December 11, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks will find. The one who knocks will find the door will be opened to them.” (Matthew 7.7-8)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Before moving on to the next lesson from Jesus on the Mount[ainside], I want to share something that was spoken into me this morning as I physically and mentally prepared for the day. The question would be, as I have mentioned: What is it that we truly seek, knock on doors to inquire and ask from those who truly can give it? Is it for something we believe we can easily attain, grasp or take into our position which serves us best? Shall we liken it to that which Jesus said should be laid up in Heaven- our treasure? And if it is, then what is it that we treasure so much that we would not want to lose it at any time? In the gospel of Luke, Jesus offers three examples which may help us answer that question: the lost lamb, the lost coin and the lost son. The template of Matthew 7.7 helps to deepen our understanding of Luke 15 as to the means of “finding and treasuring that which had been lost.” In each instance, that which was lost was that which had been laid up in Heaven as a treasure.

It was not just a sheep but a lamb the shepherd searched for. The lamb was dear to the shepherd because of the purpose of the lamb for which it was born. As “one” of ninety-nine, it represented the means of maintaining wholeness. It was good to have ninety-nine safe in the sheepfold but the shepherd was incomplete without the one. It represented a tithe, a sacrificial offering, which made all things seem new and whole. There is little doubt in my mind that these sheep of which Jesus spoke included Himself as the “lambs of Bethlehem” whose purpose was for sacrifice in Jerusalem to bring the people near to their salvation which comes from God alone. It was not the sacrifice of the lamb which saved them. It was their act of faith in remembering the paschal lamb in Egypt whose blood was painted around the door of their dwelling places. All who dwelled therein were covered by the blood of the Lamb and spared the agony of death. Such was not the case of Egypt and Pharaoh in particular. He was indeed lost and would even sacrifice his own son for his vanity and pride. He refused the word of God which Moses offered who came to the nation of Israel, knocked on the doors of their lives and asked for life to be restored. Moses asked those who dwelt in the darkness of Egypt to see the saving light. Moses asked Pharaoh, his brother by adoption, to do the same. But, what the people found and received, Pharaoh did not.

What of the lost coin? It, too, represented a part of the whole and a sense of completeness. It became the most important part of the woman’s dowry. It wasn’t merely savings she hid away for a rainy day. It was what represented her to her husband-to-be. It, too, had been laid up in Heaven as a treasure of right relationship on earth as it would be in Heaven. She still had not found that husband nor been found by him whomever he was. But, she was no less faithful, determined and mindful of being ready for that day. Can we not hear the call to the Church, the Bride of Christ, who is told to prepare for the Groom’s coming and wait faithfully for that moment when He would come and take Her to be with Him? She, too, sought in corners, knocked on cabinet doors and asked in fervent prayer to find what had been lost: herself, her dowry and her future husband.

There is the prodigal son, of which we learn there are two. In either case, the father treasured his sons and laid them up in heaven as well. He invested the word of God in them, raising them with it so that as they grew older they would not wander far from it. But, the younger son did wander. Yes, he did. But, we learn that he did not wander far from it. “It” was what finally spoke to him in his heart, mind, soul and spirit. It drew him back to his father’s house. All the money in the world obviously didn’t satisfy what he truly treasured: the love of his father. He sought but did not find wholeness. He knocked on many doors and did not find wholeness. He asked time and again but did not receive wholeness. Why? He did not receive it because the world could not give it. Only his father who sat on the porch of the estate like God who sits on the throne of Heaven looking out for His people and longing for them to come home. Of course, there is the other “prodigal” who was the older son. Following the logic of Jesus’ teaching concerning the younger, we are left to hope he would learn the lesson as well and return to his father’s house and experience the wholeness of “that which is lost has been found.” No one could force the lesson to be learned. It had to be sowed in faith, hope and love trusting in the seed which God had made to grow and bear much fruit.

The question then is for us: What is that treasure we store up in Heaven? Do we misunderstand it to be things such as money, property, jewelry, works of art, fine clothes, etc? Do we know see or once again are reminded to see that such treasure is the gift of life which God has bestowed on, in and through His people? The follow-up question is this: What are we investing in that treasure to maintain the possibility and opportunity for wholeness? Are we seeking it when it is lost knowing it is not ours but God’s? Are we knocking on every door with a petition of “Have you seen?” or “Do you know?” Are we asking, and the sense of the word is actually “praying,” for wisdom, guidance and promise? You see, mighty ones of God in Christ, Jesus was and is the Lamb lost in death and recovered in life. Jesus is the dowry of the Bride of God, as He dwelt on earth as one of us and one with us. Jesus is the prodigal son, both of them, as one who became like a Samaritan and one who remained like a Pharisee. But, what Jesus always did was to lay up His treasure in His Father’s storehouse so that He could seek the lost and restore them to the fullness of the community of faith, hope and love to which they rightfully belonged. He asks no less of us!

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain this eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.