What Do We Really Treasure?

[HKHaugan]

How do we read Scripture?  Where do we place the emphasis as we read?  Is it on a place, an experience, an event or a person?  Perhaps if we think about it a little bit we might see the way we read, the emphasis we put on a word or phrase, reveals a lot about what we treasure the most.  Jesus said “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also (Mt.6:21 NIV).”

 

At a recent meeting a man questioned what it would be like when we die.  There were several people who tried to answer but none to his satisfaction.  Their answers were locked into some kind of super place and super experience, Heaven and an ethereal angelic experience.  The answers were a perfected extension of what we treasure as human beings in this world, ‘streets of gold’ and ‘palaces.’  That is why Jesus contrasts what we treasure in this world apart from God when He tells us to store up treasures in Heaven that can’t erode like earthly treasures do (Mt.6:19).  That is why when we read Scripture, hear Scripture read or read in worship services, we need to evaluate where the real emphasis should be.

 

We all have a sense that there is something better in the way of experience, places and relationships.  So let’s return to the man who asked about life after death.  How do we answer him?  Let’s look at what Jesus says as faces His own approaching death.  He wants the disciples, and us, to realize the real question is not about where we end up after death or what it’s going to be like when we die.  It’s not about a place or a thing or an experience.  It’s about a person, that is, who will be there when we die.  Listen to what He says and notice the frequency of the ‘I’s and ‘me’s.

 

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am (Jn.14:1-3 NLT).”  The key here is “You will always be with me where I am.”

 

Jesus goes to great pains and the final pain of death to center all our attention on Him.  There is no greater focal point than the Cross.  It is not that He ‘died’ but that ‘He’ died for us.   A subtle transference but an absolutely essential one.  He is the key to every next moment, our final moment and where we will be.  It is with Him. 

 

So, what is the theme here?  It’s belief in a person; trust in a person and faith in a person.  It’s all about the person.  It’s all about the person of Jesus.  It’s not about where we have been or even where we are or where we are going.  It’s all about Him.