Psalm 49:1-11
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
Most of the Jewish Bible pre-dates belief in eternal
life. Ecclesiastes has a particularly bleak assessment of human existence and
mortality. “*Everything is a vapor”—it says, to start a book which declares
that life is not fair and things don’t work out for the best. Work is drudgery
and busyness—(the same Greek word Jesus said to Martha). He basically asks, “What’s
the point?” and in 2:24 advises us to eat, drink and enjoy what time we have,
before we disappear forever.
Ps 49 takes up a
similar theme—both the wise and the foolish will die, leaving everything they
have to others. Even the rich cannot ransom their life from God. Our sense of control is actually an illusion.
In Jesus Christ, however, the dark view of human toil and mortality are seen in a new light. The resurrection
of Jesus changes everything and Paul exhorts us to a new way of thinking. We must
“put off the old humanity” (paleos anthropos) and “put on the new [self],” our “mind
renewed in the image (ikon) of the creator."
The Ancient Church
teaching on the passions and theosis is all found here in the Colossians
reading. Theosis focuses our mind above because that is where Jesus
reigns. Ecclesiastes paints an accurate picture of life on earth. Our Lord saves
us from the earthly, which Paul delineates:
Porneia—literally any form of sexual immorality, figuratively idolatry.
Akatharsia—uncleanness, impurity, lust; the opposite of holiness.
Pathos—passion, illicit desires which cause us pain
Epithymia—desire, craving, longing, lusts for what is forbidden
Obviously, all
four overlap, and each reveals how our souls are tied to the earthly. Sin is deadly, and
death is of sin. Every sinful behavior is produced by these earthly desires and
it is our behaviors which ruin us, our loved ones and our world.
Last of all Paul
lists pleonexia (greed, avarice, covetousness) which literally means “to have
more.” Each person want more because nothing satisfies the hunger within us. Always is search
for something different, something else, something more… Paul says pleonexia
is actually eidolotria—idolatry.
Our hearts were
made for God, He is the Something More which we desire. The holy desire is union (theosis) with God and others
in love, but in our brokenness our heart is twisted and betrays us. The passions, lusts, unclean desires and greed are distortions of the true
desire. Only God can satisfy our hearts, so the couunterfeit desires are really
creating false gods. The tragedy of life in a fallen world is that we desire what hurts us and we desire to have more and
more of it to satisfy our longing.
It is pleonexia
which Jesus warns us about in the Gospel. Jesus is not among us to settle
property disputes—to distribute resources. Jesus came to heal the passions not
feed them. Jesus quotes from Ecclesiastes—the rich man who says ‘now I can
eat, drink and be merry,”--but Jesus calls him a fool, for tonight, says Jesus, you
die. For the author of Ecclesiastes, death was the end, but for Jesus it is only the beginning.
It is hard for us wealthy
Americans, driven by the passions and always wanting more and more, to become
rich for God. There is so much for us abundance around us... We can stay busy and distracted, perhaps even believing in a God whose job it is to settle our disputes and give us what we think we are owed. This is to limit ourselves to the old humanity--living as if the here and now is all that matters. This is to choose death. There is another way. The way to life in Jesus is death to old
humanity, a rejection of the earthly passions. Let us truly and deeply repent. Let us truly seek the heavenly
things where Jesus is. Let us truly choose life.
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