Blind or not

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

BLIND OR NOT BLIND

Matt 23:16-22

16 "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

NIV

It would seem plain the teachers of the law and the Pharisees placed a great deal more value on the material things than the spiritual things. It was the temple which made the gold within it holy. The ark, table of showbread, candle holder, all the articles of gold were only holy because they were in the temple. But the teachers of the law and the Pharisees just saw the gold as something of value. The same held true of the altar. They looked at the gift of having value, because it was material substance. The gift could have been some animal or grain yet both have material value. Yet it was because they were on the altar they were made holy. Jesus told them that what was in the temple or on the altar was the same as the temple and altar, they could not separate them. In fact it was God who dwelled in the temple which should have made swearing by the temple the most sacred oath. It is the spiritual oath which is what has value, the only thing which has value. Here is where the rubber meets the road. What do we place value on? Are we conflicted in our choice of what has value? Certainly we would say that God has the highest value in our lives. We would want to think the Lord is the most important person in our lives. He has died for us so we might gain eternal life. Yet do we still place a certain amount of value on the material things in life? Do we want more gold? Do we look at the gold as being valuable and want our fair share of it? It does seem interesting that most of the conservative television and radio programs have many ads encouraging us to buy gold. It is the only way to secure our financial future in such an uncertain economy. Because they know their market, this is the reason they place their ads on conservative based programs. It may not be true that all Christians are conservatives politically, many are, but also most of them might well be fiscal conservatives. This would mean they have a great deal of value on the material, securing their financial future, storing up wealth for the later years of life. Is this not the reason Jesus was calling the teachers of the law and Pharisees blind guides? We have to get our eyes off the gold, off the gift and see who makes them holy. It is he who has the only value at all. We have been told we cannot serve two masters, God and money. So then why should we have any concern about the gold in the temple or the gift on the altar? This gift, although was a material substance could also represent to us our efforts, or good deeds. We might place too much value on how much we do at church, how many acts of service we do. What gift we bring, how much we put in the offering plate. None of that matters compared to the value we should have in our relationship, our spiritual relationship with God. Even then we could place too much value on the time of prayer we spend. We are looking at the time as value rather than God. Can we not see in all reality it has nothing to do with us? We, or anything we do, cannot make us holy. God and he alone is the reason we are holy. True, we must make that act of contrition, admitting we are sinners and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That is the only good act we can really do that has true value. When we make that profession, he makes us holy, he makes us sacred, he separates us onto himself. We make that profession, we swear on his name, we make that oath to follow Jesus. This and this alone is why we are sacred. Jesus has made the blind to see.