The Least Disciple

Do justly, love mercy & walk humbly with your God

The value of Notre Dame in God's Economy

As with most people when I woke to the news that Notre Dame Cathedral had burned I was saddened by the loss of such a beautiful building. With plans to travel to France next year to visit the Taizé Community with our family, Notre Dame (Along with most of Paris) would have been on out list of things to go and see.

Notre Dame burning (CC-BY-SA - LeLaisserPasserA38/Wikipedia)

Certainly this emotion for the loss of a building most of us rarely give a second thought for has been reflected by many people around the world. In the few days since the fire over a over a billion euros have been raised to fund it’s reconstruction, a staggering amount of money.

As a disciple of Jesus I can’t help but see how this demonstrates the vast gulf between our human assessment of worth and God’s assessment of worth. I am reminded that in God’s economy things are very different:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

— God, Isaiah 55:8-9

What value does God put on Notre Dame, or any building made by man for that matter?

It is at times like this we realise just how far from alignment with God’s thinking we are, God who values a human soul over many, many Notre Dames. The riches of this world are insignificant in God’s economy of the Kingdom.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

— Jesus, The Gospel of Matthew

I am sad for the loss of such a beautiful building, but it’s a great reminder that nothing is permanent. All the great works of mankind will likewise burn up one day, along with this entire world, but every human soul will remain.

The fact that we mourn the building more than every un-redeemed sinner passing out of this life into the next just shows how far we differ from God’s estimation of worth.

What is the value of a human soul?

I’ll leave you with this thought on the comparative value of things from the scriptures.

Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honour your father and your mother.’ ”

And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”

So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

— The Gospel of Luke