What are you living for, that is, what are you looking to get out of this present life? We may not have actually said to ourselves, “I want this” or “I am seeking after this,” but the choices we make and the pursuits we follow collectively reveal what is really important to us and the value we place on those things. Jesus breaks that question down into only two choices. You are either living for this present world and all that it has to offer, or you are living for the next. There can be no claim to both. Their pursuits are mutually exclusive.
There was a game show that pitted contestants against each other as they raced a shopping cart up and down the aisles of a grocery store in a timed event. The goal was to fill the cart with the costliest items in the store in the time provided. Whoever had the highest priced total of goods in their cart when the time expired was the winner. For most of us, I’m afraid, that is how we view our lives. We are racing through seeking for the most valuable things that are within our reach with little consideration of their real value. Others are “grabbing” these things, so they must have some value. And we don’t want to be left out. We are hoping when the end comes that our shopping cart is full, and somehow, we made profitable choices.
Jesus reminded his followers, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). We have a kingdom prepared by God waiting for us. That kingdom is not here and now on this earth, but will come at the time appointed of the Father. Then “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he [Jesus] shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). This is the kingdom promised to us by the Father.
Since we have a kingdom prepared for us, Jesus tells us as his disciples, to live with an eye to that kingdom. “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth” (Luke 12:33). He is not telling his followers to get rid of their belongings, give the proceeds to the poor, and live as monks in the desert. Rather, he is admonishing them to not hold tightly the things of this present age. They are given to us by God to be used in good works for his glory, to advance his kingdom, and to build a treasure in heaven that can never be diminished.
To do this we are called to look beyond this present life’s trophies to things eternal. Wealth, its pleasures, and its comforts are to be held loosely “for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (Proverbs 23:5). Speaking of such earthly pursuits, Solomon admonished “He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich” (Proverbs 21:17).
A wrong view of wealth is dangerous to the soul. Jesus warned “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). “Ye cannot serve God and mammon [wealth]” (Luke 16:13). One is either living for this life or for the next. Which one are you pursuing? Jesus’ question still stands. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37).
From the Chaplain 