One time I got to face a big league pitcher in a batting cage. I was trying out for a regional team. It was one of the summers that I was maybe playing college ball, something like that. And whatever the case, you know, college ball, you saw some guys who could throw hard and you start to feel pretty confident in yourself. Well, I went and I did this tryout, and the dude who jumped in the cage to pitch to me used to play on this same regional team, but now he'd gone on to play in the big leagues. And he was, I think, pitching for the Houston Astros at this point. And so I step in the cage and I greet the guy because everybody around town knows who that guy is. And the coach is like, you know, whispers something to him. And I know, okay, he's not going to give me everything he's got. And um he's throwing at me, and there's a guy with a radar gun behind, and I'm kind of fouling stuff off a little bit, but it's it's tough. And he was throwing 75, you know, but he's a big league pitcher, so everything's got a little action on it. It's tough to read. And I was terrified and intimidated because of who I was facing. But eventually I settled in. I started making pretty consistent contact there. Well, then he bumps it up to about 85. And let me tell you, I felt like I had seen some pretty legitimate pitching in college, even in high school. And everybody, I mean everybody in high school is like, yeah, I throw like probably like 80 or something. Every college pitcher, yeah, like uh, I don't know, low mid 80s, something like that. Eh, do you really, though? Really? Because what most people say is like 80 is like 67. 80 is cooking, 85 is blazing. And then because I managed to just get a little bit of bat on a couple of those pitches in the 80s and just flail away and kind of foul it off weakly. They're like, yeah, let's just take it all the way up, like break him. And then he starts throwing me stuff in the 90s with movement on it. So, in other words, the ball isn't just coming straight in on a line, it's actually got some tail to it. It's cutting in on me, it's cutting away from me. And oh my goodness, it was horrifying. It I mean, it actually makes a sound. And I came out of there and everybody's kind of having a laugh. And they're like, no, no, no, you did, you did fine on the stuff we'd expect you to be able to hit. Um, I mean, he's a big leaguer, it's okay, kid. It's like, oh, okay, that's uh feels good. But I mean, my comment coming out of there was I just couldn't see it. I mean, it's really hard to hit it when you can't see it. Get ready for it, get ready for it, get ready for it. Likewise, when we're looking at the teachings of Jesus and we're in the Sermon on the Mount, we've got this really challenging thing that Jesus is throwing at us. And that is the whole notion of a king and a kingdom that isn't the world kingdom and is this truer, real, or better kingdom with different values, better values, upside down values. And in literally two chapters, I mean, listen, these are all the pages we've looked at. There's one, listen, there's two. That's it. That's all the more he said. In just that limited amount of time, he has thrown something at us that is very intimidating, that is very difficult to know what to do with. It's tough to even get a bat on this. And part of the reason is it's hard to see. It's hard for me to picture or envision what this kingdom would look like or what it would look like to buy into these values. So, in the baseball spirit of keeping your eye on the ball, in Matthew 6.22, Jesus talks about the eyes of his listeners. And he says, the eyes the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light, 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? So Jesus just got done saying all the stuff about choosing where you're going to invest, storing up all of your stuff and your treasures on earth or storing up your treasures in heaven. You can't really have both. You should invest in the one where thieves don't break in and steal and where moth and rust don't destroy, not invest in the places where all your treasure is going to decay and you're just going to watch the empire you build turn to dust and sift through your fingers. I mean, it is pretty vivid imagery that he's using here, and it seems like very simple and very common sense when he says it. Surely, after verse 21, after Jesus gets on saying that, people are like, well, I want to do that, but I kind of only see things here. What you're talking about sounds like a currency, but it's an abstraction. It's not a real currency. I can't save up forgivenesses and put them in a jar and bury it in the backyard. It's hard to know how all of this would work. What would it look like? How would I even see it? And that's why I think he hits on this stuff about the eye next. The idea is if you can see it, you can hit it. If you can't see it, you're not gonna hit it. But it gets a little confusing because Jesus is employing uh a use of the word lamp and a relationship between the eye and the body that isn't real commonplace for us today. We think of something, a lamp as being a thing that you put in a room and then that illuminates the room. We don't think of the eye as being a portal by which things that are light or things that are dark would enter the body. But in the ancient Near Eastern mind, the idea of an eye almost being a, I mean, this wouldn't be the term. I can't think of the historical term, but almost like a vacuum that pulls into it things from outside its environment, and that has a a corrupting or enlightening effect on the soul, that concept would have been present. So it's almost more like the eyes or the window, the access point to the soul. And if the eye is a good filter, a clear filter, then bright, warm light would come in through that eye and illuminate the mind, the soul, the inner man or woman who has an eye that is conditioned to see properly. But if that eye has a filter over it that is dark or clouded or somewhat opaque, then you're either bringing in less light or distorting the light that's coming in, and that has a different effect, a negative effect on the soul. So I think what he's saying here is that what his audience member looks on, what they see with fondness, what they value or covet with their eyes, that is going to affect, as hokey as it might sound, the heart. It's going to affect what you want, what you lust for is the thing you will throw all of your subtle and visible mechanations at to achieve and to obtain. So I think he's giving us, frankly, what might be the easiest instruction, though it comes with slightly confusing language that we've heard in I don't know how many pages of this Matthew stuff is real simple. You got to see the pitch in order to be able to hit it. And so, well, how do you see the pitch? Well, you nurture your eyes and you get to a place where you decide that what your eyes will long for and yearn for is the stuff that is kingdom valuable, not the stuff that is world kingdom valuable. So if your eyes are bad, then your whole body's full of darkness. If your eyes are good, your whole body's full of light. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Really, here I think we're talking about what set of lenses, what set of filters we encounter the world through. So in the last little chunk, Jesus talks about world things, money, possessions, contexts, relationships, fame, all of those things we might invest in. And he says they all break, they're going to turn to dust, paraphrases mine. So invest in stuff that that doesn't happen to, and those things that can only be invested in in the context of this kingdom. No doubt he knew people in the room were like, that is hard. I can't even see the pitch you're throwing at me. I can't even picture this. Well, where do I start? It would seem then that Jesus' answer to that unasked but very obvious question would be well, nurture your eyes. Yearn for what is good, learn to long for what is good, and your priorities will become redirected, your energy will become redirected, your heart will become redirected toward things that will not let you down, toward things that will actually last. And he's going to give his last little closing thought, which is no one can serve two masters. Either he'll hate the one and love the other, or will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. And even though it makes for a short episode today, I want to leave ourselves a little bit of time to break down that last statement from Jesus Manana. It felt like the most patronizing coaching ever when my coaches would stand there and be like, keep your head down, keep your eye on the ball. You have to see the pitch in order to hit the pitch. I'm like, I know, obviously. And they're like, well, then why don't you look at the pitch? And I'm like, you're frustrating me. But they were right. And the more they coached me to do something that would seem self-evident, just keep my eye on the ball, the more I realized it's not self-evident. And this actually is a matter of discipline and focus and training. But as that improved, it became much easier to hit pitches. And eventually I just happened to have met my match. And boy, did I meet my match. I think you're smart. I think you get what I'm saying. And I think the analogy got us at least to the very, very end of that. It just sort of breaks down at the part where I can't hit major league pitching. All right, we're leaving it there. I'm Matt. This is a 10-minute Bible hour podcast. We'll catch you soon.