February 25th, 2023

his Sunday is the first Sunday within the Lenten season. And the Gospel reading for this Sunday goes back to before the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It is actually the first event after the official beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It is his time in the wilderness, forty days to be exact, being tempted by Satan. This, indeed, seems to be an initial low point. This, by the way, also has the ‘high point’ of the middle temptation, that of Jesus on the ‘top of the temple’—talk about a LITERALLY high point—and being tempted to throw himself down from that high place. (In the Gospel according to Luke, this is the last of the three temptations.)

The writing of last week included what is known as the Lord’s Prayer. The use of the word ‘therefore’ within this sermon has been significant. Jesus indicated that the righteousness of his followers must be significant. And this only happens when gifts are given out through Jesus. He has the Maker of heaven and earth as his Father, and he allows us to call him ‘Our Father’ as well (or ‘the Father of us’).

What follows is a somewhat-literal translation of what follows in the Sermon on the Mount after the topic of prayer [The first six verses of this text happen to be part of the reading for Ash Wednesday; Matthew 6:16-34]:

Now when you fast, do not become as the hypocrites, gloomy; for they disfigure the faces of them, so that they appear to the men, fasting. Amen, I am saying to you, they receive the reward of them. Now you, fasting, anoint of you the head and the face of you, wash, so that you may not appear to the men, fasting, but on the contrary, to the Father of you, the One in the secret; and the Father of you, the One seeing in the secret, will repay you.

Do not treasure up for you, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust remove, and where thieves dig through and steal; now treasure up for you, treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust removes, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal; for where is the treasure of you, there will be also the heart of you.

The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, if is the eye of you single, all the body of you shining will be; now if the eye of you evil is, all the body of you dark will be. Therefore, if the light, that in you darkness is, the darkness—how great.

No one is able two lords to serve; for either the one he will hate, and the other he will love, or one he will hold to, and the other he will despise. You are not able God to serve and mammon.

Because of this I am saying to you: Be not anxious for the life of you, what you may eat or what you may drink; nor for the body of you, what you may put on. Is not the life more than the food and the body more than the clothing?

Look intently at the birds of the heaven, that they sow not nor reap nor gather into barns, and the Father of you, the heavenly, feeds them. Do you yourselves not excel more of them?

Now who of you being anxious is able to add to the stature of him cubit one? And concerning clothing, why are you anxious? Learn from the lilies of the field, how they increase; they do not labor nor spin, now I am saying to you that not Solomon in all the glory of him was clothed as one of these. Now if the grass of the field today being, and tomorrow into an oven being thrown, the God thus enrobes, not much more you, few-faiths?

Therefore, do not be anxious saying, “What may we eat?” or “What may we drink?” Or “What may we put on?” For all these things the nations seek after; for knows the Father of you, the heavenly, that you need these things all. Now seek first the kingdom of the God and the righteousness of him, and these things all will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious into the morrow, for the morrow will be anxious of itself; sufficient to the day, the evil of it.

There is a gentle movement toward the direction of God as Father. It is a gentle movement away from ourselves and toward something much better. (To help to see this, the words ‘God’ and ‘Father’ are in bold.)
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What follows is a brief summary of the text above: There are those who try to be better than others. One way to do this is to look for treasures. We often look for treasures, and this is usually based on what we see. But Jesus helps us to have a better starting point. He says we can only have one master. And Jesus says, ‘Because of this’—by the way this phrase is rare within this gospel account—'do not be anxious.’ The use of ‘Father’ and ‘God’ after this is much more positive. And as this gospel account progresses, we will get see what the Father in heaven gave for us to see in Jesus.