Treasure - Matthew 6:19-20 - Shirley Nightingale Writes

The year is 1872. Imagine for a moment that you have survived the arduous four-month sea voyage from Germany to a strange sunburnt country known as Australia.

You gladly wave farewell to the overcrowded berths, monotonous rations of salted beef and sauerkraut, the stench of buckets of human waste that spilled when the seas were rough, and the low cries of the sick made ill by poor living conditions aboard the ship.

If it were not considered undignified, you’d kiss the ground beneath your feet.

Wunderbar! A fresh start. You are keen to prove your worth in overseeing the Star of Hope mine in New South Wales.

Born with the right shade of skin, you easily blend in with the Anglo population, but care must be taken when you open your mouth.

Though your English is passable, your heavy German accent does you no favours with the men you’ve hired to work the goldmine.

You sense an undercurrent of disrespect. And it doesn’t take long for you to understand their swear words and vulgar insults. You hear them often enough as soon as you turn your back.

On one particular occasion, you instruct your men to extend a shaft vertically, but they do not. Instead, the miners seal the shaft at 150 feet, and proceed to dig and blast their way in a westward direction.

Their instincts change the course of your life.

Through the dirt and darkness, a spectacular explosion reveals a wall of gold. (Who cares that you’re a foreigner. At least now you’re a very rich foreigner.)

You are Bernhardt Otto Holtermann.

The world’s largest gold specimen

A replica of the ‘Holtermann Nugget’ is at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

The actual nugget was the biggest single mass of gold found in New South Wales, and made Holtermann a very wealthy man. It stood at 144.8cm high and weighed in at a colossal 285 kilograms.

Although dubbed the ‘Holtermann Nugget’ it was not in fact a nugget, but a mass of gold fused in a mixture of quartz and slate. The gold extracted from the mass weighed in at 93.2kg, and at today’s prices would be worth about $8 million dollars.

The discovery made Holtermann famous, not only Sydney, but also all over the world. With the proceeds from his treasure, he built a mansion in St Leonards on a ridge over Lavender Bay.

It’s all about the money, money, money

People spend their entire lives hoping to strike it rich.

But listen to the words of Christ, and his controversial commands.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Matthew 6:19-20

What’s wrong with gathering treasure on earth?

In of themselves earthly treasure is not bad, it’s just in the long run, in light of eternity, they hold no ultimate value.

Accumulating more and more treasures on earth for ourselves is, according to Jesus, a bad investment.

During the time of Christ, ordinary houses were made of loose stones or mud bricks that were hardened in the sun. Clay walls were often smoothed over with plaster.

Under the cover of darkness, it was not uncommon for robbers to dig through these mud walls to steal the homeowner’s valuable possessions such as gold, silver, jewels and money.

To safeguard precious items, some owners would bury their treasure in the ground or hide them in caves. Still, it would only take a casual observer with a keen eye to return to the place where the items were secretly buried, unearth those possessions and run off with a fortune.

Wealth in New Testament times also comprised of beautiful clothing made from fine linen, intricately embroidered robes, and highly prized garments woven in purple cloth. These were passed down through the generations as precious heirlooms.

However, a few moths, bent on satisfying their hunger pangs could destroy a trove of expensive clothing and make them unfit for use.

In speaking about rust, Jesus didn’t limit it to the corrosion of metals, but to anything which ate into or consumed property. Living in that agrarian society, the things that caused corruption included mice, locusts, and insects that ate and damaged a farm owner’s grain supplies.

Devastating environmental conditions, drought or flood, mold and mildew also wreaked havoc on harvests.

I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go

Sometimes we talk about owning a house, only to discover that the house owns us. We have to spend time earning money to pay back the bank for our mortgage on our McMansion.

When interest rates go up, our repayments go up, but if our wages remain the same then we must find other sources of income to make up for the shortfall.

We might have to find a second job or start a side hustle to earn extra cash. Let’s not forget to mention the money required to maintain the house. Leaky roofs need repair, dirty walls need repainting, pipes crack and need replacing.

And as your family grows (because we like being fruitful and multiplying) we need to build extra bedrooms, bathrooms, rumpus rooms and a swimming pool—for the kids, right?

Then we have to install a security system of cameras and alarms to protect the house and what’s contained within it.

Investing in the sharemarket

The value of silver and gold dips and falls. Resale values are at the mercy of the forces of demand and supply. High-risk ventures promise high returns and high blood pressure.

We are advised to diversify investment portfolios to protect wealth. In other words, not to put all our eggs in one basket, because investing in shares on the stock exchange is subject to fickle economic booms and busts.

Some of my younger readers are familiar with the Culture Kings clothing brand known for its popular streetwear.

Aussie founders Simon and Tah-nee Beard from the Goldcoast established their sneaker and fashion empire in 2008. Recently, in March of this year they saw their wealth plummet from $515 million to $19 million owing to share market fluctuations.

It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security with material wealth.

Is Jesus our treasure above treasures?

He is the one who died for us. He is the one who took the punishment for all our sins.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5&6

He is the one who has forgiven us and restored us to the Father. He is the one who rose from the grave.

He is the one who gives us strength to overcome trials and tribulations, sinful habits, and the schemes of the Enemy. He is the one we enjoy in the here and now. He is the one we will enjoy forever.

His grace is enough.

Faith in Him is enough.

A daily decision to trust in Him, or to trust in earthly treasure

Every day, I must decide who to follow and what kind of person I want to be.

How can I love Him with all my heart, mind and soul and with all my life if lesser things so easily distract me?

I have an enormous collection of books. My shelves are bursting because my books are quietly breeding there.

I have clothes that go in nicely ironed into my wardrobe, but come out wrinkly and creased because they’re tightly squeezed up against each other. Look, there’s nothing inherently wrong with clothes. Please wear clothes because the alternative is terrifying.

When is enough, enough? It might pay for some of us to go to a garbage tip just to remind ourselves that eventually everything ends up there.

It is a scientific fact that human babies are born with a grasping reflex. They will grip and curl their fingers around any object that comes into their hands.

Sometimes grown-ups never get over the grasping reflex. And it develops into a vice like grip for earthly possessions.

Verses like Matthew 6:19-21 remind me to align my heart to God’s heart. To think less of accumulating more in my storehouse here on earth and to think more about investing in heaven.

Treasure in heaven includes people

The riches that God values are the human beings He created with eternal souls. So we must be faithful in sharing the good news of salvation to our family, our friends and those that God brings our way.

Jesus reminds us that there’s a place where the things that He values and the people He loves live on.

These treasures will stand the test of time. They are protected from rust, vermin, decomposition, decay, worms, moths, economic downturns, and fickle market fluctuations.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matt 6:21

Bibliography

Alcorn, R. 2011. Managing God’s Money. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Illinois

Author unspecified. 2023. Bible commentaries. Biblehub.com. Accessed 20 April 2023 from

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/6-19.htm

Australian Geographic staff. 2022. ‘One in a bullion:150 years since the chance discovery of the Holterman Nugget’, Australiangeographic.com. Accessed 20 April 2023 from