There’s a popular song nowadays among many churches whose melody and lyrics I enjoy worshiping the Lord with, but one particular line gives me heartburn. It goes like this:
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a
Hallelujah, hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a king
Except for a heart singing
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Now, while this may be true to the songwriter’s experience, “I’ve nothing else fit for a king” is not the truth of Scripture. My intent here is not for shredding but lionizing a more excellent way to think about our relationship with Christ.
“I’ve nothing else fit for a king except for a heart singing hallelujah.” What’s the basic premise behind this kind of thinking? Well, my giving to the Lord is what I do for Him, what act or material contribution I can give back to Him. I sing; that’s the only thing I can do that’s fit for King Jesus, right? Hmm. God is an everflowing fountain, an incessant giver, who seeks out emptiness that He can fill! Since it’s more blessed to give than it is to receive, we can bless God all the more by our receptivity to Him and those gifts He desires to lavish upon us. That’s a much different direction than “all that I have is a hallelujah.” Giving to God our hallelujah is but one beautiful expression of our giving. But it’s not all there is that’s fit for our King. And, yes, certainly we do give Him our time, attention, service and finances. But what I want to highlight is a way that perhaps you haven’t thought about before. At least I hadn’t.
Recently I’ve been going through the Gospel of John with a men’s group where I attend church. The Spirit fresh light on this well-worn passage has lifted me up out of its ruts to reconsider what Jesus really treasures in my relationship with Him.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12 ESV
The Jewish leaders hearing this, took issue with this assertion, so they tried discrediting Jesus’ witness. John concludes this debate by teasing us with this intriguing comment:
These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple…
John 8:20 ESV
Why do we need to know this happened in the treasury, John? Why draw attention to this? So these “I am the light of the world” words that kicked off this controversy with the Pharisees took place in the treasury. Treasury in Greek is gazophylakion (gad-zof-oo-lahk’-ee-on, whose rhythmic musical meter makes it fun to say!) Gazophylakion is a compound word of gaza, treasure, and phylakē, to watch or guard. This is the only time John uses it in his gospel. The other four times are the setting for the poor widow’s two mites that excelled everybody else’s surplus giving, as recounted by Mark and Luke. In the Septuagint it shows up 12 times, usually linked with storing tithes and offerings brought to the temple (e.g., Neh 10:38, 13:5). In summary gazophylakion lexical usage in the New Testament and the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament always refer to it in connection with people bringing their money or offerings to be stored there. Except here in the way John is using it. He’s the lone exception to the general rule. This deliberate flipping on its head the typical way we think of treasury is what John wants us to rethink about relating to Jesus. The Lord Jesus is giving us fresh eyes to see what bringing our treasures to Him in the treasury is really all about.
So what about John 8:12-20 is pertinent to the treasury? Well, verses 13 through 19 all relate to the ping pong match between Jesus and the Pharisees. In that dialogue there doesn’t seem to be anything related to giving towards a treasury. The singular statement that holds the key to the treasury appears to be this: “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” What makes this giving in the gazophylakion unique here is that it has nothing to do with money. All other gazophylakion usages comprise money or other physical gifts or offerings. Not here. Here it’s following Jesus. This giving to the treasury is framed by following Him!
And of course, we can never outgive the Lord. Our giving of following Him is reciprocated over and above by Him giving us Himself to us as the “light of life.” The Pharisees, laboring so hard to discredit Jesus’ witness, didn’t want to follow Him. They were so meticulous to tithe on every leaf but refused to follow Jesus. Ironically, by not following, in Jesus’ estimation they brought no treasures to the temple. “One greater than the temple,” Jesus said, “is here.”
So our following Him is what He treasures! To illustrate this further, let’s glimpse at a passage from the Old Testament. God called the prophet Jeremiah to remind the people of their first love they’d abandoned. The Lord speaks through Jeremiah as a wounded lover to His bride who’d deserted Him:
“I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord,
the firstfruits of his harvest.
Jeremiah 2:2-3 ESV
Search the Hebrew Bible from end to end and you’ll discover that this is perhaps the fondest memory the Lord had of His people. Freshly delivered from the taskmasters of Egypt through the Red Sea, they followed Him through the wilderness devoted to Him as a loving bride. Reading through the bitterness and heartbreak of Jeremiah 2, we get a sense of just how precious and treasured Israel’s following was to Him. They no longer sought after Him, saying, “Where is the Lord?” They instead were following the roads to Egypt and Babylon, the world, to be satisfied. Whereas John 8 employs the metaphor of light, Jeremiah’s is of water. When one follows Jesus, he “will have the light of life.” When Israel followed Jesus, they had the water of life, living waters. They were to be living cisterns filled the fountain of living waters, the Lord Himself (Jer 2:13). All that I have is a hallelujah? No, I can give Him my emptiness, my nothingness, my neediness. When my heart is dry ground, I offer it to Christ to pour out His rivers of living waters upon it. It’s only because of Jesus’ blood that we’ve been cleansed and made fit to give to the King our empty cistern. We give Jesus our nothingness to be filled with His everything-ness! We present our empty cistern for Him to fill up with Himself as living life-giving waters! Day after day after day. That’s part of what it means to follow the Lord. This kind of following is treasure that Jesus delights in.
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 