SOTM: Matthew 6:22-23 (The eye is the lamp of the body)

The next couple of verses routinely show in lists of difficult passages.

(Mat 6:22-23 ESV) “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

And to Western eyes, this a truly obscure text. But Jesus is using an idiom familiar to Hebrew speakers —

The expressions “good eye” and “bad eye” are common Hebrew idioms for “generous” and “miserly.” Greek has no such idioms, and in Greek this statement of Jesus is meaningless, just as it is in English.

David Bivin & Roy Blizzard Jr., Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: New Insights From a Hebrew Perspective (Kindle Locations 153-154).

A “single” eye normally meant a generous one but also sets the reader up for 6:24. A “bad” eye in that culture could mean either a diseased one or a stingy one.

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Accordance electronic ed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 63.

Verses 20 and 21 speak of laying up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. Verses 24 and 25 declare that we cannot serve both God and money (or Mammon). The context is greed and generosity, and so Biven and Blizzard are likely right — even though the Greek word haplous generally means single-minded or without a hidden agenda. The commentaries are far from unanimous, but McKnight seems to agree.

But what perhaps surprises us here is that the words used for “healthy” (haplous ) and “unhealthy” (ponēros) are words often used for “generous” and “stingy.” Words that appear to be rather innocent take on a more pointed economic flavor.

Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount (The Story of God Bible Commentary; Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 208.

And so, we re-translate —

(Mat 6:22-23 ESV) “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is [generous], your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is [stingy], your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

It’s hard to recreate the thought process that connects generosity with good vision, but it’s likely something like this. You see the world through your eyes. If your vision is stingy, that is, if you see things from a miserly perspective, then you see everything that way. But if you see things as a generous person should, you see everything that way.

I’ve quoted this from N. T. Wright more than once before, but to me, it’s one of his keenest insights —

Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it, and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners or customers rather than as human beings.

Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 195.

Materialistic people, those who worship money, come to see people as “assets” or “liabilities.” We place dollar values on relationships. We measure people by what they cost us, how much we must “invest” in them to get a “return.” Church leaders sometimes become so crass as to refer to new members as “giving units.”

For Americans, the temptation is particularly acute because we are a capitalist/free enterprise culture. Indeed, many of our leaders and members consider capitalism to be the only economic system permitted by the scriptures, and hence we define “justice” as whatever result the free enterprise system produces.

Now, I am very much an advocate of capitalism as an economic system. Like a lot of things in this age, it’s perfectly dreadful — and far better than any other option. But capitalism is an economic system, not an ethic. And there is nothing in capitalism that tells us to be generous to those in need. But Jesus is quite clear on the subject. Hence, capitalism and Jesus are not the same thing.

That doesn’t mean we should look for a better economic system. Rather, we should look to be people who hold ourselves to a higher standard — who will do what’s right even when it’s non-economic to do so. That is, as Christians, our goal is for the church to bear the image of Christ, and so to draw the lost into the Kingdom. Our goal isn’t to reform the world. It’s to grow the Kingdom until all in the world have become part of it.

We’ve recently had a conversation in the comments regarding check-cashing businesses. The poor often pay 5% of their wages just to cash their checks because they don’t have bank accounts — often because minimum balance charges would be even higher. What’s the solution?

As Americans, we figure the solution is to lobby the legislature to pass laws to make things all better. But as Christians, we might try thinking about what we can do to solve the problem ourselves — rather than treating the government as God. I mean, we really would prefer to hire a lobbyist than say a prayer. We think the government is better at solving problems than God, and so we absolve both ourselves and God from having to do much of anything. We see people as pawns of the government, rather than bearers of God’s image whose dignity come from God, not by grant from the state government.

So, for example, those church members who are employers might pay employees in cash. Or we might arrange for our business’s bank to cash checks for our employees for free, as a condition for having our payroll business. We might help employees find bank accounts with very low minimum balances. (I just opened one with a $50 minimum!)

As a church, we might institute community educational programs on how to use a bank, checks, debit cards, and such. It used to be that many businesses would not take a check from a poor person because of the risk of taking a bad check. But modern electronic funds transfers make it possible for merchants to verify a check on the spot. Debit cards accomplish much the same purpose.

We might provide free computer centers in impoverished areas of town to help the poor make electronic payments — avoiding the need to drive or take a bus to each utility company to pay bills — often at considerable expense and always at considerable inconvenience.

And maybe all this would be a waste of time. I don’t know. But I know the church would do far more for the Kingdom if it were seen to be trying to help on a person to person basis, such as through counseling employees and persuading employers.

As Jesus says, it’s about how we see things. And if we see people as helpless victims and the government as God, then we should hire lobbyists. “How great is the darkness!”

But if we see people as bearers of the image of God to be treated as fellow humans, somehow or other, we might try acting in community with the poor to ask them what they need, how they might be helped, and to push employers and banks and merchants to see the world through eyes that see people as beloved by God. And, oh, how this would change the church and its image. “If your eye is generous, your whole body will be full of light.”