Lamplight
Our reading for today is best understood in its context. The section just before has been about storing up treasure in heaven instead of chasing after temporary material treasures. The section just after today's reading is about choosing between two masters: God or Mammon (Mammon means money or material gain.)Jesus talks about the eye being the lamp of the body. Many translate this image to mean that the eye is the window of the soul and that the window must be clean/sound/good rather than dirty/unsound/bad. But the image and the context demand that we dig a little deeper...
A window on a house is a passive thing, it can't change its view. If our eyes are windows, the windows are on a head with a neck that swivels. The view that the windows have is determined by the angle of the neck. Imagine walking with a lamp in the dark... The chances are pretty good that we will walk where the lamp is pointed. We don't tend to shine the light in one direction while we walk in another. We must combine the idea of lamp and a window...
Jesus has already asked us to focus on heavenly treasure rather than earthly gain. Next He will ask us to make a conscious choice: God or Mammon. In today's middle section he is asking us where we will shine our lamp, because that's where we will walk and soon we will be filled with whatever we have focused on.
It's also interesting to note that the Greek word for "good" is "haplous" which can mean good, sound or generous. So too, the Greek word for "bad" means evil, grudging or stingy.
So, in our context of treasures in heaven and God vs Mammon. This section on the eyes is asking us, not only to keep our windows clean, but to point our windows (our headlights) in the direction of generosity and kindness rather than being grudging and stingy.
| "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew6:22-23) |
