Heidi and I are different by design and better together. Our spending philosophies, though, are not the same.
I have read that the streets of heaven are paved with gold, so I am fairly loose with money. Heidi understands stewardship. She is frugal. Which mostly works, except at the grocery store, where instead of buying Oreos she buys the off-brand ones. Because who would pay full price when the knockoff is half?
Here is the thing. Put them on a tray and you cannot tell them apart. Cookie on both sides. Cream in the middle. Identical.
You will know the difference when you taste them.
That is about where Jesus starts today. Your giving, your praying, your fasting can look exactly right from the outside. What matters is what is inside it.
So let me ask you the question he is asking. Why do you do the good things you do? Why do you give? Why do you serve? Why do you sacrifice?
If we are honest — some of us give because we spend so much on ourselves that we feel guilty, and a check makes it sit better. Some of us serve because being busy means never dealing with the brokenness underneath. Some of us sacrifice because it feels better to be needed than to be alone.
Jesus is not calling any of that evil. He knows we are human. He is trying to get us doing the right things for the right reasons, because you can do the right thing in the wrong way and miss the heart of God entirely.
Beware
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
Beware is the word you use with your kids when there is actual danger. So Jesus opens with a warning: this is not safe ground.
And you are already thinking, well, I am not like that. Really? When the plate goes by, do you ever pull the bill out where it can be seen? When somebody asks you to pray, does the voice change — Thou, most heavenly Father and great benevolent dictator of the universe, hear our prayer. When you are out serving, inside you are wondering when this will be over, and then the phone comes out for the photo. Out here saving the world. In Jesus' name, amen.
I have never done that. Theoretically speaking.
It is like copying your boss on an email he does not need to be on, just so he sees what you have been up to. Scripture says if that is your intended audience, then congratulations, that is your intended audience. They have received their reward.
There is something bigger available. Your Father's approval instead of man's applause.
When you give, not if
Notice the word. When you give. When you pray. When you fast. Not if.
His listeners assumed it. Today something like two point seven percent of people tithe. In that room, almost everybody did. Tithe means tenth — a tenth to support the temple, another tenth toward the feasts, and offerings beyond that for the poor as their hearts moved them.
And it was not a tip left at the end of the meal. They gave first fruits. Now remember this is an agricultural society. The smart move is obviously to wait, see how the harvest lands, and give out of what is left. God says give first — before you know whether it is a rainy season or a drought — and watch what I do. That is not God holding out on his people. That is God asking where their trust actually sits.
Most of them were not wealthy. No savings, no retirement. Their giving cost them something real.
The car
Heidi and I once felt compelled to give away our car. Not a spare car. The one we drove every day.
There was a young man, twenty-two or twenty-three, married, and he did not know how to drive. That is a problem. So we took him to the DMV, taught him to drive — fun, and a little scary — and he got his license. And standing there I knew in my heart God was saying, give this man your car.
So I hugged him and told him how excited we were for him: becoming a man, leading his wife, able to provide for his family. And we want to bless you. We want you to have our car.
He was undone. Our hearts were full. And then he drove off, and Heidi and I looked at each other and thought, oh no. Now what?
That night I got a call from a friend in Birmingham who runs a construction company. Very southern. James, Jesus put y'all on my heart tonight — you got any needs? I said, funny you should ask. We just gave away our car.
Well, another one's on the way, big boy. Keep kicking in the gates of hell.
Inside a week the Lord provided another car for our family.
Now do not hear what I am not saying. This is not give and you will get. What I am saying is that Jesus sees what happens in the secret place, and he who is faithful with little will be entrusted with much.
The reward is not what you think
Jesus talks about reward here, and some of us bristle at that, because we have all seen the television version. Give now while you can and the Lord will bless you. Call this number. That is a Ponzi scheme. The man at the top wins and everyone else loses, and it turns giving into a transaction.
But Jesus said the problem with your desires is not that they are too strong. It is that they are too weak. You are living for the here and now.
You brought nothing into the world and you are taking nothing out. You are a manager of what has been entrusted to you. Once that lands, you are free — free to invest the Lord's resources with joy, and no longer in bondage to your stuff. Money makes a demanding god. We hand it our comfort, our security, our identity, and only he can carry those.
And the reward he is offering is not more stuff. It is himself.
We do not give to earn his love. He already gave everything, and he knows exactly what it is to give sacrificially and go unacknowledged.
So next time you do something good, ask the honest question: whose applause were you listening for?
