How about that Epistle (September 27, 2009)
By Rev. Steve Bagnall

Wow! How about that epistle!? – “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.” Yikes – “weep and howl?” You can sure tell in this passage that God hates rich people.

Doesn’t He? I mean, the rich man who walked past the beggar Lazarus ended up in hell.

On the other hand, when Jesus died all of his fisherman disciples ran away, but a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, boldly asked for Jesus’ body, wrapped it for burial and provided his own tomb for His Lord. We also read that God showed His blessing on Abraham, Solomon and many others of His people by giving them great wealth.
So simply being rich isn’t the problem, is it? The question is what you do with your wealth. The people James is condemning here hoard up their money – they cheat their workers and store up great treasures for themselves while leaving others in need. James’ words here echo what Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
The people’s hearts were in the wrong place. The rich people James writes about had their eyes on the wrong treasure. They had the wrong measure of success. They believed that the goal of life is financial success – how much wealth can I amass. Wrong! The measure of human life is how much love we give away.
If the God of heaven were these people’s true first love, then their greatest aim would be to please Him, to receive a word of praise from the Heavenly Father. When a young man is smitten with a girl, just think how far he will go to please her, just to get a smile or a kind word. How much more does the pure heart seek to please God, how much more would the faithful soul be willing to do to please the LORD? And God is clear about how to gain the unmatched treasure of pleasing Him – love one another – help the poor, visit the sick, feed the hungry, spread His gospel – these are the way to eternal treasures, these are the way to real riches – the love of God.
Yet some people turn money – or fame or popularity or peace or sexuality or power or family or some other thing – into their God and commit all their energy to storing up this earthly treasure, treasure that rusts or rots – treasure that fades and dies, treasure that is for this world only. We know people like this – we see them daily – misers and power-mongers and all sorts of people who can see no further than this day or this week or this life and who can see no further than themselves and their own temporary desires.
In contrast, consider this man, the bleeding One, the suffering One – the One on the cross. You know His story. In His earthly life He was simply this, a poor child born and raised in a poor family, who remained a poor preacher as an adult and who died in poverty, owning nothing but the clothes on His back, and even these were taken away. He has nothing. His fame is gone – disappeared with the sentence of death. His power left with His disciples when they fled in fear. A few faithful, sobbing women and one young man stand with Him, a small band to watch His blood drip and His breath slow.
But birth wasn’t the beginning of this Man, nor is death His end. This poor Man is Jesus, God of the universe, eternally-begotten Son of the Heavenly Father. His wealth includes all there is – the wonders of Heaven – all things were under His feet – but His heart is greater than that. His heart led Him in love to set aside all that majesty, to become this poor dying man, gasping for breath, burdened in His soul with the guilt of your sin and mine.
Jesus gave up everything – literally everything – in order to take your sins to the cross, to earn your forgiveness, to buy you back from sin and hell, to win you as His own. His treasure never appeared in His earthly life – only sorrow, rejection disappointment and pain. But in eternity the glories of heaven are His, along with the Name that trumps all names – Savior!
So which of these two people are you more like, the miser or the Savior? When you decide how much time you can use in serving the church and school, or in helping your neighbor and fellow citizens which are you more like? Whose treasure do you seek when speaking God’s word might lose you a friend? Which of these do you most resemble when you’re budgeting your money and deciding how it will be spent, when you are deciding how to use your voice, how to spend your hours. Which treasure do you seek?
Friends, the treasures of this world are wonderful, gifts from our loving God, but they are only temporary, tokens of the Creator’s love to sustain us and give us joy in our time on this earth. The real gold and silver is eternal life in the presence of God. Have you earned that with a perfect life of seeking to please your Maker? Have you been like Jesus every day – in every decision? No. And so James’ words, “weep and howl” are for you and for me.
But the treasure of eternity, the glorious wages earned by the perfect Man Jesus can still be yours. In fact, they already are yours. He won them for you. He offers them to you. He delivers them to you. The eternal riches of righteousness and God’s good favor are yours as a free gift of this Savior Jesus. He emptied Himself of glory so that He could take your guilt – to the cross, into death, into the grave. But His reward is resurrection and eternal life and He shares that with you. Trust Him. He calls you to true riches; riches that do not rust, the blessing of God that does not fade away.
Amen.