The Jesus Touch

Stewardship Sunday

November 20, 2005

The Jesus Touch

It's an old story. It's a familiar story. But there is evidence that we have lost the meaning for which it was told.

It is a legend of ancient Greece about a king of the country of Phrygia. One day, so the legend goes, the king did a favor for the god, Dionysus. Dionysus, to repay the favor, told the king he could have any one thing he wanted. Well, the king thought and thought about it. Any one thing he wanted - no matter what good thing he considered, his thoughts kept returning to the only thing he really wanted above all else: money! The king loved money more than anything else. He was a miser, a person who felt the more money he had, the happier he would be. So the king asked Dionysus for the gift of the golden touch, the power to turn anything he touched into gold. Dionysus was saddened by the king's request, but a promise was a promise, so the request was granted.

The king sat back on his throne, overjoyed at his good fortune and the wisdom of his choice. Even as he was sitting back, he felt the silken cushions underneath him harden, cool and glisten, no longer silk but solid gold. The king was enchanted. He touched his sleeve and saw it turn to gold. Like a child delighted with a new toy, he rushed about the throne room touching one object after another, until the entire hall flashed golden in the morning sun.

When the hall was transformed to his satisfaction, he went out into his garden, leaving a trail of golden footprints on the ground. It was really a beautiful garden, filled with myriads of roses of every hue and size and fragrance. Birds sang in the trees, bees buzzed from flower to flower, and small animals played there unafraid. The garden was the absolute favorite spot of the king's young daughter, but he himself was totally unaffected by its beauty of sight and sound and fragrance. He dashed about from tree to tree and from rose to rose, turning the living plants into lifeless gold.

At, length, tired from all his labor, he went back inside and summoned his slaves to bring in food and drink for his refreshment. But, as he raised the meat from the platter, it hardened in his hand to solid gold. As he lifted a forkful of food, it only touched his lips and it too was gold. The wine in the goblet solidified before he could swallow. At last the awful situation began to dawn upon him. "Oh dear," he thought, "am I to starve to death while eating off dishes of solid gold?"

While he was contemplating the situation his little daughter burst into the room, sobbing and heart-broken. "Father," she cried, showing him a handful of long-stemmed golden roses, "someone has killed all our lovely flowers!" "It was I," the king said. "They are ever so much lovelier now." But she shook her head and pleaded, "Oh, no Father, please put them back. Please make them alive again." She was so saddened and sorrowful that the king, filled with pity and love, held out his arms to embrace his little daughter. But the instant he touched her, his daughter was gone, and he held in his arms only a statue of his daughter, a statue of solid gold. Stricken with horror and dismay, he cried out in anguish for help. But there was no help. All the slaves and servants, all the people of the court, had fled in terror. The king gently laid the statue, once his daughter, on a couch and sat broken beside her, desiring nothing but his own death.

All the rest of the day he sat there, un-pitied, uncomforted and helpless. When night fell, the god, Dionysus, returned to the empty, silent palace. He saw the situation and spoke to the king, asking him just one question: "Are you satisfied?" Slowly the king answered: "I was wrong” he said, "I was wrong. I see it now only too clearly. All the things that really are important, that really have value, I had and didn't even realize it. Now it is too late. If only I could have this curse taken away and my daughter back, I wouldn't care what happened to me. Please, please," he begged, "please!"

You've heard this legend before. You remember that the name of the king was Midas. Midas discovered that his greatest desire - money - was really the most useless thing he could have. He found that his golden touch was in reality his curse, not his blessing. And he gave to the world the term, the "Midas touch". When we see someone to whom money and possessions come easily, someone for whom nearly every venture turns into profit, we say of him that he has the "Midas touch".

I began by saying that there is evidence that we have lost the meaning for which this legend was told. It seems that a great many people remember only the first part of the legend and forget what happened as a result of Midas' greed. The legend teaches that the "Midas touch" was a curse; we use the term as if it were a blessing. There is a nation-wide muffler chain called Midas. That should warn us that those mufflers are cursed, but it doesn't. It stirs up in us positive feelings, not negative. If we say of someone, "He has the Midas touch", it is not out of compassion for him, as if her were cursed, but out of amazement that he should be so lucky. We don't pity the person who has the "Midas touch"; we envy him. We don't shun that quality; we covet it. We have heard the story but have forgotten its lesson.

A great many people have as their highest aim and ambition the making of money, the turning of a profit, the acquisition of things. They look with pride and satisfaction on the "Midas touch" when they have it, and with envy and regret when they don't. They live by such phrases as: "Make something of yourself", "Get ahead", "to the victor belong the spoils", "what's in it for me?", "success is its own reward". So often they communicate the feeling that if a person is making money he is doing what he's supposed to do, and if he is not making money he is not doing what he is supposed to do. They act like there is a rightness about having things and a wrongness about not having them. They tend to correlate richness and accomplishment on the one hand, and poverty and failure on the other. In other words, a great many forget the point of the legend and desire for themselves exactly what Midas desired, the ability and power to have what we touch with our hands turn to gold. It is the accumulation of wealth for its own sake.

Does the "Midas touch" continue to carry a curse? Answer for yourselves as you listen to the fate of eight such men who seemingly had that touch and suffered its consequences. In 1923 eight of the; world's wealthiest men met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. At the time they controlled more money than was contained in the United States Treasury. Consider the story of their pursuits and their end gain.

Charles Schwab, President of the largest independent steel company, died broke. Arthur Cutten, greatest wheat speculator, died abroad insolvent. Richard Whitney, President of the New York Stock Exchange, died just after his release from Sing-Sing. Albert Fall, member of the President's Cabinet, was pardoned from prison to die at home. Jesse Livermore, greatest "bear" on Wall Street, committed suicide. Leon Fraser, President of the Bank of International Settlements, committed suicide. Ivan Krueger, head of the world's greatest monopoly, committed suicide.

Yes, the curse still works. Such, indeed, calls to mind to parable of the foolish rich man who built larger barns to store his abundance, but died that night. And Jesus said, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the , things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Or in Matthew, "What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?"

It's quite the opposite with Christians! Quite the opposite! The Christian does not live by "what I get", but by "what I give". He does not have the "Midas touch", and he doesn't want it. He has what is called the "Jesus touch". In short, the Christian emphasizes, prizes and desires exactly the opposite of what most other people do.

The Christian, in fact, turns the phrases other people live by inside out! He has no desire to "make something" of himself, because he knows that Jesus already has made him all he can ever be or hope to be, freed from sin and a child of God. The Christian does not worry about "getting ahead" for himself, but rather concerns himself with others who have fallen behind. He is not concerned with gaining spoils from any of his victories, because he realizes that the only victory worth noting or celebrating is Christ's victory. The Christian does not have time to ask "What's in it for me?" because he is too busy asking, "What can be in this for you?" Far from accumulating wealth, the Christian finds ways his wealth may help others. He does not have the "Midas touch”; he has the "Jesus touch".

The legend, by the way, does have a happy ending. King Midas was so repentant and beseeching that Dionysus was moved and agreed to help. He told the king to go to a nearby river and bathe there if he wanted the golden touch removed. The king ran to the river, bathed, and stepped out cleansed in body and spirit. Then he carried water from the river, sprinkling it on every tree, shrub and rose in the garden. When he had done this he carried water in his hands to the golden couch on which lay the lovely gold statue of his daughter, pouring the restoring drops on her head, and her life was restored to her and he again had the real treasure in his life.

It is so easy to be seduced into the Midas touch mentality. Ours is continually a choice between the "Midas touch" and the "Jesus touch", the hording of time, talent, and treasure for personal satisfaction, and the sharing of time, talent, and treasure that benefits others.

Is there water that takes away our "Midas touch" mentality and substitutes for it the "Jesus touch"? There is. It is the water of baptism. It is remembering that precious water that made us children of God and inheritors of eternal life that frees us from the self-centered use of our time, talent and treasure, and motivates their use for others. Your financial pledge cards, and time and talent pledge sheets are expressions of that freedom. I pray that you use them. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.