Treasures

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

TREASURES

Luke 12:32-34

32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

NIV

This is a hard saying of Jesus. Matthew records it a little differently in that Jesus said that not to store up treasures for ourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. The point is the same, yet we also need to see this within the complete context of his whole dissertation to his disciples. It comes in context with the before mentioned rich foolish farmer who stored everything to spend on himself and he was not rich toward God. This farmer, had he said to himself, “I have so much, I am already rich and now I am even richer, I can share some of this with people in need” he would have been rich toward God and he would have lived a great life. Perhaps Jesus was telling his disciples they actually needed to rid themselves of all possession in order to be his disciples, but we see that after Jesus was buried, Peter went fishing and it can be assumed it was in his boat that was still sitting on shore where he left it. Men did not just use other men’s boats. We also have to assume these men had families which lived in some kind of house which again had to be owned by them. Some of them were professional fisherman, Luke was a doctor, who surely had an office and charged for his services. Others had some source of income and continued to live after Jesus was gone, without depending on others for their support, such as Paul did making tents. So it is not that Jesus intended his disciples to be poor and homeless by selling all their possessions, but rather not to be like that rich farmer and store everything up for their own pleasures only. This statement of Jesus would certainly have drastic effects on the church today if we all, including the pastor, and for that matter, the denomination itself, sold all thier possessions. The denomination could not have a building, the pastor could not have a home, we all would be homeless and poor as we sold everything and gave all the money to the poor who would then be rich and in turn would have to give it all away in order to follow Jesus. So within the context this means we need to make sure we are not storing up wealth for ourselves without being rich toward God, or giving of our wealth to help others who have little to nothing. Are we fulfilling this with our tithe and offering? That is a good question, but the answer may not be so good. Perhaps if our tithe and offering went to help the poor, rather than to support an enormous budget of salaries, building improvements or expansions, lighting, sound equipment, and the such, it would be fine. But because of all those church expenses it hardly seems much of what we give goes to the poor, except for those occasional special offerings for special projects that actually help the poor, rather than sending our children on a vacation/mission trip. So when it comes down to it, we need to be aware of the poor and be willing when the occasion presents itself to share from our abundance. We cannot be stingy or selfish with our wealth storing it up for our own use. This would surely imply investing for retirement, as the rich farmer had thought he was doing. We certainly need to live, but not be greedy, which again is in the context of the whole message Jesus is telling us. So we need to be able to see the need of others and give what we can. In doing so this makes our treasure, or what we consider of value, the kingdom of God. If we put our value in our saving accounts then that is where our hearts will be. But if we put value in our relationship with Jesus, our hearts will be there, and we will live accordingly, giving what and when we can to those who are presented to us with a need. How that actually looks is not easy, but if we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit we will know when and where and to who or what. It is all about treasures.