6For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
What is the treasure? I believe that in the context of this passage, it is the knowledge of God and His presence, His light in our lives. And, that has enormous implications in the way we live our lives. Because Christ lives in us, I believe that we are not to take that treasure for granted. We are directed to grow in His knowledge and apply His wisdom, we are called to use what He has given to bring glory to His name and to demonstrate the power of the Spirit as He moves through us. We have been given great spiritual blessings, and now as His stewards, out of His riches and infinite resources, we live the life that He intends.
Ephesians 1 reminds us of the marvelous spiritual treasures that we have been given in Christ:
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love...
A rabbi in New Haven, Connecticut, Noah Muroff bought a desk recently that he found listed on Craigslist. According to a Yahoo! News story, when he brought the furniture home, he found that the desk didn’t fit into his office by fraction of an inch. After attemtping to take the hinges off his office door, which didn’t help, they decided to unscrew the desktop. Muroff told WTNH News, "Behind the drawers there is this plastic bag, like a shopping, I’m talking about. And in that bag, I could already see through the bag, there’s it looks like a hundred dollar bill.” He continued, "We open it up and it's full of cash. We count it up and there's $98,000 cash sitting in the bag…Right away my wife and I sort of you know looked at each other and said, ‘We can't keep this money.’"
Rabbi Noah called the original owner and explained his find. She barely had words to speak. Vosizneias.com reported that the owner, only known as "Patty" knew she stored the money she inherited, in the desk, but she was unable to find it when it fell behind the desk’s filing drawer. She assumed that the money was somewhere else in her home when she couldn’t locate it and sold the desk never thinking it still contained her nest egg.
Rabbi Noah, a father of four young children and also a ninth grade Rabbi at the Yeshiva of New Haven, brought his entire family along when he returned the money, believing it was an opportunity to teach his kids a lesson about honesty and truth. When they arrived, Patty refunded the $150 purchase price of the desk and also insisted that the rabbi accept reward money. She was overwhelmed with the family’s good deed and wrote a note saying, “I cannot thank you enough for your honesty and integrity. I do not think there are too many people in this world that would have done what you did by calling me,” ending the note, “I will be forever grateful.”
A rabbi in New Haven, Connecticut, Noah Muroff bought a desk recently that he found listed on Craigslist. According to a Yahoo! News story, when he brought the furniture home, he found that the desk didn’t fit into his office by fraction of an inch. After attemtping to take the hinges off his office door, which didn’t help, they decided to unscrew the desktop. Muroff told WTNH News, "Behind the drawers there is this plastic bag, like a shopping, I’m talking about. And in that bag, I could already see through the bag, there’s it looks like a hundred dollar bill.” He continued, "We open it up and it's full of cash. We count it up and there's $98,000 cash sitting in the bag…Right away my wife and I sort of you know looked at each other and said, ‘We can't keep this money.’"
Rabbi Noah called the original owner and explained his find. She barely had words to speak. Vosizneias.com reported that the owner, only known as "Patty" knew she stored the money she inherited, in the desk, but she was unable to find it when it fell behind the desk’s filing drawer. She assumed that the money was somewhere else in her home when she couldn’t locate it and sold the desk never thinking it still contained her nest egg.
Rabbi Noah, a father of four young children and also a ninth grade Rabbi at the Yeshiva of New Haven, brought his entire family along when he returned the money, believing it was an opportunity to teach his kids a lesson about honesty and truth. When they arrived, Patty refunded the $150 purchase price of the desk and also insisted that the rabbi accept reward money. She was overwhelmed with the family’s good deed and wrote a note saying, “I cannot thank you enough for your honesty and integrity. I do not think there are too many people in this world that would have done what you did by calling me,” ending the note, “I will be forever grateful.”
In his "Signs and Wonders" column yesterday, Warren Cole Smith of WORLD, highlighted this story and another one, where a homeless man in Boston found $42,000 in cash and travelers checks and returned the money to its rightful owner. Warren writes, "Both events became national news stories. Given the sinful nature of humanity, I guess I should celebrate any time someone actually does the right thing. But I also can’t help but ask: Since when did returning to its rightful owner something that doesn’t belong to you become an act of heroism? I also wonder if we’re not seeing a new genre of news story—a genre that celebrates people for behavior that used to be considered ordinary." A great point, and a reminder to us that we should always look for opportunities to be countercultural. Obedience to Christ has become even more countercultural, it seems - and while we celebrate the acts of the Rabbi and his family, we recognize that instances of honesty and integrity are virtues that now make the news, perhaps because they are not as commonplace as they used to be. We have to make sure that our choices reflect a Biblical point of view.
I think on a more symbolic level, we remember that there may be hidden treasures that are right at our fingertips - and these treasures are not necessarily monetary in nature. God's Word offers us treasures of wisdom and knowledge, but we are told in Scripture to dig deeply for them. There may be blessings that await us, lessons to be learned and shared, to which we should be sensitive. In this case, the treasure for the rabbi and his family was to be able to teach his children the value of honesty, to enjoy the satisfaction of doing the right thing, and to help a lady find or rediscover that which she treasured.
And, Patty's attitude toward her treasure reminds me of a teaching by Jesus about treasure. She hid it away in a desk, and, she didn't even realize that she had essentially misplaced it. I have to think about the parable of the talents - those who received 5 and 2 talents, respectively, put their resources to work and doubled their money. The one who had 1 talent hid it away and it did not yield any return. We have been given enormous treasures in Christ - spiritual riches, as I mentioned, specific talents to be used for His glory, and even financial resources of which he wants us to be good stewards. We have to make sure we don't hide away what God has given, but that we relish in his gifts and guard the treasures that He has placed in our hearts, so that the enemy will not steal them away and render us unproductive or less productive in our spiritual life.
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