worry about", according to Jesus? What is it about those things that make us anxious? Are some people more prone to this anxiety than others? Be specific.
10. What arguments does Jesus use to minimize worry? List them, and explain why they are good reasons.
11. When Jesus compares worriers to "pagans", what does he mean? How would a first century Jew hear those words?
12. What all embracing principle does Jesus propose in 6:33? How does that principle summarizing everything he has been saying in Matthew 6:19-32? Try to explain the meaning of the following words found in this verse: Seek, Kingdom of God, Righteousness.
13. When Jesus says "and all these things will be added to you", is he laying down a hard and fast rule of economics, or is he promising covenant blessings from the Father?
14. Why do you suppose Jesus concludes this section with Matthew 6:34? If that verse were missing from the passage, how would it change the meaning? What does the expression "each day has enough trouble of its own" mean? What does it mean for "tomorrow to worry for itself"?
15. How does Jesus' perspective on material things help us to adjust our own perspectives? What one thing might you change because of Jesus' teaching here?