Tuesday after the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 12, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 6:19-23 (NKJV)
6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Devotion
In today’s reading Jesus gives two brief illustrations of faith vs. unbelief. To put it simply, the Christian faith trusts in what is unseen—the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake—while unbelief trusts in what the person sees, whether that be a graven image, wealth, one’s “good” life, or whatever.
We are only days away from celebrating the festival of the Reformation. One of those things that really ruffled Luther’s feathers was the selling of indulgences. One could basically buy a piece of paper that would release a person from punishment for sin. The person could see the paper and find in it, rather than in Jesus, a sense of relief over a particular sin.
However, their eye was “bad,” for it was no longer focused on Jesus. God cannot be bought off. After all, how can a person give God anything since the whole of creation belongs to Him in the first place. Yet, so many people still think it is up to them to somehow please God, thereby placing all their hope in themselves.
By God’s grace, Christians have been given “good” eyes. We have eyes of faith that look to Christ for the forgiveness of sins, which is paid for “not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.”
Prayer: O Almighty and most Merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready, both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
