What it’s Like

In Rome, in the year 258, Emperor Valerian, bewitched by Egyptian magicians into weeding out the Christians, made a decree that all bishops, priests, and deacons (all the leaders of the Church) were to be put to death. The goal was to bring Christianity to its end and preserve the idolatrous practice of worshipping and serving only the emperor of Rome.

After much beheading, a deacon of the church named Lawrence was next in line. His duty in the church was to tend to the poor and needy and to manage the church's money. When the prefect of Rome was sent to behead Lawrence, he learned of the great treasure that lay with the Church, treasure Lawrence was in charge of. So the prefect made Lawrence a deal: in exchange for his life, Lawrence would bring the Church's treasure to him. Lawrence agreed, asking only for three days to gather it all. His request was granted, and he was released.

Three days later Lawrence returned and presented three carriages full of the Church's treasure. The carriages were full of orphans, widows, and the poor and needy. Lawrence had depleted the whole treasury of the church and given it to the people in those carriages. He presented them to the prefect and said, "Behold the treasure of the Kingdom."

As you can imagine, this incited the prefect to anger. He commanded his soldiers to bind Lawrence, and instead of beheading him, he committed him to a slow and painful death by way of the gridiron. The gridiron was a human barbecue: a grate the size of a grown man, on which they bound Lawrence and set him over flaming coals to roast him alive. While this was happening, Lawrence began praying and singing to his God, asking that his roasting would be a fragrant offering, a sweet-smelling aroma to God. He prayed the words of Psalm 51, that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. His body was breaking on that grate, and he offered the breaking to God as worship. When he was ordered to be quiet, and his jaw was broken with a stone, Lawrence taunted the soldiers instead. He told them he was done on this side, and to flip him over and cook the other.

On August 10, 258, Saint Lawrence died, giving his life for the Kingdom and to the one true God. Lawrence treasured the Kingdom of God above his own life: those to whom it belongs, and its King. And his death became a dragnet. Rome watched him die, and its idol worship began to lose its grip. Many came to believe and were baptized into the church. His death was also like leaven. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened. Lawrence's martyrdom was hidden in the lump of Rome, and it worked its way quietly through the whole empire, house by house, heart by heart, until the empire itself rose. Within about fifty years, under Constantine, Rome renounced its idols and became a Christian empire.

Lawrence's life gives us a picture of what Jesus is talking about. What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? It is like the life of Lawrence, who treasured the Kingdom of Heaven above his own life, and whose death cast a dragnet and worked like leaven, increasing the Kingdom's number and influence and transforming a murderous empire into a redeemed one.

Now, we do not have gridirons today. There are no decrees to kill Christians in our present time. But the ways of the Kingdom have not changed. We do not face the resistance Lawrence faced, but we have our own trials that seek to keep us from treasuring the Kingdom of Heaven above all. In our comfort we grow numb enough not to concern ourselves with treasuring the Kingdom at all. We look after ourselves more than those to whom the Kingdom belongs. We slide into lethargy because there is no threat on our lives, living in a "free" country where believing in Christ costs us nothing.

I would say the enemy's strategy has changed. When he sought to steal, kill, and destroy Christianity through death, it only grew. So the enemy, who is more cunning than you or I, changed his ways. Now he calmly and peacefully offers you all sorts of treasure and ease to distract you from the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven. If he can make you comfortably numb, at peace, fattened up, he will accomplish through comfort what he could not accomplish through the sword. He will kill you with kindness. With comfort. With no threat at all. You do not have to sacrifice.

He will see to it that you come to believe the opposite of what Jesus says. Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven will cost you. The enemy will tell you it doesn't have to cost you anything, and he will hand you everything just to keep you cool, calm, and collected, selfishly building your own life up rather than the Kingdom, focused on your needs rather than those in need. He will give you carts of riches so you never find that the Kingdom of Heaven is the only treasure there is.

Now hear me rightly. It is true that Christ made the ultimate sacrifice so that the Kingdom could be found and entered at all. Without Jesus, the Kingdom is out of reach for all mankind. But Jesus, who paid it all, still requires you to follow in His way of sacrifice and cross-bearing to have life in His Kingdom. He has opened its gates to you, and you enter through those gates the same way they were opened: by letting go of this world. A life laid down for the Kingdom is the password that grants admittance, because it is the code of the King, who laid down His own life.

So how do we apply this today, in lives with access to so much ease and under no threat at all? I would say we begin by laying down the desires of our flesh, which will be a trial all its own. We forsake the ways of the world, which may not meet much resistance, but it will gain you judgmental looks, because you live differently than everyone else and treasure what the world doesn't.

You do not have to be a martyr to share the heart and belief of the martyr. You may be willing to lay down your life for Christ and never be asked to lay it down. But you can live in such a way that you share the same heart and life as those who died for their faith. You can be every bit as kingdom-minded. Tend to the poor and needy. Put others' interests above your own. Treasure in your heart all that Christ has done. You can share the life of a martyr without the pain of death for it.

And the reality of the Kingdom is not only something we die for. It is something we enter, together, every Sunday. When we gather and walk into the sanctuary, it is as if we step onto an elevator that carries us up into heaven to join its worship of Christ. In the Kingdom of Heaven, Christ is worshipped and glorified constantly, without ceasing. When we gather on Sunday for worship, we ascend into that Kingdom and join them: all the saints gathered here, and all who have gone before us, together worshipping Jesus. This is why forsaking every other place and committing to worship on Sunday is itself an act of treasuring the Kingdom. When you treasure the Kingdom, you will do whatever it takes to join it. You would not forsake the assembling of God's people and miss entering the Kingdom, in a tangible way, where heaven and earth meet around the throne. This too is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, in a very real sense.

It is not for me to evaluate your life or measure how much you treasure the Kingdom. It is for you to determine whether you are willing to sell all you have to buy the field the Kingdom is buried in. Consider where your treasure lies today. Consider what you will pay to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

For those who have ears, let them hear.

Peace be with you,

Pastor Bruce