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Finding Treasure
Finding Treasure| There was a time in the long, long ago when much of the world was unexplored. Map makers had to have some way of portraying unknown areas, so they sometimes dotted these regions with dragons, monsters and large fish. The message got through. Uncharted territories were frightening places. Sailors often feared going too far from shore lest they be gobbled up by sea monsters or fall off the edge of the earth. Terrors lay buried where the dragons appeared. But as every explorer knows, dragons also mark the place of treasures. One day early in the first century B.C., so the story goes, a commander of a battalion of Roman soldiers was caught up in a battle that took him into territory marked by one of these dragons. Not knowing whether to forge ahead into the unknown or turn back to the familiar (and retreat?), he dispatched a messenger to Rome with this urgent request: “Please send new orders. We have marched off the map.” We are now marching off every conceivable map in existence—technological, political, medical, economic, demographic. How are we to navigate in these unchartered waters? Are we even willing to go where we have not been before in seek of treasure? In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells the parables of what has commonly been known as the “lost sheep” and the “lost coin.” But scholars tell us the English word “lost” does not do the parable justice—it is not descriptive enough for the sheep or coin. Instead, the more appropriate translation is “treasured,” as in a “treasured sheep” or “treasured coin.” When you begin to think of an object as treasured and less as lost, the value of that object increases exponentially. You will do everything and anything you can to find it—it is that valuable. Do we see non-Christians as “treasured possessions” of God, or do we merely see them as “lost.” Do we see them as so treasured by the Father that we will stop at nothing to seek and find them, or do we merely hope someday we might come across them—much like a lost sock after a load of laundry? Once we begin to see the un-churched and the de-churched as treasured possessions of God, our attitude and actions about outreach and missions change. We will go off the map to find them because we know we have clear orders from Jesus to go to the unseen and unknown ends of the earth in search of treasure, making disciples through baptism and teaching. Below is the parable of the treasured sheep. Read through it and see what a difference it makes to see things God’s way. And if we see things His way, then doing things, even things off the map, will be as easy as finding real treasure instead of dragons! I pray you’ll join me in this adventure! The Parable of the Treasured Sheep (Luke 15:1-7) 1Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." 3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the treasured sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my treasured sheep.' 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Who in your life is a treasured possession of God, yet doesn’t know it? Make sure you tell them TODAY! Serving Him with You, Pastor Tom |
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