Week 23—Sunday Luke 23:35-38
CAN A CHRISTIAN LAY UP TREASURE UPON EARTH?
In looking at the Sermon on the Mount we discover its essential realism—it is the Word become flesh.
But this passage seems idealism: “Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where it grows rusty and moth-eaten, and thieves break in to steal it. Store up treasure in heaven, where there is no moth and no rust to spoil it, no thieves to break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:19-21, NEB). This sounds as though it means that no treasure is to be stored up on earth. But it doesn’t say that; it says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth.” The emphasis is on “for yourselves.” If the emphasis is there, then that means that you can store up treasure if it is for others.
Now the Christian basis is that one has a right to as much of the material as will make one mentally, spiritually, and physically fit for the purposes of the kingdom of God. That means you get according to your needs. The rest belongs to the needs of others. Then you have a right and duty to as much as you need for your needs, and in this is included the needs of your family now and for your own old age. That is not an easy line to draw. And no rule is given. Your conscience and the guidance of God should determine it. After your needs and those dependent on you are met, then all the rest belongs to the needs of others. You can lay up for others treasures upon earth. But “others” doesn’t mean selfish relatives who are not included in “the needs of others.” The needs of others must be those “in need.”
The idea that we have a right to pile up for ourselves and for others regardless of need is canceled by this principle. But it affirms the right to meet our needs and the needs of others dependent on us.
O Jesus Lord, you are putting your finger upon the sensitive nerve of possessions. We know that we must possess our possessions, and they must not possess us. Help us then to listen to you—to listen to need and not greed. In your name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I will go over my possessions and classify them into “Need” and “Not Need.”