BLUF: The Divided Self
Text: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Mt 6:24, ESV).
Context, Context, Context: This occurs about halfway through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7). The context is straightforward: divided loyalties rip us asunder.
Illustration: When I was young, I developed a voracious appetite for reading. I spend way too much of my earned income on books (that’s my wife’s view, anyway), and one of my all-time favorite pieces of literature is Macbeth. It’s terribly bloody; it’s about the murder of a Scottish king (Duncan) by wicked Macbeth and his wife, the merciless and bloodthirsty Lady Macbeth. The main thrust of the play is the exploration of what unbridled ambition for power does to the human soul. Spoiler alert: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth devise and carry out the murder of King Duncan, and Macbeth becomes king. But in the interim, he and his wife essentially go mad. They can’t live with themselves and with their guilt. It’s more complicated than that, of course, but that’s the simple version of the play.
Encouragement: A root problem Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share is this issue: What are the costs involved in singular allegiance to the wrong things? It’s a lot like what Jesus was teaching in Mt 6:24. Jesus was teaching that all who follow him must have their allegiance pledged to him and his gospel, and to not be divided selves. We’re to be committed and devoted disciples, not half-hearted or lukewarm.
The Macbeths were not half-hearted or lukewarm in their allegiance, that’s for sure. They were laser focused. But that focus was upon power, and it entailed doing heinous evil to get what they thought they wanted. When they got it, however, it was their undoing. They were undone. And it was gruesome.
If you get a chance to see the play performed well on stage or on film, watch it. Read it. Learn from it. Shakespeare is not called the Bard for no reason, after all. He knew and understood more than a little about human nature. A divided self is not a person to be. There’s a peace that comes with being an integrated person, a person devoted to goodness to the One who is goodness himself. That’s what Jesus was teaching.
