The Bucket and The Thimble | "The Riches of Want"

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?- Luke 11:9-13

“Wants are my best riches, for they are supplied by Christ.” These were the words of the Puritan Samuel Rutherford as he wrote from his house arrest to the church he was taken from. As mentioned in a previous blog, Rutherford was cast out of his pulpit for his refusal to conform to the Anglican standards imposed by the Church of England. Upon reading his letters you can feel the weight of his grief over his flock, the desire he feels to return to Anwoth, yet you also run across gems like the one I just quoted. How can Rutherford say that all the things that he needs in his life are actually counted as riches to him?

The simple answer to that question is that Rutherford understood that dependency on Christ is more valuable than anything being secure in worldly pleasures could ever be. One of the reasons why materialism is so anti-Gospel is that it convinces our fragile hearts that we are sufficient to take care of ourselves. It begins when we think we provide for the basic needs of our lives, and then it progresses until we internally, whether consciously or not, fancy ourselves as our own saviours. The problem there, as we all know, is that that foundation is built on crumbling ground. Don’t believe me? Just ask the author of Ecclesiastes,

“The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile. When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes? (Ecc. 5:10-11)”

Worse yet, when we depend on our own provisions and begin to consider ourselves our own saviors, we can reject the true Savior, just as the rich young ruler did. Jesus called him to sell what he had, give to the poor, and follow him. The young man went away grieving because he had great wealth. Jesus exposed something that the man himself had not yet fully understood: the possessions he had accumulated had become more precious to him than following Christ. The way in which the young man had sought to “master his life” had revealed what was truly mastering him.

This is the significance of the passage we read on Sunday. Jesus, in his teaching on prayer points out the wonderful nature of our father in Heaven. As Pastor Joe pointed out, Jesus’ promise here is not that we will receive the things we think we need, those things often turn out to be the exact opposite of what we need; but the promise is that God will give us the things he knows we need, namely the Holy Spirit.

This is why Jesus teaches us to ask. Prayer is not an exercise in convincing God to give us what we want; it is the posture of a child acknowledging that his Father knows what he needs. The Christian does not come to God because he has everything figured out. He comes because he knows he doesn't.

Therefore, to be in want in this life—to need—is not necessarily the absence of riches. It is the presence of Christ’s riches: riches that do not leave us on shaky foundations, riches that do not simply fill us with an ever-increasing desire for more. Instead, God satisfies us through the Holy Spirit. Who could be in want with riches like these?