The Treasure in our Midst

Some rough thoughts on treasure...

We have this treasure in jars of clay… that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

2 Corinthians 4:7, 11

Treasure. Prize. Fortune. Riches.

The treasure that Paul is speaking of here, in part, is God’s life in us, the kingdom of heaven, the same kingdom that we are to take possession of with all of our devoted, fierce, desirous, “violent” hearts (Matthew 11:12). Treasure also means that that is “beloved” or “cherished.” It is that we are cherished by God that is our treasure, or, put another way, His love and rescue and invitation of us is our supply, our resource, our advantage, our fortune. The gospel, the rock-hard reality of God coming to win and have us, is our greatest prize. We get to be His, and we get in on all that He is up to. And He is up to giving us life.

When Jesus said that the sum of the law was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27), he was saying first to make God your treasure (or, better, to recognize Him as your treasure). Growing in love to God is real freedom, and growing to love Him is growing to know Him (to know Him is to love Him), and that is what Jesus said would be our very lifeblood (John 17:3).

Of course, to treasure someone is to begin to recognize what it is they hold dear, and to even begin appreciating it yourself, and even grow to prize it as well. My wife loves basset hounds. I never did. But we got one, and her love of that little guy has grown on me. I love him, at least to the degree I do, because he is important to her.

As we grow to treasure God we grow to treasure what He treasures, and He treasures us, what He calls “the world” (John 3:16). To grow to love Him is to grow to love others, to recognize others as His treasure, even as we embrace ourselves as His treasure. And what does it look like to love others?

It is to realize that there is something within the hearts of us all that Jesus came to have as His own. The possibility of having it, after all, gave Him enough joy to endure the cross (Hebrews 12:2). To recognize that this treasure lies within us all, or better, is us all, is to see others as the treasures of the Kingdom that they are. Beneath the masks, underneath the posing and posturing, beyond the pain and shame and scars from this world. Even for those who are not yet God’s, there is a hint, an echo, a scent of what was meant when they were created. That is what God wants back.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live this way, to recognize every person you meet as God’s greatest treasure, unique and desired more than His very life? We’d stop at very little to have God and to have others be His. To have others be rescued from captivity into the full freedom of real and lasting life. To push beyond the fear of a real encounter with someone. To fight all of hell for someone. To have His heart for His bride.

It would be to have the heart of Jack Sparrow. Picture this scoundrel from Pirates of the Caribbean. What does he want? What is he after? One thing. The treasure. Always, the treasure. He keeps nothing, has nothing, serves nothing but that will bring him what he wants. That is the kind of singular passion we are to have for God. And, as mentioned earlier, to be wild for Him is to want what He wants: His bride, His treasure, back home in His arms.

All of that means, of course, that we would be desperately dependent upon God for training, provision, skill, and passion for “seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and for all that entails. As I walk in intimacy with God and learn of His heart for me and receive His intimate council, I begin to see others as He does, or at the very least to recognize in holy fear that others are more than I see them to be (1 Samuel 16:7), and in humility that I am more than I see myself to be as well. It is as C.S. Lewis said in The Weight of Glory, that we have never met a mere mortal.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare.

Having the heart of Christ and His character formed in us opens our eyes to see the unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18), namely the treasure of the heart within. Then, we are free “to say whatever needs to be said” and “to go wherever we need to go” (Ephesians 3:11, The Message). We will run and not grow weary; we will walk and not be faint, headed straight out to find what has been lost, alongside Jesus our Rescuer and Friend.

This is the wild romance of God with us, more passionate and intentional than we imagine. These are the ways of God, the allure of His heart for us, and the invitation to soar with Him where eagles are scared to fly.

There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.

-Proverbs 30:18-19