Treasures December 8, 2009
Posted by pbbaughman in Busyness.trackback
If I could open my treasures right now and give something directly to Jesus, I wonder what it would be. I know, I know, we can spiritualize this and say “I’d give him my life” or something like that, but here were three guys we call wise who gave him these gifts we would deem less spiritual. Gold, Frankincense and myrrh. Sounds more like the gifts we give each other. We’ve got lots of stories that have been made up over time about how these three sages had planned some sort of prophetic gift for his future, but I’m a little skeptical. The Gospel of Matthew says they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts. Then it says, “having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route”. I wonder if they didn’t perceive a need through the dream and give accordingly, extravagantly, with the awareness that they had the means to take care of an impossibility for a special family. The next thing that happens is that Joseph has to take Mary and Jesus and make a mad dash to Egypt using all the back roads. Then He has to keep them there until Herod dies. How does a poor carpenter from Nazareth manage to support his family in Egypt for an extended time? I think I know. Out of three not so spiritual gifts…from three humble, worshipping, insightfully spiritual, sensitive, practical, very wise, and quite rich men; God provided.
Back to where I was. It seems to me Jesus addresses this question of giving out of my treasures to Him directly. It goes like this:
For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Matthew 25:35-40 NLT
What do you think? Do we need some quiet moments under starlit skies (we’ll skip riding the camels), asking what we have that we can share with someone who is in “the least of these” position (like baby Jesus) right now? Who it is we can share from our treasures with and it will make a big difference for them?
Only when you’ve been in such a vulnerable position, do you know how valuable a gift like that is.
One more thought. Can you imagine the love of God…that He would enter our story so completely that He would place himself at that risk?
I look forward to meeting those three guys we call wise someday. I’ll bet they’re a lot like a few successful business people I know today!
Until Sunday Evening,
Pastor Ben
Wow! Thanks, Roger. We have a similar story that is a family legend. Your story is compelling. Thanks so much for sharing it for all of us.
Hi Ben… Right on
As I was reading your thoughts this morning it took me back to a Christmas a long time ago. We were trying to pastor our first church. It was every thing it should not have been, you know what it’s like to try to bring back life to a church that had died and been dead for a number of years. Why it had died? I don’t know, that’s not for me to judge.
But in looking back I see I really did not know what I was doing, but the worst thing about it all, the ones you loved the most were the ones who were causing the most pain.
It was just before Christmas, I was really thinking of giving up,it was in my mind, I can go back to my old job, why put my family through this?
For all practical purposes it looked to be the bleakest Christmas of our lives.
But God knew, and God had the hearts of some people in another church in another town not far away.
And on a Saturday morning two weeks before Christmas they began knocking on our door, before the day was over our home was packed with gifts, every room was full of gifts, the freezer was full, the refrigerator was full, our home was stocked full of all kinds of food, and a large amount of cash had been lovingly placed in our hands. Never have we experienced so many people finding so much joy in just giving to us, and the miracle of it all, we had not met any of them before that day.
In short, it renewed not only our faith in Gods love, but just as important, our faith in Gods people.
A few years later we moved on to pastor other churches, but we never forgot the lesson those people taught us. Where ever we went we always established a Christmas pastors fund. Each year just befor Christmas we would send the funds that as a church we had saved during the past year to the District office and ask that they send the funds to a pastor that might be in need of help or encouragement.
I tell you this not to brag, but it was like this. I was trying to teach it… but I was taught by people who really knew… “It is better to give then receive.
Roger