“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” — Matthew 6:20 (NIV)
A long time ago I played a ‘Christian’ version of that old board game, the “Game of Life”. Yes, you know it, that awful, interminable slog across the board with the little cars that take the little blue and pink pegs. But this was the ‘Christian’ version, so it was worse.
It was smarmy and patronizing and had no edge whatsoever. I was going to find a link to it, but although my searches turned up pink terriers and life size stands of Hannah Montana, mercifully this game seems to be buried, even on the internet.
The key aspect to the Christian version was that when you died, you threw away all your money. Well, that’s not quite true. What you did was you kept two envelopes for your money. One was your money and the other was your ‘Treasures in Heaven (Heavenly Treasures? I can’t remember). Whether you won or lost depended on what you had in that second envelope.
But you couldn’t just stuff all your cash in there. Oh no. You had to hit special opportunities to give to the poor before you could transfer your cash to heavenly stuff. And then, only if you drew the card that told you your heart was right. Fun stuff.
So the game is, make as much money as you can, and try and stuff as much as you can into the second envelope, which means you win when you die. It becomes your ticket. Something is most definitely wrong with this model.
But I can understand why that model is in the game.
The interpretation of Matthew 6:20 that I accepted growing up was along the lines of,
“Do all sorts of good stuff that you will be rewarded for when you die. As you do good stuff, you build up treasures that you will get in the form of heaven – treasures that are waiting for you to receive them.”
That’s not an uncommon reading of the verse, I think, and it goes a long way towards explaining the awfulness of that board game.
And then… along comes Dallas Willard with a word of clarity for me…
Nothing – no human being or institution, no time, no space, no spirtiual being, no event – stands between God and those who trust and serve him. The heavens” are always there with you no matter what, and the “first heaven, in biblical terms, is precisely the atmosphere or air that surrounds your body. — The Divine Consipiracy, p.67
So to dicuss our treasures is really to discuss our treasurings. — p. 204
In short, building up treasures in heaven is not a spiritual savings account. The heavens (and the kingdom of heaven) are everpresent – God is always right next to me; in the air around me. Treasures in heaven are not distant, future rewards that I don’t get to have until I die.
They are things I have right now, in reality. They are the spiritual things that I choose to treasure. The verse now sounds like,
“Value spiritual things of real worth that are indestructable and that no one can strip you of. This is the way to live, right now, in the kingdom of heaven.”
It makes sense – am I afraid of earthly treasures disappearing after I die? No, I’m afraid of moths, thieves and rust taking them away in my lifetime. In the same way, the persistence of heavenly treasures is of consequence in my lifetime. They’re the foundation necessary for building this life around.
I like this reading better 
