By Martin Carey
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 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!” (Mt. 6:22, 23).
It was only a dull, flat piece of metal that sat in a little wooden box on the table. The crowds at the estate sale had passed it by looking for more precious things. It sat until my friend Cheryl spotted the box and became curious. There was something intriguing about the metal block, but what? She brought it to the man in charge of the estate.
“How much?” she asked.
“Oh, one dollar.”
It was a small risk, so Cheryl gave him the dollar. She brought it to my wife Sharon, an avid E-Bay seller, to find out what the little plaque was worth.
Inside the box we found a beautiful bas-relief floral design cast in bronze, and a folded paper. The floral shape reminded me of the delicate fossils found in shale. Sharon and I discovered that the plaque was from a limited edition, designed by the prominent sculptor Ruth Asawa, a woman with a story. As a Japanese-American, the teenage Ruth endured the internment camps with her family during WWII, and all the while, she kept up her art. After the war, friends and teachers helped her develop her considerable talent to become a major artist.
Now years later, a piece of Ruth’s history and talent sat on the table, unrecognized among the ordinary estate stuff. No one else could see the treasure in the plain wooden box; it was waiting for someone with a clear eye. It sold quickly on E-bay, and as for its value, I’ll just say we made a nice contribution to a good cause.
Why couldn’t the crowd at the estate sale see the value in the Asawa plaque? It wasn’t a medical problem with their eye balls; they all could see the other objects for sale. You might say, “Well obviously, they were ignorant and would have purchased it if they had known its market value.” Good point, but it doesn’t answer the question as to how we not only see treasure, but value it when we see it. Knowing about the artist helped us to appreciate the lovely design in that piece of metal. However, seeing treasure isn’t the same as treasuring what you see. Treasuring comes from the soul, where our desires and values live, and these control what we see as valuable.
This brings us to our text. Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body, and that if the eye is healthy, the whole body is full of light. What does He mean? We know that light doesn’t travel from the eyeball down into the intestines and toes; He is using light and vision as a metaphor to teach a spiritual lesson.
We need context. These verses are part of a larger discussion about what we see as valuable and will treasure for ourselves. Jesus was likely citing Proverbs 20:27,
“The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts.”
We use the eye of the soul to perceive moral and spiritual realities. Our soul-vision can be affected by a “speck” or by a “log” (Matthew 7:4), a moral fault that impairs our ability to make sound judgments. The “healthy” eye is a clear eye that is “single” (King James Version), an eye with undivided focus on the good. When the eyes of the soul are “bad” they lack a Godly perspective and are unable to guide the rest of the body into Godly behavior.
If your eye is “bad,” your soul is filled with darkness—with sinful desires and passions that corrupt your whole outlook. The “bad eye” is understood in many cultures around the world, known as the “evil eye.” A woman with an evil eye, for example, may see another woman’s beautiful baby and secretly gaze at her with envy and malice. The Evil Eye is thought to have magic powers to bring bad fortune on the person targeted. There are many superstitions surrounding the Evil Eye, and people go to great lengths to protect themselves and their children from the envious looks of others. People controlled by their covetous desires are seeing the world through deep darkness. As Jesus said, “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Followers of Christ are warned against their own envious, covetous eyes. In this passage, Jesus is warning us against treasuring the things of the world. He had just said in the previous verse, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (vs. 21).
Jesus is the amazing treasure in the plain box that so many of us will pass by.
“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2
Without His light, we will all turn away our gaze, looking for the bling. When the heart and soul see God’s kingdom as its greatest treasure, we will be able to keep earthly things in their place—small, limited, and very temporary.
No matter how long we have been Christians, we are faced with a choice every day—whom we will serve? Jesus tells here in Matthew 6 that no one can serve two masters, God or money (vs. 24). Money can include all those things that promise fulfillment of our insatiable desires, here and now, with more and better than we have. We can covet a more attractive body shape, better behaved children, a better looking spouse, or greater natural abilities. We are given a blunt warning from our Master to keep our souls away from those lies from the dark side, and instead to live in the light of His word.
Living in the light opens our eyes to the world without distortions, and it is very liberating. Living in reality is also a deadly spiritual battle, and we need help! We have many mighty promises, and help that is a prayer away. We also have a great inheritance. Paul prayed for his Ephesian friends,
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18).
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What a WONDERFUL blog! Thank you, Martin Carey!