An
article about a thief caught my eye in a recent issue of The Week magazine. It
struck me as a great topic for a Lent devotional, an opportunity to look at
God’s Law, how sin pollutes even the kindest of hearts, and God’s solution to
our 10-fold problem: We just can’t obey God’s Law, instructions meant for
everyone on Earth long before there were Christians.
In
the second book of the Bible, Moses brings the Ten Commandments down from Mt.
Sinai (Exodus 32:5-16). The first three tell us how we should live in relation
to God; the remaining 7 tell us how we should live in relation to our fellow
human beings. We Lutherans look at it in the form of the Cross: our vertical
relationship with God, then our horizontal relationship with others, distilled
down to what’s known as Christ’s Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great
and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
From
the beginning we’re to have only one God, we’re not to disgrace His name, and
we’re to go to church; next come the 7 don’ts—don’t neglect/abuse your parents,
murder, cheat on your spouse, steal, say mean or false things about others, nor
covet…wait, what? Covet? Yes, covet. If sin were a baseball bat, coveting would
be the sweet spot.
According
to The Week, Frenchman Stephane Breitwieser “has robbed more than $1.4 billion
worth of art from nearly 200 museums and steals like he’s performing a magic
trick, without violence or a frantic getaway. When he sees a piece he likes,
says Breitwieser, 47, ‘I get smitten. Looking at something beautiful, I can’t
help but weep.’ He never sells anything he steals, but simply brings the work
home to adore. ‘The pleasure of having,’ he says, ‘is stronger than the fear
of stealing.’”
Coveting
is a stealthy sin that manifests itself in the behaviors of the self-righteous,
the self-absorbed, the self-loving and self-gratifying—let’s face it, coveting
is the dark art of not just desiring, but getting what we want (what doesn’t
belong to us, in most cases). It means obsessing over something, believing we
can’t be happy without it, or trying to figure out how to get it. Coveting is
dissatisfaction with all God’s given us—believing that we know what we need and
what will make us happy better than God.
We
covet to fill a need or void, to have something we think we deserve, even if
it’s something (money, property, spouse, job, status, etc.) that belongs to
someone else. Coveting replaces our God with one or more little gods, and is
the catalyst for crime, whether art theft or something more violent, like
murder or rape. Coveting breaks up families and infects our relationship with
God and others.
This
Lenten season, I am trying to focus more on all that God has given me, in spite
of my daily transgressions, rather than on what I don’t have. I am trying to
focus more on the Cross where Jesus endured the wrath of God for my sin, in
my place. I am trying to remember daily that, in Christ Jesus, I have
everything I need.
Stephane
Breitwieser “is perhaps the most prolific art thief in history.” God, on the
other hand, is the most prolific artist in history. When we dabble in the art
of coveting, we, too, are art thieves, the likes of which Breitwieser pales in
comparison!
Until
next month, may the Lord bless you and keep you,
