MARCH 15th, 2026 PASTOR DON PIEPER
A GOSPEL OF GRACE LUKE 11:1-10; 12:13-21, 29-34
“ETERNAL TREASURE!”
Dropping by my friend's Warren's house after school, I found him digging a hole in the front yard. His mom wasn't home yet – clearly! Intrigued, I asked, “Why are you digging a hole...?”
He replied, matter-of-factly: “I'm looking for buried treasure!”
“Really? Well, what have you found so far?”
“A few dirty rocks, a weird root, and some disgusting grubs.”
“Fascinating.” (I liked to quote Mr. Spock in key moments like that.)
Warren looked up: “I know, right?! And on my first try! There's treasure everywhere!”
Truly treasure is in the eye of the beholder. So what if the beholder is Jesus? As it turns out, Jesus mentions 'treasure' a lot, particularly in his parables. He began one by saying: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like buried treasurethat a man discovered in his field...” (Matthew 13:44)
And here in Luke 12, Jesus summarizes his parable...by stating, “So a person is a fool to store up earthly treasure but not have a rich relationship with God.” (Luke 12:21)
Then he adds this footnote: “Store up treasure in heaven for the purses and wallets of heaven never get old or develop holes..., for wherever your treasure is, there will be your heart as well.”
(Luke 12:33-34)
Three observations come to mind. First, Jesus talks a lot about money. Have you ever noticed that? Just last week we heard him tell the 72 he sent out: “Don't take any money with you.” (Lk 10:4)
Why is that? Why does he talk so much about money, urging us to tithe 10 % of our income and so forth? Perhaps its because how we spend it reveals what's most important to us, where our heart lies,where we put our trust. As Jesus put it, “Don't worry about what you will eat, or drink, or wear. Rather, seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and God will provide everything you need.” (Luke 12:29, 31)
Jesus is training us to think bigger, to love others quicker and to live generously as any kingdom player does who is trying to live as Jesus and his kingdom followers did!
The second insight we gain from our readings is that Jesus' teachings on the kingdom, particu-larly those involving heavenly treasure, reveal Jesus' take on the meaning of life. Here he conveys how we can come to live fulfilling lives, rich in love and joy, regardless of our income!
This is why Jesus urges his followers to seek the Kingdom above everything else. He knows what joy there is living out God's love. We saw this in our reading last week as he trained the 12 and then the 72 sending them out to meet people's needs and tell them: “The Kingdom...is near you now!” (Luke 10:9)
Jesus' parables about buried treasure, a rich farmer, a lost lamb, coin, and son are all about that! They reveal that this kingdom is worth pursuing at all cost, and that when those who discover what they've been missing come to their senses, the result is a new life of meaning filled with great joy! “For the Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered buried in a field. In his excitement and joy he sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field!”
(Matthew 13:44)
Again,“There is great joy in God's presence when even one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:10)
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Such joy is meant to be shared. As the prodigal's father declares, “We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead is now alive. He was lost but now is found. Let the party begin!”
(Luke 15:24)
Jesus is imparting to us the very meaning of life, as he does again in his parable of the rich fool: “A person is a fool to store up earthly treasure but not have a rich relationship with God.”
(Luke 12:21)
Jesus is saying the meaning of life is found in a rich relationship with God. Jesus came to usher in his kingdom, a realm where God's love and grace and generosity flow in such measure that we come to see through God's eyes, and recognize what he values as true treasure in his kingdom!
That brings us to the third insight, evident in this last parable particularly, and that's this: when the ticker quits ticking, we ain't taking tock with us! After all, it's all borrowed booty to begin with anyway! It's reminiscent of a story John Ortberg tells in which a dying man smells the aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking downstairs and is determined to have one more cookie before he dies.
So he drags his body out of bed, shuffles down the stairs, crawls into the kitchen reaching out a trembling arm to grasp one final cookie..., when he feels the sudden, sharp sting of a spatula smack his hand. “Oh, no you don't!” his wife said. “Those are for the funeral!”
The rich fool in Jesus' parable had many cookies and he thought they were all for him. “I know what I'll do,” says he. “I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll have room enough to store everything. Then I'll sit back and say to myself, 'Self, you look mavelous! You have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink and be merry!'” (Luke 12:18-19)
I'm not sure why he wanted to be 'Mary' – she wasn't that wealthy but is clear he lived for the next acuisition. One more barn. One more crop. One more car. One more computer. One more cookie. Then one night, out comes the spatula – WHACK! “They don't belong to you. They're for the funeral.” Or to coin a phrase: 'Ask not for whom the spatula whacks. It whacks for you!”
I saw a bumper sticker in town that read: 'He who dies with the most stuff wins.' Really? A more accurate bumper sticker would be: 'He who dies with the most stuff...is dead!' Truth is, we all have stuff. We see it, we want it, we buy it, we collect it, we display it, we dust it, we store it, then discard it. We figure if we get enough of it we’ll be happy and secure – but there's never enough of it!
Jesus' parable reminds us that our stuff is counterfeit treasure. It’s not that it’s bad in and of itself, but it’s certainly temporary at best. Just like the paper money and plastic houses of a Monopoly game, one day it all goes back in the box. It's like the day I finally beat my brother in Monopoly....
I WIN! I Win! (singing)“I am the champion...! I'm the best there is! Wait - Is this all there is?
It's a classic Alpha question. Jesus' answer? “Not if you store up treasures in heaven!” (Luke 12:33) How so? How did Jesus go about storing treasures in heaven? Every where he went, he sought to bring glory to God by investing in people, declaring: “At last the time has come! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent and believe! ...Then come, follow my lead!” (Mark 1:15, 17)
And where did Jesus lead them? He led them to lonely Levi, a cheat and scoundrel who was chasing after other people’s money, and was hated for it. He led them to a guy at church plagued with with an inner demon that filled him with anger, fear and an inclination to hurt himself.
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He led them to see a prostitute for who she really was – a hurting, longing, daughter of God. He led them to a bunch of noisy, messy kids who his friends considered to be a bother and offered those kids entry into his kingdom. He led them to the blind, the crippled, the immoral, the destitute, the demonized and to the lepers of his day and showed them the kingdom by meeting their needs - loving on them, acknowledging their worth and healing them from the inside out.
His followers picked up where he left off: “devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread, to prayer...and to sharing everything they had with those in need.” (Acts 2:42-43)
From them I've learned that investing in Jesus' kingdom reveals that my security rests some place other than the bank. Giving is an act of confidence in God. Living generously reflects His heart.
After all God gave us the very best he had give. “For God gave His only beloved son, that whoever may come to believe him, would not perish, but would come to enjoy eternal life!” (John 3:16)
An Alpha friend of mine from Seattle, wrote me an e-mail that really hit home. He wrote:
“What a wild ride this is . Businesses are sinking, the cost of fuel is sky rocketing, forests are burning, countries are warring while children are starving. These are scary times.
The pressures are intense. People are concerned about what is coming and yet none of this has caught God by surprise. He has a plan for this uncertain time. He’s still showing up. He’s still giving of himself, connecting with seekers, healing many for whom others are praying, liberating and trans-forming others. ‘The Kingdom of God is NEVER at risk. Christ is for certain and Christ is for us.’”
(Dave Deshazer)
Nothing you invest your time, talent or treasure in is more rock solid than the kingdom of heaven because the kingdom of heaven is never at risk. “Christ is for certain and Christ is for us so don’t worry about a thing but instead pray about everything!” (Philippians 4:6)
The meaning of life, according to Jesus, is breathtakingly simple: “Invest in heavenly treasure - and Be rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21, 33) And what is this heavenly treasure?
Being rich toward God means loving on the people that cross your path, living a life in pursuit of all that God is and all that God promises, being generous with what God's loaned to you. It means making that which is temporary servant of that which is eternal – by investing in eternal treasure.
As wise Solomon put it, “God has put eternity in the human heart”, (Ecc 3:11), because we ourselves, created in the image of God, are eternal. That which is done out of love for God will last.
Last weekend I was blessed in a glimpse of this eternal kingdom at work though one of Jesus' most beloved. Claudia and I went to the YWAM camp to hear a colleague of Lance and Megan share of her missionary work in Ukraine. I wish more of you could've been there for that. It was so good.
Afterwards, I was visiting with someone with Lance and Megan's son, Beninia came up to me, his face beaming with excitement. “Look, what I found Pastor Don! I found some money!” Turns out as he was crawling around the room he'd found a penny under the sound system. “It's my lucky penny! That's what my mom said, and she said I can keep it!” I told him that was so cool. Then he looked up at me and said, “Pastor Don, I want you to have it!” “Why me?” I asked, deeply humbled.
“Because you work for Jesus and you help people!” I thanked him and told him, “if you want Jesus to have it, for it to be used for him and his work, why don't you put it in the offering plate...?”
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Sure enough, the following day, last Sunday, Beniniah sought me out again and told me sadly that he's lost the penny, so I went in my office and gave him three more and told him they were for him, and his brother and sister. Later, after worship, he told me that he put his in the offering plate. It occurred to me this past week, that he did like those first believers, he shared everything he had, and in doing so was not only his heart enriched, as he was so happy, but so was mine!
Invest in heavenly treasure – in what God treasures most...! The meaning of life, according to Jesus, is breathtakingly simple: “Invest in heavenly treasure and Be rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21)