Jesus’ Treasure

Jesus’ Treasure

Jesus told us  in Matthew 6:19 , “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in a steal.  For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Another way to look at, or say this, could be “Whatever captures your attention, controls your life.”

Jesus, accustomed to being clothed in dazzling glory from eternity, before creation, came to earth.  Although He existed in the very form and nature of God, did not consider His equality with God something that He had to cling to, to grasp.  Rather, for the prize set before Him, He left glory to take on the form of a servant.  He came to serve us, to give us the thing we needed most.

This must have been a screaming, screeching internal conflict to the very nature of God, whose very nature was holy, to experience separation from holiness, when Jesus took our sins!  The very thing we fear and dread the most, the most horrible thing ever conceived in the universe, – Jesus took it from us, as He took our sins, so we would not have to be separated from God for eternity.  Totally contrary to the most root foundational of all His attributes, holiness- Jesus received God’s wrath, separation from God’s holiness, just for us!  He caught all the spears that were flying toward us, in His own heart!  He did the most impossible task in Time and eternity!  Healings, OK.  Miracles, OK.  But, for God to, through love, do what was MOST contrary to His very nature, God did, through Jesus!  Perfect Love!  Perfect performance!  So, Jesus did not regard his “God-ness” as a thing to eagerly grasped, but emptied Himself and took the journey to the cross.  The journey to the cross. . .

This was not a whim, a lackadaisical flirtation, an irrelevant light decision but an overarching, heavy, impending, consuming purpose.  Every action Jesus ever did, led to the cross!  The fun times with friends and family were fun, but really necessary to lead to the cross.   It was always on Jesus’ heart.  When He said “take up your cross”, this was not a momentary fling, a light flippant decision, but a path, carrying that cross, to the ultimate end.  For Jesus, the cross, His death, His sacrifice for all, was constantly on His mind.  We now have “Google Goggles”, electronic eyepieces which tell us what we’re looking at with a computer readout in our eyepiece.  Even more so, Jesus, as He looked at His family and friends, as they went about their daily activities, knew “I will die for this person and that person. . .”  As the Pharisees and lawyers tried to make Jesus look foolish and put Him down, Jesus saw, on the face of it all,  “I will die for that man, the one trying to humiliate me and justify himself in front of this crowd- I will suffer the ultimate pain for that man.  I know his heart, there is nothing clean there, but I love him as I love the world.”  Jesus took up His cross daily, moment by moment.  That was the path He was on.

Think of the twinges He must have experienced if He ever walked in the vicinity of Golgotha or the tomb where He would be laid, knowing what would take place there, a twinge of real future pain.  He knew it would, for a fact, happen there, that most dreaded event in all of history, upon that hill!  And it would happen to Him!  And that is where He was headed with His cross, 30+ years, walking to that moment, for the glory that was set before Him, the Love that would be born in all believers.  He is the firstborn of many brethren, all who believe in Him, would be His sheep, entering into Eternal paradise with Him!

What captures your attention controls your life!  Our salvation captured Jesus’ attention and held it!  This was why He had created the universe!  It was that shiny thing that Jesus would not ignore, not by choice, not by inability to focus. He saw the big picture. He has always seen the big picture, bigger than we can imagine, our salvation captured the attention, the eye, the focus, the dedication of Jesus, as He set His face toward Jerusalem, knowing what would happen to Him there.  Toward that glowing pearl, to pay the greatest price imaginable to possess it!