STUFF - Part III

From this series of devotions on stuff, you might think me a little "over the edge" when it comes to the issue of material possessions. Could be. However, I can't get away from believing that our generation, like none before, has as a unique struggle with possessions as do we. Christians are not exempt. For instance:

Even by the world's secular, materialistic standards, we Americans have way more than we know. Because of this, I believe we are way more spiritually vulnerable than we know. You may have never linked the following Biblical accounts directly with each other, but I think Luke wanted you to:

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" You know the commandments: . . . "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

Luke 18:18-30

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. . . . So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him,. . . When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a `sinner.'" But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, . . . For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

Luke 19:1-10

Luke stands the rich, young ruler and Zacchaeus side by side. He then asks us which one we more resemble. The rich, young ruler was seeking eternal life. Zacchaeus was only seeking a curious glimpse of Jesus. The ruler had it ALL by the standards of his day (wealth, youth, impeccable reputation). Zacchaeus had only money. People hated him and his profession. Both the ruler and Zacchaeus had a choice to let go of things and take hold of eternal life. One chose things over eternal life; the other chose eternal life over things. The more troubling message in these two stories is that the one who sincerely went looking for eternal life didn't find it, while the one who wasn't deliberately seeking it found it. What might that be saying about the closeness of a believer and a non-believer to the Kingdom of God? In both cases, how each man viewed wealth and what each chose to do with it had eternal consequences.

Jesus didn't tell everyone He encountered that they had to commit materialistic suicide to follow Him. He did teach, however, that anything clung to more tightly than Himself would become an anchor of death. It's not your bank account or family relationships Christ is after, it's your heart. For many of us, believers and non-believers alike, the two are one and the same.

It's usually at this point in these kind of dialogues that sincere, but agitated Christians respond, "OK, Tim, OK! So, what you're saying is that we must drain our bank accounts, sell the house, cash in our kids' college funds, and live on the streets??!! Is THAT what you're saying??!!" I use to respond, "Of course NOT!" Now . . .well honestly, I'm not so sure. Maybe that IS what I am saying. Maybe not? All I know is that Jesus kept repeating over and over again that NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING should get between us and eternal life ("What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36). To underscore that message, Jesus gave us two examples we could follow: One of a saint that got stuck in his stuff and stayed a sinner and one of a sinner who sacrificed his stuff and found himself a saint.