Matthew 6:24, “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 both God and…”
Fear.
Of course you know that Jesus actually says that we cannot serve both God and money. However, He starts verse 24 with the more general statement that no human being can serve “two masters.” I think the reasons that He narrows it down to “God and Money” (or “mammon” / possessions) is because 1) He’s been talking about heavenly vs/ earthly rewards since 5:46, and 2) because Money is one of the most common masters that humans tend to serve rather than God.
However—after we’ve considered and sat under the weight of what it means to serve Money rather than God—don’t think it would be unfaithful to Jesus’ teaching here to take out “money” and add in something else; anything else, really, because no matter what we put in that blank, Jesus’ teaching here will hold true.
This morning I put “Fear” in that blank.
Its all too easy for me to find myself (I should say, place myself) in the grip of Fear….to listen to its threats, to bow to its heart-freezing, vision-obscuring, joy-dissolving presence, to give it the “worship” of obedience in the form of inordinate worry and obsession and self-protection etc. etc….As I was praying this morning, it struck me just what a threat service to Fear is in my life. And so, this picture is a direct result of that time of prayer and of the reading of Matthew 6:24-34 that accompanied it.
Notice that Fear is pointing its servant away from Christ (and, therefore, away from truth….for the Christian, Fear’s threats must ultimately be lies), and that its hand is on his heart—freezing joy and vision and hope and fruitfulness.
See also that Fear’s head is pierced by the cross. WHATEVER Fear might threaten the Christian, its final victory cannot happen. Why? Because Christ bore the fullness of every fearful thing in Himself on the cross and overcame them by His resurrection. Fear’s threats may—in part—come to pass….but the promises it makes of endless bleakness, of final hopelessness, of wasted and ruined lives that end in sorrow and shame…..for the Christian who joins Christ in death and resurrection, these promises will never come true.
Notice that the risen Jesus holds his wounded hand open for the Christian to see. All comfort in the face of Fear is bound up in that hand….
The wound in that hand tells us that the worst this world can do has been fully borne by our Lord and our God; we cannot experience what our God has not experienced.
But the fact that it is the hand of the risen Christ tells us that the world is overcome, is defeated, and that JOY is the end of the song for those who hope in Him
And lastly, it is that hand—that hand wounded with our wounds and risen now in indomitable gladness—that hand is the one that authors our every day, our every moment…..whatever Fear threatens, it threatens only those things that our Lord and God and Master and Savior—who loves us with an everlasting love—has already authored for us…..and that is a comforting thought.
