Perspective: All that Remains

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

All that Remains

Scripture:

What do workers gain from all their hard work? I have observed the task that God has given human beings. God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts...

Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 (NRSV)

When it's all said and done

No one remembers

How far we have run

The only thing that matters

Is how we have loved

From "Blink" by Revive

In my last semester of college, I took a class on classic Japanese literature. One work that has stuck in my memory is an essay written in the thirteenth century by Buddhist monk Kamo no Chomei, titled "Hojoki" or "An Account of My Hut." Chomei begins his essay by reflecting on the futility of building a large house or trying to maintain an opulent lifestyle when there are so many natural disasters and changes in life that threaten to put an end to such things. He then goes on to describe his own modest dwelling and simple lifestyle. As he writes, he realizes that, ironically, he too has become attached to his own way of life.¹

Impermanence was a common theme of many of the works my classmates and I studied in this class. The emphasis on the temporal nature of material things is one thing I appreciate about Buddhist thought. This concept is also taught in Christianity, but I feel as though very few of us Christians truly take it to heart.

One day, a man of great wealth asks Jesus, "Good Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?"² Typically people believe that to have eternal life is to go to heaven, a realm of everlasting bliss, when one dies. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out that this way of thinking is actually a misunderstanding. The Greek term zoe aionios, which is translated as "eternal life," literally means "life of the age." According to Wright, the rich man is asking how to obtain "life of the age to come," which the Jewish people understood to be "the new era of justice, peace and freedom God has promised His people."³

Jesus responds to the rich man's question, saying, "You know the commandments: Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor your father and mother." The rich man tells Jesus that he has always kept these commandments. Jesus then says, "You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me." The rich man walks away dejected.⁴

The rich man has a lot of treasure on earth, but Jesus points out that the man lacks something - something He calls "treasure in heaven." Jesus unpacks the concept of heavenly treasures and the difference between them and earthly treasures in the Sermon on the Mount:
Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them.⁵
Jesus points out that earthly treasures break, wear out, lose value, and become stolen but that heavenly treasures are always secure, never lose their value, and can never be taken away.

According to N.T. Wright, Jesus and the rich man are discussing life in the age to come. The end of the Book of Revelation paints a beautiful picture of this coming age as a time of peace and healing, a time when God reigns on earth.⁶ Amid this description of the coming age is a clause worth noting: "the former things have passed away."⁷ Evidently there are things that exist in the current age that will cease to exist in the age to come. I believe that Jesus, in His conversation with the rich man, is hinting that material wealth is one of the things that will not make it to the age to come.

The author of the Book of Ecclesiastes describes many things in this world, including material wealth, as "utterly meaningless" and "a chasing after the wind." The word in this book commonly translated as "meaningless" or "vanity" is the Hebrew word hebel which literally means "vapor." By comparing the things of this world to vapor, the author is pointing out their temporal nature.⁸

After Jesus describes the difference between earthly treasure and heavenly treasure, He says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."⁹ Basically, there are two types of things in our lives, and we have the choice to build our lives around either type of thing. We can build our lives around temporal things - things that come to an end - or build our lives around eternal things - things that last beyond our circumstances and even beyond our earthly existence.

At some point, the consequences of this choice will be made clear to each of us. Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses an analogy of two people who build houses. One builds a house on a rock foundation while the other builds a house on sand. After a violent storm, the house on the rock is still standing, but the house on the sand is reduced to rubble.¹⁰ The house built on the sand represents a life built on temporal things while the house built on the rock represents a life built on eternal things.

This is a warning that all of us should take to heart. All temporal things will eventually come to an end, and, when they do, how much of our lives will remain in the aftermath?

The rich man has built his life around temporal things and has ignored eternal things. He has spent his life accumulating material wealth, about which the Book of Proverbs says, "When your eyes fly to wealth it is gone; it grows wings like an eagle and flies heavenward."¹¹ Money does not last forever, for it can be embezzled, squandered, or lost in the stock market. Furthermore, we cannot take our money with us when we die. As a former pastor of my church would say, "Nobody ever saw a Wells Fargo truck at a funeral."

The rich man may be wealthy he meets Jesus, but in the age to come, he will be impoverished because he lacks treasure in heaven - treasure that lasts. Jesus essentially encourages the rich man to exchange his earthly treasures for heavenly treasures. By selling all he owns and giving the proceeds to the poor, he would make a positive impact on people's lives. Wealth comes and goes, but there is something about an act of kindness that lasts forever. Material wealth will cease to exist in the age to come, but apparently things like generosity will be highly valued.

Temporal things are not evil: I believe that God created them for us to enjoy. They become problematic when we build our entire lives around them and when they distract us from the things that truly matter. I think that the best way for us to enjoy the temporal things in life is with an open hand, knowing that they can be given to us and taken away from us at any time. When the time comes for temporal things to come to an end, those who hold them with an open hand will be affected very little, but, for those who hold such things with a white-knuckled grip, there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Many people describe the difference between happiness and joy similar to the difference between treasures on earth and treasures in heaven. Happiness is temporal because it depends on the circumstances of our lives which change from day to day. Joy, on the other hand, transcends our circumstances, so we can still have joy even when our circumstances leave something to be desired.

St. Paul writes that many things will eventually come to an end but that "faith, hope, and love remain - these three things - and the greatest of these is love."¹² May we all take a good, hard look at our lives and find what it is that we treasure. May we all learn to hold the temporal things of life with an open hand and learn to treasure the things that will last from this age to the age to come.


Notes:
1 - An English translation of "Hojoki"
2 - Mark 10:17 (CEB quoted)
3 - N.T. Wright. "Going to Heaven?" Published in The Love Wins Companion. 2011, HarperOne. pp. 33-35
4 - Mark 10:19-22 (CEB quoted)
5 - Matthew 6:19-20 (CEB)
6 - Revelation 21:1-22:5
7 - Revelation 21:4 (CEB)
8 - A recurring theme of the Mars Hill Bible Church sermon series on Ecclesiastes
9 - Matthew 6:21 (CEB)
10 - Matthew 7:24-27
11 - Proverbs 23:5 (CEB)
12 - 1 Corinthians 13:13 (CEB)

The image featured in this perspective is public domain.


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