“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-21
We're spending a couple of weeks preaching through Jesus' statements about Treasures in Heaven in Matthew 6:19-21. These three verses are filled with meaning. Two weeks probably isn't enough to explore that meaning, but we'll see how we go.
In the wider context of the Sermon on The Mount, Jesus is realigning the priorities of His disciples. He's taken us from meekness to forgiveness, with our lives and condition before Our Father in Heaven at the centre of the message. And one of the messages that we will immediately realise when we read the Sermon meaningfully, applying it to our own hearts and lives, is that we really are sinners. How can we possibly measure up?
It occurs to me when reading about the Treasures in Heaven, however, that one of the things Jesus is doing is not only relieving us from anxiety about this world and our material needs - He goes on to address our anxiety directly in the following verses - but addressing our anxieties about our spiritual state, also.
Through His statements on forgiveness, Jesus addresses the fact that we can't measure up. We have a faithful and loving Father in Heaven who wants to extend mercy. But Jesus addresses not just our anxiety but our grief for our sins and, indeed, the grief that we experience throughout our lives.
There are so many things we "set store by" in our lives. They are our treasures on earth. They may be the material goods that Jesus directly mentions or the various associated intangibles: our friends and family, our connections, our community, our reputation, our successes, our very egos. All of these are connected to this earth. And all of them fade.
Just as when our material goods are eaten away, corrupted or stolen, these intangibles can be eaten away, corrupted, stolen. We lose them and we can grieve. And that grief can be debilitating and overwhelming.
When it comes to the material things, it's perhaps easier to see that we shouldn't place them at the highest value in our lives. We shouldn't keep "treasuring up [y]our treasures" as Jesus says in the Greek.
But what about the heart-rending loss of a loved one, a son, a daughter, a relative. Surely we should value these people? Yes. Of course. And we're not "treasuring them up for ourselves" like the material goods Jesus describes, which is part of why He doesn't list them together here as well. Material goods are very different from people.
In John 11, we read the story about Jesus' beloved friend, Lazarus.
He died.
His family was distraught. They had sent for Jesus to come and heal their brother. Jesus loved the whole family. They were His friends. But He lingered on the road deliberately, because He had a greater purpose to fulfil.
When He came to Lazarus and the family, we read the shortest verse in the Bible:
"Jesus wept" (John 11:35)
He valued His friend. His friend was one of Jesus' treasures.
But this is where it occurs to me that Jesus' saying about "Treasuring up for yourselves treasures in heaven" covers so much more.
Because Jesus' treasure was in heaven, He knew that Lazarus could be recalled by the very power of Our Father in Heaven. This life was not all there is. Not at all. And He, Jesus, as God in the flesh, had the power granted to Him to even call that life back into being.
This was why He was able to say to Martha,
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” - John 11:25-26
And Martha was able to truthfully answer, "Yes, Lord".
It was precisely because He had placed His treasures in heaven and that Martha also placed her treasures in heaven, that He and then she were able to look past this grief and see God's greater plan; to see that their Father in Heaven, a God of great mercy and love, would make a way possible, even with their dearly loved Lazarus.
And so, I think that when Jesus was saying to treasure up our treasures in heaven, He wasn't saying something that has an impact in just one part of our lives. It's an attitude, a habit, a way of living that puts our heart where it should ultimately belong - with Our Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. For then when trials, destruction and grief come to us, although we still grieve, we look past that grief to Him, confident of the same thing Mary was:
"I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day"
"I am the Resurrection and the Life... Do you believe?"
"Yes, Lord. I believe."
We grieve. But we don't need to grieve as those without hope.
Because our treasures are with Our Father and Our Lord in heaven, so our heart is ultimately with Him. And that's the safest and best place it can be.
- Peter
コメント