Serving Two Masters Facts for 3-8 Year Olds

Categories: Sermon on the Mount

• Jesus tells his disciples, “No one can serve two masters.”
• Today, many people can do two things at one time. It’s called “multitasking.”
• So what is Jesus talking about?
• Well, the word “serve” comes from a word meaning “slave.”
• A slave is someone who, in the ancient world, belongs to a master.
• Slaves have no rights or time of their own.
• A master has absolute control over his slave, and a slave is completely loyal to his master.
• Therefore, a slave could never have two masters.
• If one master would say, “Go to the marketplace,” his slave would have to do it right then.
• If there were another master, the master might choose at the same time to tell the slave, “Go do the laundry.” The slave would have to do that too.
• A slave couldn’t do two separate things (go to the market and do the laundry) at the exact same time.
• He could not possibly obey them both.
• Jesus then talks about the problem from the masters’ side.
• Let’s say two masters wanted to share a slave.
• To this, Jesus says, the slave “will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
• The translation “hate the one and love the other” doesn’t really mean what it sounds like to us today.
• “Hate” doesn’t mean hatred as is thought of today.
• What it means is that no matter how hard the slave tries to be fair and serve both masters equally, the slave will still pick one master to obey over the other.
• And “despise” means something like “pay less attention to.”
• So the slave is not hating or despising the masters; the slave is simply choosing one over the other. The slave can’t do two things at once, so he has to make a choice.
• So only one of the masters will be totally obeyed by the slave.
• Even today, there can only be a first place for one thing.
• Jesus ends by saying, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”
• “Mammon” could mean the “god of humankind.” It probably means wealth, and some simply say “money,” written with a capital “M.”
• It could also mean getting things.
• Whatever it is, it is the opposite of the true God.
• It is a human god that makes people want it.
• It’s okay for people to have money, a house, and things, but they should not be controlled or mastered by them.
• Jesus is telling his disciples to be careful: don’t become so focused on getting things that you forget about God.
• Jesus is saying that we don’t work for selfish reasons; we work to serve others. It’s about giving, not getting.
• He’s saying, “You cannot do both.”
• He’s trying to free the disciples from trying to do something that’s impossible—serving two things at the same time.
• And if Jesus says it is impossible, why waste time trying to do what can’t be done?
• He’s asking disciples to turn their backs on the gods of this world and serve only the living God.
• What they chose to serve will become their Lord and master.