whole in the ground and bury their stuff in a field or a cave (this gives a whole
new meaning to rust and moths). When you bury your treasure it would be
susceptible to decay and often the problem was that people thought they
were well off until they went to dig up their treasure and realized it was nasty.
In Matthew 6 Jesus says, ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (vs 19-20). Now, Jesus said it,
but there is often a disconnect in how we view this today. Most of us in the
West view heaven as a place I go when I die. The problem with this is that this
is not what first century Jews like Jesus and Matthew though of as heaven
nor is it what the bible says.
COMMUNITY GROUP STUDY
WEEK 6: Jesus + Stuff
Matthew 67:19-24
INTRODUCTION
So… You get up each and every single day and you go to work. You use your
hands, your mind and intellect, all the training you received from that college
diploma. And, at the end of the week… you get paid.
It is funny because most of us get a little squirmy when the church talks about
money. We get pictures in our minds of the preacher on TV with the charismullet asking us to give to his ministry. It is easy to let it become awkward or
even worse something we neglect to talk about. The interesting thing is that
Jesus did not avoid this conversation. Outside of the central theme of Jesus
teaching, which was the kingdom of God, the thing that Jesus talked about
most was stewardship and resource. Jesus cares about what we do with our
stuff.
So, here’s the thing. We would all acknowledge that healthy families talk
about important stuff together. Yet, why in the church do we often neglect to
talk about things like sex and money? Our hope is that we would be a
community that would embrace the tough things that Jesus said and be
sharpened as people to live in a new way.
In the first century there were no banks or safety deposit boxes. Remember, it
was an agrarian society. So instead of banks people would often times dig a
To add to our confusion we also forget the context in which Matthew is
writing. Matthew’s gospel was primarily to devout, orthodox Jews. These
Jews were so devout that they held God’s name in such reverence that they
would not write it on paper. So, throughout his Gospel Matthew uses heaven
as a synonym for God. To Matthew, the kingdom of heaven was the kingdom
of God.
Now this changes things! It changes things because we know that the
kingdom of God is now and not yet. New creation is bursting forth
everywhere and we also live in the tension that Jesus will eventually bring his
kingdom to bare on every square inch of the planet. So when Jesus says,
“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” he is actually saying, “Lay up for
yourselves treasures in God.”
Quite simply, we are all confronted with the option. We can lay up for
ourselves treasures on earth now or we can lay up for ourselves treasures in
God now.
Jesus continues and says something quite odd. He says, ““The eye is the
lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness” (vs
22-23). The “eye” was a Hebrew euphemism for how one would handle their
money. In Jesus’s world if you had money and were generous you had a
“healthy” or “good” eye. If you were greedy and stingy people would say you
have an “unhealthy” or “evil” eye. Jesus presents two different ways of living.
You can either be generous or you can fall prey to the greed all around us.
And… to top it off Jesus does something here that he doesn’t do anywhere
else in the New Testament. He names a rival a rival. Jesus says we cannot
serve both God and mammon. What Jesus is saying is that money can be a
tool to be used under his rule and reign or it can be a God. We all have a
choice to make.
So, If you haven’t seen it yet… Jesus cares what we do with our stuff.
Here are five statements that we believe about money and stuff:
1. Everything belongs to God and I get to steward what he has given
me.
2. My heart always goes where I put my money.
3. Jesus followers are called to live different when it comes to treasure.
4. If we love Jesus and his gospel we will give to see it advance
throughout the world.
5. One of the implications of following Jesus is being generous people
READ
Take time and read Matthew 6:19:24.
DISCUSS
1.
Jesus talked a bunch about money. Do you think it is important to talk
about stewardship as a church family? Why or why not?
2.
Jesus tells us to store our treasures up in the Kingdom of God. What
do you think that looks like in our context as a church?
3.
Do you have a story of a purchase or something you thought was
valuable that wore our / rusted? What was it? How did you feel? What
does this show us about stuff in light of following Jesus.
4.
Jesus connects health with how we steward our stuff. It seems as
though he is saying if we manage our stuff well our entire lives will
benefit. Do you agree? Have you seen this in your life?
5. Do you view yourself as a manager of God’s stuff? Do you view
everything you have as his entrusted to you? Explain!
PRAY
Take time to pray for your group, the needs, requests and the things you are
longing for over this next season.
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