Treasure

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Scripture: Matthew 6:19-24

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Read more…

Looking to Sunday

by Elaine Poproski

I’m reading a phenomenal book in which the author takes the reader through a number of familiar stories from the Bible in order to help the reader understand the complex nature of privilege and the Christian’s responsibility to steward it well.[i] I was particularly struck by the chapter on Paul and Silas’ story from Acts 16:16-40, which is well worth reading in full. Here’s a summary:

Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten, and imprisoned unjustly. In the morning, the magistrates from the night before decided to let them go, but Paul and Silas refused to leave; they wanted the magistrates to be accountable for their unjust treatment. At issue is that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, which meant they weren’t legally allowed to be imprisoned without a trial. (If they hadn’t been Roman citizens, their treatment would have been perfectly legal.)

Gilliard, the author of the book I’m reading, makes the observation that Paul and Silas could have avoided their unjust treatment at any point simply by saying that they were Roman citizens. But they didn’t. Why? Gilliard suggest that Paul and Silas chose “to suffer in solidarity with those who did not have Roman citizenship, taking on the oppression that their non-Roman neighbours were subjected to daily.”[ii]

I’ve been thinking about this from the moment I read the chapter more than a week ago. There’s a lot of talk these days about being an ally or about standing in solidarity with those who are oppressed. And I wonder how many of us would be willing to pay the kind of price Paul and Silas paid to be an ally. I wonder if I would be willing to pay the kind of price Paul and Silas paid to be an ally.

I’m wondering these things while at the same time reading Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:21, which reads this way: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  I treasure my life, my freedom, and my health. Do I treasure them more than I treasure God? More than I treasure living as directed by God? More than I treasure following Jesus, who, like Paul and Silas, set aside all his privilege – emptied himself – to stand in solidarity with us, even though it meant his death?[iii]

As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time thinking about the things you treasure. Maybe it’s not things, but people. If God asked you to give them up, would you?

 

[i] Check it out for yourself. I’m probably going to invite us to read it together in the spring.
Dominique Dubois Gilliard. Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Reflective, 2021).

[ii] Gilliard, 87.

[iii] See Philippians 2:5 – 8.