As I thought about the scripture immediately preceding this one - "Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth. . . , but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven" - I realized that just as lust and greed stare at objects and "store them up" for continued reflection and enjoyment, devotion and virtue can also use the eyes to store up things for reflection and enjoyment. Staring and focusing one's eyes is a method for storing things up in ones heart. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
I do not think it is accidental that Jesus teaching about the lamp of the body follows this treasure passage in the Sermon on the Mount. My eyes can store things in my heart and illuminate my body. The body can be a very dark place, full of unpredictable actions and confusing feelings, when the eye is turned away from the light of God and is focused on the desires of the body. I find myself quickly conflicted and frustrated.
When the eye is turned to the things that feed the soul with peace and order, such peace is stored in the heart, and then the body becomes a fully lit room. Instead of tripping over the body and its desires as in a dark room, the light gives such desires their place in my life.
What is this light for the eyes? Eyes are hungry. They long to see. They can be filled with words and images of God's goodness or with words and images that inflame the body and heart to lust and anger. The eyes fill the body with light or with darkness. They take in what the body enjoys and what the heart stores and ponders. I see that such light is not only perceiving things with my eyes, but really "seeing" them. I do not merely look, but I take in certain things and let them settle into my heart.
I must learn to use my eyes to see the Creation. I hear words, really. But I see what they create. I see ideas, inventions, and intentions from words. These are creations, too. When I connect the words to what I see, then I understand. Seeing is the completion of hearing. I hear, "Let there be light" and then I see, "And there was light." My eyes bring to light what words have been spoken in and through myself and also in and through others.
Dallas Willard says, "Faith is not opposed to knowledge, but opposed to sight." Blindness, however, does not necessarily increase faith. It is a matter of precedence. I do not see to believe, but rather I believe so I can see. Faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:14). Then the eyes are the lit lamp that illuminates the body and all creation.
Lord, let me learn how to hear so I can see. Let my seeing fill my body with light and store up treasures in my heart that cannot be stolen or fall into decay. Let my eyes be the lamp of my body. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment