MY WIFE AND I live in what I would consider a reasonably quiet and safe suburban neighborhood in Southern California. Reasonably. Though we usually park our car in the driveway, one night I left it in the street. I came out in the morning to find that it had been vandalized; the driver’s window had been shattered. Apparently, someone drove by and hurled a piece of steel pipe at it for fun. I found the pipe lying next to the gas pedal surrounded by bits of glass.

But the driveway was no guarantee of safety either. When I forgot to lock the car one night, someone stole money from inside it and walked away, leaving the door wide open. And I’ve accidentally left my garage open at night and had a power drill stolen — a good one. They didn’t touch the cheap stuff.

Nor is it just us. At another home on our block, a thief smashed a sliding glass door, took a few small things, then rode away on a bicycle. Another house was vacant and being renovated for resale; someone stole the new air-conditioning unit from the backyard. Obviously, they would have needed a truck to do it; it’s not like someone could pick it up and go running down the street. But nobody saw it happen.

Yep. It’s pretty peaceful around here.

Like most of the families in our neighborhood, we now have a security system. Has it made us any safer? There’s no way to know. Has it made us at least feel safer? Maybe. But here’s the thing. I suspect that having to remember to set the alarm every night, and being careful not to set it off accidentally (yes, I’ve done that, more than once), has made us more vigilant, not less. Our security system, then, while protecting us against something that may never happen, isn’t doing much for our sense of insecurity.

Maybe we should call them “potential deterrent systems” instead of “security systems.” But who would pay for that?

JESUS TEACHES HIS disciples to pray for God’s will to be done throughout the earth. That includes learning to avoid temptation and becoming people of abundant and authentic mercy. Even the prayer for our daily bread is to have a big-picture perspective, knowing that we are dependent upon a God who is always at work, shepherding the world toward the day in which all will be as it should be. That is our hope; that is our security.

That’s why, after the prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples this:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21, NIV)

There’s that eschatological, big-picture perspective again. Jesus isn’t necessarily saying that “treasure” is inherently bad; he’s making a clear contrast between earthly treasure and heavenly treasure. Nor is he necessarily saying that we shouldn’t desire earthly goods at all. Rather, he’s saying that there’s no security in them.

For one, they can be destroyed by natural causes. In a day long before polyester and synthetic fabrics, clothing was vulnerable to being eaten my moth larvae, which would feed on any fiber that came from an animal, like wool. Occasionally, they would also go after plant-based fibers like cotton, especially if they were stained with sweat or other…um, bodily fluids. Yum.

Earthly goods are also vulnerable to what the New International Version translates as “vermin,” and other translations render as “rust.” The underlying word doesn’t really mean either vermin or rust; it means “eating.” Whatever the culprit might be, Jesus is basically saying that earthly treasure decays.

And, of course, it can be stolen. The word translated as “break in” literally means to “dig through.” The picture is of someone tunneling through the wall of a house built with mud-brick, or possibly digging through the floor to find where the owner’s treasure had been buried for safekeeping.

Jesus makes a similar point in the gospel of Luke, in what is sometimes known as “the parable of the rich fool.” Jesus was teaching a large crowd, and someone in the audience called out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). Luke doesn’t tell us what the situation was. The man may have had a legitimate complaint, and was asking Jesus to intervene. You may have seen this yourself: instead of uniting in grief over the death of a parent, the siblings fall to fighting over the inheritance.

Jesus will have none of it:

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:14-15)

He tells the parable to drive home the point. One year, a rich man has such an abundant harvest that he has nowhere to store the extra grain. So he tears down his barns, builds bigger ones, then sits back and tells himself to take life easy, because he’s set for several years.

But God calls the man a fool, Jesus says, because he will die that very night and everything he has will go to someone else. The punchline of the parable? “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

THERE’S NO SECURITY in earthly treasure; only heavenly treasure is secure, is eternal. Moreover, as Jesus warns, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). Everything Jesus has taught in the Sermon on the Mount has been about the heart, about one’s innermost desires and intentions. The kingdom of heaven isn’t about religious behavior; it’s about wanting what God wants and living accordingly. So do we want to be rich in earthly terms, or rich toward God?

Jesus isn’t saying that we shouldn’t care about having a decent retirement income. He’s not saying we should get rid of our 401Ks. It’s wise to plan ahead. But such earthly plans are always vulnerable to market forces and the like. Indeed, not even Social Security is truly secure!

But amidst the uncertainties and vulnerabilities of life on this planet, Jesus wants his disciples to live eschatologically, to be big-picture people. Those who would live according to the kingdom of heaven will seek heavenly treasure, will live with an eye on eternity and a heart full of hope.