The Lutheran Hour
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"Rusty Treasures"
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Text: Matthew 6:20-21
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. In a world where nothing is permanent and tomorrow is doubtful, Christians cling to the unchangeable resurrection that a living Christ is with them. A living Lord watches over them, hears them, intercedes for them, and is a treasure that cannot be broken or stolen.
Where your treasure is, there is your heart. That’s what the Savior said. So, where is your heart?
When the Roman city of Pompeii was being excavated, the body of a woman was found mummified in the volcanic ashes of Mount Vesuvius. The way her body lay told a tragic story. Her feet, like so many others of that doomed city, pointed toward the city gate and safety. But even as death rained down upon her, her arms were stretching, straining, struggling backward. She had dropped her bag of pearls. She could not bring herself to keep going without those pearls. And so she died, frozen in an attitude of greed. Her death told where her treasure was. And her treasure had turned to ashes.
Where is your treasure? Where is your heart? I can tell you stories of people who had trash become treasure. In 1995, according to U.S. News and World Report, a garbage truck driver by the name of Craig Randall found in a client’s garbage a Wendy’s soft drink cup with an attached contest sticker. Having won a chicken sandwich the week before, and hoping for some fries or a soft drink, Randall pulled off the sticker. It was a $200,000 sticker. The moral of the story says trash can become treasure. But the story doesn’t answer our question: “Where is your treasure; where is your heart?”
Reversing that story, I can tell you of a lady whose treasure became trash. This lady, an amateur “antiquer,” found a beautiful, old piano. Built in 1901, it was mahogany with stunning carvings across the front. She bought the treasure and took it home to have it tuned. A few moments of work had the specialist explaining that the piano had been doped. The wood that held the tuning pegs had dried out and wouldn’t keep the strings taught. Somebody, in order to get rid of the piano, had “doped” the insides of the instrument with a mixture of anti-freeze and water. The expert concluded, “Sometimes doping a piano will add years of life. In the case of your piano, lady, doping destroyed it. The livid lady had the piano hauled out to the curb with a sign: “Free–500 pounds of firewood.” Treasure had been turned to ashes and trash.
So, I’m asking, “Where is your treasure? Where is your trash?” Don’t be too quick to answer. Think twice, maybe thrice. I might be asking trick questions. Do you have your answer? Do you know the treasure of your life–that which you hold as important and irreplaceable? Are you able to identify the trash; those things which are insignificant and irrelevant? What? Did you say, “health?” People do say if you have your health, you have everything. Health would be a good answer. Health would be the kind of treasure people want. To have their health, people are willing to eat right, exercise faithfully, and avoid the nasties of life. But as much as you treasure health; as much as you strive and struggle to keep vital your vim and vigor, you will run down, shut down and wear out.
The Bible, in Genesis, records a great many men who lived to extraordinary ages, but none of them, with the exception of Enoch (Genesis 5:24) could go on indefinitely. The corruption that sin ushered into this world is inescapable and inevitable (Romans 8:22). If you doubt me, talk to a veteran of the Civil War to get an account of his adventures. You can’t–every one of those courageous souls is dead now. Look at the silent movies from the early 1920s. Almost every one of the adults who performed in the “casts of thousands” has died. The soul that sins will die, Scripture says (Ezekiel 18:20). My advice is, treasure your health but don’t make health your treasure.
Where is your treasure? Is it family? A lot of people would say that. I’m glad they do. Many of us know a family is more than a herd of humans who are related by blood. A family teaches us the important lessons of life. The closer a family is to God, the better and more clear those lessons become. The family is where a man and a woman, having been told to love their neighbor, recognize that their spouse is their nearest neighbor and should be their deepest love. The family is the place where individuals listen and learn; strengthen and support; play and pray; discuss and discern. Under the best of circumstances, the family is where the love of individuals become so intimately united that no outside observer can tell where one begins and the other ends. Here there is no first or second. Wishes blend–hearts are indivisible. Family can be a treasure.
But family is not THE treasure. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, found family can go wrong when their firstborn son killed their second son (Genesis 4:8). Abraham found it out when his son started to separate him from God (Genesis 22:12). Jacob learned of it when his sons grew jealous and plotted against each other (Genesis 37). David found family is not the great treasure when one of his sons killed another (2 Samuel 13:28); when his wife despised him (2 Samuel 16:16); and when a son tried to depose him (2 Samuel 15:6).
Family, composed of sinful human beings, has pain and problems, hurts and hardness of heart. There is sadness, selfishness and sorrow. And even if these things are not present in great measure, they are there. The time comes when children move away, physically and mentally, from their parents. The day arrives when a spouse is left standing alone, looking at a house or apartment filled with memories, but devoid of another person to whom fidelity can be given and received. Family can be a treasure, but it is not the treasure. Trusting in the family alone can leave a taste of ashes in your mouth.
Where is your treasure? What is your trash? Did I hear someone say, “My treasure is in security?” Oh, bless you. What a wonderful thought–security. Are we talking about the security of a house? Too many children this year have been stolen from the security of their homes. Maybe you were thinking the security of wealth? Too many of our listeners have seen the security of stocks and bonds melt away in the recent roller coaster stock market. Possibly, you mean the security of a solid job? Too many of my friends are hitting the streets because such security has proven illusive. Are we talking about the security that comes from technology? This sermon is being written after the tragic Columbia disaster. The best of our nation’s minds, the most stringent of quality controls, couldn’t prevent that terrible tragedy.
Where is your treasure? What is your trash? I cannot count the times when I wanted something, struggled for something, and then tossed that something aside. All too often treasures get trashed. Our basements, garages, or attics are overflowing with trashed treasures. Every yard sale is filled with trashed treasures. Every closet is stuffed with trashed treasures, clothes we will never fit into again; outfits that are out of style. We all have treasures, treasures which are trash, treasures which are trivial, treasures which are nothing more than ashes.
The problem with most of our temporal treasures is they are made up of things we think are valuable, but aren’t. No, what we should want is that treasure which isn’t going to turn to ashes. Our true treasure should be something that isn’t going to rust or tarnish; isn’t going to be devalued, diminished or reduced. Our true treasure is something we can trust and treasure for time and through eternity.
It was during the Depression, a woman tried to make ends meet by cleaning houses. To her amazement, one of her customers kept throwing away stuff that seemed perfectly serviceable. One day a Chinese flower vase ended up in the trash and the cleaning lady asked to take it home. With permission, she did so and put it in the kitchen and used it to display her flowers. That’s the way it was for over 20 years. Then, a friend talked her into showing the vase to an appraiser at the Buffalo Museum of Fine Arts. His decision: “If it’s a fake, it’s a valuable fake. It’s a 200-year-old fake. If it’s real, it’s 2,000 years old and worth a fortune.” Then, as an afterthought, he asked, “But what’s all this discoloration in the bottom?” He about fainted when the lady offered, “It’s from the cut flowers I put in it. It is a flower vase.” The common had become uncommon. The worthless had been proven valuable. Trash had become a treasure.
That’s the way God works. Look, I’m not saying those things you hold dear and care for, maybe even love, are worthless. Much of it is really wonderful stuff. I don’t want you to go without human love and financial security and all the other things we’ve talked about. But I do want you to see these things for what they truly are. They are transient, not timeless. They are temporary, not eternal. I say this picking my words very carefully, many of them somewhere, somehow, will let you down. They will turn to ashes.
That’s why I want you to know the true Treasure, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now, I don’t know what you’ve heard other people say about Him. I do know it’s politically correct to abuse His name and fashionable to make fun of those who call Him “Savior.” I know the world doesn’t take Him seriously. I’m not surprised. It’s not the first time. Almost 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul ran into the same kind of attitudes. He wrote, “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. For the Jews, Jesus is a stumbling block, and for the Greeks, He is foolishness. But to those of us who know Him, who are called to salvation, Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). And I might add, Jesus is also the saving treasure of God.
I know at first glance, He might not look like a treasure. When He was born in Bethlehem, He certainly didn’t. Wrapped as He was in swaddling clothes, sleeping in an animal’s feed trough, He didn’t look like much. But He was enough of a treasure that wisemen journeyed many miles to worship Him and His own king tried to murder Him. Years later, He stepped out of the Jordan, just having been baptized by His cousin, John. That day, He would have looked wet, nothing at all like a treasure. Yet, John saw Jesus for Who He was, “the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). This was, according to God’s own words: “His Son, in whom He was well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). If you had walked with Him during those years, you might have thought, “This fellow is a treasure?” He didn’t look like God’s treasure when He was tired and exhausted. But He got that way by calling people from their sins and pointing them to a new life of forgiveness and faith. He got that way by loving people so hard He didn’t have anything left for Himself.
Yes, there were times when Jesus didn’t look like a treasure. He was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness. He might not have looked like a treasure when He finished that. But in those 40 days and throughout His entire life, He did something that no other person has ever been able to do: He successfully resisted the sin that separates us from God. Is Jesus our treasure? There were times He didn’t look like it.
Remember the day Jesus broke down and cried in front of the grave of His friend Lazarus? (John 11:35). Was Jesus a weakling? A crybaby? Some might think so. But when the stone is rolled away and He calls that friend out of the grave, you see Him for who He really is: humankind’s treasure, the omnipotent destroyer of death.
Jesus, a treasure? Looking at Him, you might not think Him so valuable. See Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. There, He looks beaten. But He wasn’t. He was picking up every sin you’ve committed. He was picking those sins up and putting them on His shoulders.
Jesus, a treasure? During his trials, most of the time He was silent. He got pushed around and shoved around. He didn’t look like our treasure then. But if you see Him clearly, you will see the suffering servant who is dying for sinners without complaint. When He carried His cross; when the nails were pounded into His hands and feet, can you see Him as your treasure? You might, if you realize that cross should have had your name on it. You will value Him, if you know Jesus was dying the death that you had earned. You would treasure Him, beyond anything else in this life, if you know He died so all who believe in Him would live forever.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, one of God’s prophets said we should look carefully if we wanted to see God’s truest treasure. From Isaiah: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:2-5).
If you have ever treasured love, treasure the love of Jesus. He loved you when you didn’t deserve it. He kept on giving it when you didn’t want it. If you have ever treasured faithfulness, treasure His. He was faithful to you as well as His Father. Faithful unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Do you treasure someone who has made a sacrifice for you?–perhaps a parent, a teacher, a friend, a spouse, a comrade in the military, a classmate? Selfless sacrifice from a friend should be treasured. But Jesus sacrificed Himself, completely, totally for those who considered Him to be their enemy. This He did for you. Treasure Him who gave His all, so you could have all.
This is God’s true treasure, His Son, given for you. He is the treasure who can transform your life right now and grant you eternal peace in the life to come. If you wish to know more; if you wish to get better acquainted with your treasure, call us at Lutheran Hour Ministries. Don’t let this treasure slip through your hands. Don’t continue searching after other things, which ultimately, are trivial and trashy. Call us. Don’t hesitate or procrastinate.
If, for a reason not known to me, you are still unsure as to whether this treasure really is valuable, I would like you to do one little thing. It won’t cost you anything. It won’t take long. Go to the intensive care waiting room of the nearest hospital. There, sit for an hour or two. If that is even too much, then listen, I’ll tell you what you will see. You will see people in pain finding out what is valuable. Their questions are: “Will my wife live? Will my child heal? Will mom need to go to a nursing home? In that room, people will put aside all the pretend treasures, all the silly things for which they have searched. They will get down to brass tacks. And there, you will find that having a Savior who loves you, helps you, cares about you, and listens to you is the greatest treasure you can possess. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for March 9, 2003
ANNOUNCER: What do we mean by “saving faith?” Hi, I’m Mark Eischer. With me in the studio today is Pastor Kenneth Klaus, Speaker for Lutheran Hour Ministries. Pastor, what exactly do we mean by “saving faith” and how is that different from faith that cannot save?
KLAUS: Hello, Mark. Two questions right off the bat. You asked, “What is saving faith?” The first thing I imagine our listeners want to know is, “From what do we need to be saved?” Paul answered that question in Romans 5:12. This is what he wrote: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” From what do we need to be saved? Paul identifies a triumvirate of terror, sin, death, and our own sinful nature. We need to be saved from the consequences of our sin.
ANNOUNCER: We can’t save ourselves?
KLAUS: As much as we would like to and as hard as we try, we can’t save ourselves. “It’s by God’s undeserved kindness that we are saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).
ANNOUNCER: But why can’t we be saved by our own efforts?
KLAUS: We can’t save ourselves because of who we are and what we do. I’ve had the opportunity of meeting some pretty good folks in the course of my life. Wonderful people by anyone’s standard–but, compare them to God, and they still miss the mark, just like the rest of us. They’ll admit at their core, they are not perfect people. They and all of us are like Saint Paul: “The evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).
ANNOUNCER: I can identify with that, as well.
KLAUS: So does everyone. After all, there’s not a single person in this world who does good all the time and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Now, if you are a sinner, what should be your punishment?
ANNOUNCER: According to the Bible, it says, “The wages of sin is death.”
KLAUS: If we’re going to escape death and hell, it’s because our release has been won by someone very special.
ANNOUNCER: And that special someone is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
KLAUS: Exactly! The wages of sin will always be death, but the gift of God will always be eternal life, which comes to us through Jesus Christ. So, when we are talking about “saving faith” we mean knowing, believing and trusting Jesus as our saving substitute.
ANNOUNCER: What makes Jesus so special?
KLAUS: There are a lot of answers to that question, Mark, so I can only hit some of the pertinent ones. Jesus is special because He fulfilled the prophecies about Him. Jesus is special because He fulfilled all of the Commandments for us. We couldn’t do that, either. Jesus is special because He took our sins and was crucified for us. Jesus is special because He rose from the dead.
ANNOUNCER: Not the sort of thing that happens every day.
KLAUS: No it isn’t. Nor do we often find a God who demonstrates His own love for us in this: “While we were still sinners, He sent His Son to die for us” (Romans 5:8).
ANNOUNCER: So there really is a difference between saving faith and a faith that cannot save.
KLAUS: Absolutely. I can believe I’m getting to heaven by my own good works, but it isn’t going to happen. No matter how good I get, I’m not good enough. I can believe all gods are the same and all faiths are different roads to the same place, but unless that belief is founded on fact and truth, it’s not going to work.
ANNOUNCER: So you’re saying salvation through Jesus is a fact?
KLAUS: That’s exactly what I’m saying.
ANNOUNCER: Are you also saying that not all religions will take you to heaven?
KLAUS: I’m sure of it Mark. I’m sure because there are some fundamental, foundational differences between Christianity and all the other religions of the world.
ANNOUNCER: Can you give us an example?
KLAUS: Just a short one. Every religion of the world says if you desire heaven, you must do this or think that or divest yourself of something else. Only Christianity says, “You can’t do anything. Jesus has done it all.” Those are the facts.
ANNOUNCER: Would you be willing to share the rest of those facts with us?
KLAUS: I can think of nothing I would enjoy more, but I think we need to definitely make that a future Question-and-Answer segment.
ANNOUNCER: So, we’ll continue this discussion about saving faith next week. For now, this is Mark Eischer for Lutheran Hour Ministries. We thank you for listening and encourage you to tune in next week as we talk more about “saving faith.” The title of the message is, “What Will You Die For?”