Treasures in Heaven
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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
One of my favorite pastimes is to linger over the Bible with friends. But not just any kind of Bible study. The kind where a good question cracks you open in a new way, and the answers you had no longer feel satisfying. You trust that there’s a treasure to be found, even if you don’t quite know what it is. But once you discover it; once you behold the thing your heart longed to love, you feel yourself changed.
It’s a strange way to study the Bible, but a rewarding one. Rather than assume familiarity, I’ve found life and joy in disrupting what I thought I knew with a well-worded, well-timed question. And when I set off in search of the answer, my way of reading the Bible changes. I feel the deep beauty and harmony of Scripture. I slow down, savor the words. I let my mind follow the rhythm and the syntax, the images and associations. I listen deeply to my friends who do the same, whose honesty and observations spark new insight for me.
So you can imagine my delight when my phone buzzed with a message from dear friends:
“We were just discussing Matthew 6:20, wondering what ‘treasures in heaven’ are, and we wanted to get your thoughts.”
An invitation to become confused about the Bible again? Absolutely!
This insightful question started me off with a new realization: I had no idea what “treasures in heaven” meant. My friend’s question prompted an opportunity for intellectual honesty. Rather than offer a half-considered answer that I didn’t actually know or believe, I was given an opportunity to explore a familiar idea in a new way.
In the freedom of friendship, we were able to say to one another: “I’m not sure what this means, but I know I need you to figure it out.” Our questions about the Bible invite an opportunity for our community to deepen through our mutual desire to know and to love.
When I explore the Bible in this way, I care less about having a clear and coherent argument right away. Instead, I prefer to make quick observations about the text, and some gut-level guesses. Looking at this small set of verses, two observations struck me straight away:
Rather than describe what the treasures themselves are, Jesus is describing the quality of the location where the treasures are stored. What might it mean if I was concerned about the storeroom, not the treasures?
The treasures that are heaven are tied to my heart in the present moment. Whatever the treasures are, my heart is currently tied to them whether I see them or know what they are.
But don’t these quick observations evade the question: What are the treasures?
With no direct answers from Jesus himself in this passage, I turn my imagination and heart to the wider witness of the gospels. I try to think poetically about the Scriptures, and listen for the resonances of this question elsewhere. I think of:
The Father in the parable of the two sons, who speaks to the older son who feels locked out of the Father’s riches: “Everything I have is yours.”
That in Christ, the fullness of God (and therefore, all of God’s riches) is pleased to dwell.
The fact that “love alone endures” and that in the kingdom of the heavens, whatever is done in secret, quiet, self-giving love will be accounted of great value.
Of God’s own endless, abundant generosity.
So what are the treasures in heaven? I have no idea. But the important thing is that the honest question of my friends gave me a gift. It was the gift of setting my heart down a path it had never explored. It was an opportunity to choose humility over certainty, and to let the deep colors and hues of Scripture stand in sharper relief and beauty.
I still don’t know what the treasures in heaven are. But after spending time exploring with my friends, here’s a tentative summary of what we found:
The treasures of heaven are given for our joy, and our joy is held secure in a place where nothing can disrupt, minimize, reduce, or destroy it. Whatever the treasures in heaven are, our hearts can be tied to them in the present—even as we await seeing what they are.
And that when we discover what they are, that will be a day of exceeding delight and joy–for God to continue to heap endless blessings upon us when we thought we could exhaust his generosity. That God will continue to bestow treasure upon treasure, giving us everything that he has already given the Son—which is nothing less than himself.
May you freely and generously share your questions about the Bible, no matter how small! Every honest question is a gift and has a home.
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