Jesus' teaching on Mammon, Worry-Free Living and the Kingdom are found in the immediate context formed by Matthew 6:19-34 which follows the section on Pious Practices in the Sermon on the Mount. Below is an outline that illustrates how Matthew 6:24-34 appears within the Sermon on the Mount.
After the sections on fulfilling the Law with a righteousness more perfect than that of the scribes and the Pharisees (5:17-6:18), Jesus deals with the subject of worldly wealth. In first century Judaism, wealth was generally seen as a sign of God's special concern for a person. And this was because he was "righteous", he was obedient to the Law.
But here, Jesus draws from another line of thinking, to be sure, found in wisdom tradition and talks about true wealth, contrasting wealth that moth and rust destroy and that which lasts. He follows this up with a warning regarding envy and avarice, using the metaphor of the eye. In fact, Jesus challenges his listeners to examine themselves as to the kind of light that puts a brightness in their eyes. He in fact asks them "What puts a twinkle in your eyes?" Is it money or Christ (who has been earlier presented as the dawning light). Earlier, Jesus spoke of adultery as already performed in the lustful look. The lustful look is the externalization of the heart's adulterous desire. Here, the eye that twinkles at the sight of money is an indication of a certain kind of perverted desire harbored in the heart. This is concluded by the declaration: No one can serve both God and mammon (v. 24). This is the traditional challenge regarding worship of the true God and idolatry. In the New Testament, greed for wealth/money is associated with idolatry (see Col. 3:5). "Mammon" is based on an Aramaic loneword -- mammona -- which means "money or wealth" and is personified here as a god. The incompatibility of God and mammon is stressed by Jesus in the declaration: "No one can serve two masters." A slave can belong only to one owner, and even if one manages to get a job from two different people, Jesus says, "he will love one and hate (read "begin neglecting") the other". Even in relationships marked by infidelity, the Don Juan ends up showering attention on a paramour and forgets his responsibilities to the other(s).It is the LORD's blessing that brings wealth,
and no effort can substitute for it. Prov. 10:22Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in God's commands.
Their descendants shall be mighty in the land, a generation upright and blessed.
Wealth and riches shall be in their homes; their prosperity shall endure forever. (Psalm 112:1-3)
Following the section on wealth is the teaching on worry and anxiety. Clothing and food seem to be the main preoccupations of people in the first century. Food is for sustenance and for having enough energy to go about one's work. Clothing is not only for modesty, it was also used as an identifying mark of a person, an extension of one's personality. One's status in society was seen in one's clothing. Note for example, that in the account of the prodigal son's return, the father's first gesture was to change the clothings of his returning son, declaring to all that the son is restored to his status in the father's household.
Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about clothing and food since the Father Himself will be taking care of them. Just as He takes care of the birds of the air and the lily's of the field, so much more will He take care of His children. They are not to worry therefore, but they are "to seek" the "kingdom of God and His righteousness."
The command "to seek first" is a command to place as life's priority the kingdom of God and the fulfillment of His will (=righteousness). The "righteousness" of God is the way of righteousness Jesus teaches his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. They are to be hungry and thirsty for this righteousness, a righteousness that goes beyond that of the scribes and the Pharisees. It is to be sought, just as the disciples make the coming of God's reign/kingdom their primary concern. It is a concern they express when they pray "let your kingdom come" and when they, as God's children, create ways for peace.
The concluding admonition not to worry about tomorrow is an admonition to let God be God even in one's future. The future, after all, is something that God reserves for those He loves. It is the future of His reign, a reign characterized by "Shalom", where no one will lack anything. And the present? The present is entirely placed in God's hands as the disciple prays: "Give us this day our daily bread" and "Deliver us from evil."
In the liturgy of the 8th Sunday of OT (Year A)
There is some correlation between the Gospel admonition not to worry and the declaration in Isaiah 49:14-15 that God will never forget His people. The passage from Isaiah, taken from "The Book of Consolation" is an oracle that responds to the exiles' lament that they have been forgotten. It was the work of Deutero-Isaiah to convince the exiles otherwise and to encourage them to go back home. The image used here is that of a mother who can never forget her baby. "But even if she does," the Lord says, "I will never forget you." The Responsorial Psalm echoes the Gospel admonition not to worry in its proclamation to trust God in all times. In this Psalm (62), the Church is invited to identify itself with the "I" of the psalmist who says "Only in God is my soul at rest."
