[Editor’s Note: Though Houston area minister Bill Love has passed away, his reflections here remind us of Jesus’ insight that try though we might, we really cannot successfully serve two masters.]
“No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” – Jesus, Matthew 6:24
Not even the son of God could have it all. When it came down to it in Gethsemane, he would either go to the cross or he wouldn’t. He would either yield to his Father’s will or insist on his deepest needs for survival. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t have it all, he couldn’t have two supreme joys in his life. He is our pioneer “who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
God has given us so much in which to find joy: life, strength, family, friends, work, earning power, creativity, challenge, the faith community–the list goes on. He wants us to have full, meaningful lives. Like any good parent, he wants us to be all we can be, to enjoy life to the fullest. But he tells us the paradox: we cannot have it all, we will not find life trying to serve two supreme joys. We will be torn apart if we try.
An old Broadway show-tune says, “I want it all.” Many of us Christians see the greed in that. We would say with some pride: “Not me, I have narrowed it down to a very short list.” But Jesus tells us we cannot serve two masters; we cannot love God most of all and money most of all. Or God and knowledge, God and control of others, God and a loved one, God and family, God and prestige, God and pleasure, God and country, God and doing good, or God and the reputation for spirituality. The key to life looks like none other on our key rings. He made it when he made us. Because he loves us he tells us: “You can’t have it all, or even two supreme joys.”
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