Treasure in Heaven
It's not surprising to say that in modern American culture, we are obsessed with wealth. We judge people the moment we meet them based on how well they are dressed, what type of car they drive, and how big of a house they live in. We consider the wealthy person of more worth than someone of lesser means. We teach our children that having money is the answer to life's problems. A college student tells of an incident when he called his friend at his dorm room and was surprised by his answering-machine message: "Hi, this is Dave," it began. "If it's the phone company, I sent the money. If it's Mom or Dad, please send money. If it's a friend, you still owe me money. If it's financial aid, you didn't loan me enough money. If it's a female, leave a message . . . and don't worry, I've got plenty of money!"
The accumulated wealth of a rich person is called that person's "fortune." What an interesting word, when you think about it. "Fortune" is related to the word "fortunate," meaning "lucky." Whether a person goes to a casino or not, he gambles with his money. One day he has some money, the next day something happens and he loses it. If that day never comes, then he is lucky and has been able to amass a "fortune."
Much of our time and energy, then, is spent on trying to cheat "fate," another word for "luck." We hoard our money in case something happens and we need it. People buy brand new cars, but are afraid to drive them lest they become scratched or dirty. Women own jewels, but keep them locked up without wearing them for fear a thief will be enticed to steal them. Parents buy beautiful living room furniture, then don't let the kids even sit on it or even leave a plastic cover over it. Money is saved and carefully invested for the future, and then the person dies before they ever get to enjoy it. No matter how much more a person earns each year, it never seems to be enough. How often have we laughed at the image of the person with a closet full of clothes fretting about nothing to wear.
In the Sermon on the Mount, we hear Jesus warning his disciples about the dangers of money and what the proper attitude should be about wealth and possessions.
In verses 6:19-21, Jesus teaches his disciples that a heavenly investment secures the value of the investment as well as the interest. He tells them not to put away possessions on the earth. Even goods that are stored away have a way of depreciating. Fancy clothes can get eaten by moths, precious metals can be consumed by rust, valuables can be stolen. Material things are ephemeral. Instead of loading up the attic with your earthly possessions, Jesus says that we should make an investment whose value is heavenly. This is the only secure investment. There is no danger of its deterioration, for the laws of thermodynamics do not apply. Rather than our goods being ephemeral, they will be ethereal. In addition, wherever we store our possessions, there will be our thoughts. If we have invested in the stock market, we can hardly wait to get the newspaper to check out the financial pages. In the same way, if our investment is in heavenly stock, our "interest" is secured; for that is where our minds will find the most interest: "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
It is said that "you can't take it with you." Put another way, you'll never see a hearse pulling a trailer behind it. The only sure way to make a lasting investment, is to do what counts in God's eyes. We could imagine a treasure chest in heaven, and every time we give money to the church or to someone in need, heavenly jewels are added to our treasure; every time we perform an unselfish act, we gain in our heavenly reward; each moment we tell someone about Jesus Christ, we have invested ourselves in their life, as well as in the quality of our future existence. That there are distinctions in the quality of the life in the hereafter is apparent from scripture. I remember my father saying that people will be so ecstatic with their eternal reward, they will not notice that someone has more.
This teaching about heaven has been passed on for centuries. But many people don't believe it; at least there lives attest to their disbelief. While they say they believe in heaven and an eternal reward, they live as if this life is all there is. They live for the moment and place their values in what is temporal rather than what is eternal. We must remember the oft-quoted phrase, "This life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last."
In the next few verses, Jesus develops a metaphor of the eye being the lamp of the body. The characteristic of the eye that is needed is for it to be sound, healthy, or clear. In this case, our whole body then is full of light. But if the eye is bad, then the body is full of darkness. We can summarize what Jesus is saying in this way: The mind's eye needs to focus singly on God and not wealth; then we can see things the way they really are.
There was one time when I was a teen-ager, that I went for new glasses and got my first pair of plastic lenses. The idea was that they were supposed to be lighter, but they also needed to be a little bit thicker. The lenses I needed were large because of the style of frames I wanted. The result was that the lenses were very thick at the edges giving a real coke bottle look. As if that wasn't bad enough, I felt like I was looking through a coke bottle. I remember I had trouble walking to the car with my parents. The step off the curb looked bigger than it really was; everything seemed skewed and my perception was way off.
We are like that many times when we are not able to focus our spiritual eyes. Our values become skewed and we misperceive the importance of material possessions. Then there are times we live in darkness and, for all practical purposes, we function as an atheist. Our goals in life are no different than someone who has no belief in God or in heaven. We try to pack in as much as we can of what this world has to offer, and we are totally oblivious to our future destiny. "How great is that darkness," Jesus says.
Jesus uses another metaphor, comparing our use of wealth as servitude. "It is not possible," Jesus says, "to serve two masters -- God and wealth."
This passages in the Gospel of Matthew which we call the Sermon on the Mount appear elsewhere in the Gospel of Luke. We also find them outside the New Testament in the ancient document of early Christianity called the Gospel of Thomas. There we read, "Jesus said, 'A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows. And a slave cannot serve two masters, otherwise that slave will honor the one and offend the other.'" In Luke's account in Luke 16:13, there is a response from the Pharisees who hear Jesus' words. According to Luke, "The Pharisee's, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him. But he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God."
Again, what we value in this world is not necessarily what has eternal value. We cannot both live for material possessions here and serve God. "Money," someone has said, "is a great servant, but a terrible master." Money usually ends up controlling us, and the pursuit of it can destroy us, and, at best, be an empty reward.
Finally, Jesus teaches that we should put God first without worrying about the mundane, and then God will give you what you need in life. Jesus illustrates his point by appealing to the natural realm. Birds don't build barns to store up their food, yet God takes care of them. Flowers don't spend their days working to create beautiful garments for themselves, but they are better dressed than the wealthiest person. If God takes such good care of birds and flowers, shouldn't we expect that he will care for us as well? So why should we worry today about what we are going to wear tomorrow? Why should we suffer anxiety today about what we are going to eat tomorrow? The most important thing for us to be concerned with is God's kingdom.
Our modern reaction might be, "If I don't go to the store and get the food or buy my clothes, who's going to bring it to me?" Jesus' audience would not have had quite that response. In that pre-industrial, agrarian culture, people still pretty much grew their own food and made their own clothes. Their worry was not whether the store would have the brand of bread listed on the coupon, but whether they would find the wheat or barley growing in the field; whether the grain stored up would last them through to the next growing season; and what if there were a drought or blight, what would they eat then. Jesus' answer is that his disciples shouldn't spend their whole day slavishly trying to store up for future days and worrying whether or not they would find the materials with which to make their clothes in the days to come.
Scholars find Jesus' teachings and philosophy of life -- and even the form in which he often taught, the parable -- to be reminiscent of a philosophical group originating in Greece called Cynics. The old theological conundrum was "how many angels can fit on the head of a pin"; the question for scholars of the New Testament is "how many Cynics were there in Palestine at the time of Jesus." My answer is, "Enough." The hallmark of cynicism was their self-sufficiency. The way to beat "fate" and the resulting unhappiness was to renunciate the cares of the world. The word "cynic" means "dog-like." The stories of Diogenes the Cynic illustrate this animal way of life that leaves one care-free and self-sufficient. While Jesus' teachings bear similarity to that of the Cynics, he does not advocate a self-sufficiency as much as he does a God-sufficiency.
The way to handle the vicissitudes of life is to expect no more than what God desires for you, to live within your means, and not to have your life controlled by the yearning for earnings. There is much more that life has to offer than the gaining of possessions. And what you do gain in life is given to you by God as a stewardship, it is not merely for your own gratification.
Seek first God's kingdom, Jesus says, and He will see that you have what you need for the days to come. Do not let possessions be your master, but make them your servant as you serve God. The reward you gain is a heavenly treasure, the only kind that has any lasting value.