Interestingly, the bible does not have much to say about retirement. This is not a bad thing. After all, the bible doesn’t say anything about vacations, birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, or honeymoons either. And all those things are good. There is only one reference in the book of Numbers, chapter 8, where retirement is loosely mentioned. In this passage, God instructs the Levites for men over the age of 50 to withdraw from a specific duty of service and then assist and serve their fellow Levites and guard the Tabernacle, where the younger rotated into their work position. If the Bible says so little about retirement how are we to interpret it and what are we to do about it?

In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus begins by talking about wealth and where we should and should not store it. He then says something strange about the eye being the lamp of the body and its connection to light and darkness, which seems to be a shift away from the original topic of wealth. He then returns to the subject and says that you cannot serve God and mammon. Did Jesus veer off-topic, or is there an important connection we need to understand in this text?