Treasures

             When I was younger, my grandfather had shown me his coin collection. It was rare in the sense that he had so much of Canadian history wrapped in paper, hidden in his safe. He wanted me to enjoy my own collection. So he would often buy me a cased silver dollar each year. Since then, my collection has only grown by a few pieces. I have some standard items like Canadian one-dollar and two-dollar bills. I have a $20-dollar 1954 Devil’s face bill. I have some silver and gold pieces and many coins from around the world. My collection is small. But there is always one that I find interesting above all others. It is a bill called a shinplaster. It simply was a 25-cent bill, yes paper money. It is most commonly from 1923. My Shinplaster is my favourite part of my collection.

            Scripture speaks a lot of treasure; for example, Deuteronomy 7, speaks of Israel being God’s most treasured possession. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul speaks of Jesus being the treasure of the Christian. Sometimes scripture even provides scenarios where treasures have caused destruction for people. This is especially true when one man seeks his own treasures, no matter what the cost. One could look at Achan in Joshua 7, or the brothers of Joseph in selling off their brother to the slave traders in Genesis 37. It is rather interesting that the concept of “treasure” is a major theme throughout scripture.

             Jesus speaks wonderfully about treasures. After a discourse on God’s provision for us, Jesus states, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:32-34, ESV).

             Now Jesus, is not saying that one cannot have items. He uses the moneybag illustration to show this. An older money bag would be prone to ripping and tearing because of the weight of the coinage.  His emphasis is that the treasure of our hearts needs to be eternal or kingdom centric. What is amazing about this statement that Jesus makes, is that for our treasure to be eternal it has to be rooted in the eternal. Since Jesus (GOD) is the only thing or being that is eternal, our treasure must be rooted in him. If something is standing in your way of treasuring the eternal (Jesus), Jesus’s encouragement is to sell it off. “Sell your possessions and give to the needy”, he states. Get rid of anything that is standing in your way of treasuring Jesus. We see this very thing occur with a man named Zacchaeus (Luke 19), who climbed into a tree so he could see Jesus. He would eventually make himself poor for the sake of knowing Jesus.

So I must ask this morning, where is your treasure? Is it made of the things of this earth, or is it Jesus?