SOTM: Matthew 6:19-21 (Treasures in heaven)

(Mat 6:19-21 ESV) “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I’ve often wondered what that really means? Will there be degrees of reward? And what would that mean?

I mean, is it a bigger room? Higher quality gold on the street? Sitting closer to God at the great banquet table? Better cuts of meat?

Well, I don’t know. But I think the scriptures give us a few hints that we should ponder a bit.

Judging

(1 Cor 6:2-3 NIV) Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

We don’t talk much about this one. After all, we picture ourselves as the ones being judged — which will surely happen. And so what does this mean?

Jesus had earlier promised the same thing to his apostles (Matt 19:28; Luke 28ff. Cf. Dan 7:22). Some Old Testament prophesies speak of God coming at the end of the age with his “holy ones” or “saints”

(Zec 14:5-9 NIV) You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. 7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime — a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. 8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. 9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

But these don’t speak of the saints coming in judgment. However, in Ephesians, we see the church described as the body of Christ —

(Eph 1:22-23 NIV) And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

(Eph 2:6-7 NIV) And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

In these verses, the church is seen as already “seated” (past tense), as Jesus’s body, on his throne. And if Jesus is to judge the world, and if we sit on his throne with him, then it only makes sense that we would judge with him.

Ruling

Now, the same image suggests that we’ll share Jesus’ rule. After all, in the ancient world, the kings were judges — the supreme court of their country. This is why Paul appealed to Caesar, not to a court.

As we sing in “Christ Arose,”

“And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.”

And many verses say the same thing —

(2 Tim 2:12) if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us;

(Rev 22:4-5) They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 … And they will reign for ever and ever.

(Rev 5:9-10) And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

The idea of reigning with Jesus is actually a recurring theme in the New Testament. Of course, it raises an interesting question: reign over whom? By the time we get to Rev 22, we’ll be the only people left on earth. And that means we rule not over people but over the new Creation (I think).

This parallels the job of Adam in the Garden. In Paradise, they were charged —

(Gen 1:26-28 ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  … 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

(Gen 2:15 NIV) The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Even God’s own garden required tending.

Serving

(Rev 22:3 NIV) No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

Finally, we are promised the blessing of serving God for eternity. We aren’t told what we are to do, but we’ll be in God’s service somehow or other.

The word translated “serve” is latreuō, which is often translated “worship,” as in the ESV of the same passage. It’s typically used of the service performed by worshipers or priests — or to the worship that identifies someone with a god. A worshiper of Zeus might say, “I serve [latreuō] Zeus. Of course, to the ancients, to serve a god was more than ritual. It was submission, indeed, refusing to act without a prayer to, and perhaps even a sign from, the god. It was to submit utterly to that being.

So what are going to do? Sing? Cast crowns? Eat at God’s great wedding banquet? Oversee the new heavens and new earth? Sit on thrones like the four children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Something like that.

Treasures

(Mat 6:19-20) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

(Mat 19:21) Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

And so here’s my crazy theory: “treasures in heaven” is a metaphor (of course) for how serving God today changes us. The more our hearts are changed to love serving God, the more we’ll enjoy heaven.

We are the treasures in heaven, that is, our hearts and our willingness to serve. And if we enjoy judging as Jesus’ judges (with grace and compassion), and if we enjoy ruling the Creation as Jesus rules (caring deeply about the Creation as good and needing to be guarded), and if we enjoy serving as Jesus serves (self-sacrificially), then heaven will be a blast!

And if church work and talking to people about Jesus and caring for those in need and tending to God’s Creation isn’t fun today, well, it may not be much fun in the new heavens and new earth.

But there’s more!

I also think that some of these treasures in heaven will be the most precious things in heaven and earth — people whom we influenced to help make it there. You see, when we get there, we won’t just see those who went on before, we’ll see those who followed us.

I believe that God exists outside of created time — the time we experience. It’s part of the fabric of the universe in which we existd and therefore was made when God made the universe.

If that’s so, then when we die, if God so wills, we can pass directly from death to judgment, from the pain of death to the joys of living in the arms of Jesus. And this fits well with much of the Bible.

If this is so (and the physics are undeniable), then when we arrive at Judgment Day, our grandparents and grandchildren will be arriving at the same, well, time (for want of a better term). And we’ll see not just our physical descendants but our spiritual descendants — those who made it because of something we said or did. Think about it.

Some will look us up to say, “I’m here because of you. You may not remember me, but you said something that changed my life.” (I just had a visitor at church thank me for a lesson I’d taught her 25 years earlier. It can happen.)

Or maybe one of your students from kindergarten class will have become a great missionary and he’ll be there with thousands of converts — and tens of thousands of their children, grandchildren, and on and on — all thanking you for teaching him about Jesus for the very first time.

A few of us may have entire nations thanking us for something we did or said, even if we’re not missionaries ourselves. You see, everything we do in the Kingdom ripples through time all the way to the End of time, changing the world for the better. And those we help — and the generations that follow — will be there to thank us. They’ll be our treasures in heaven.