Coming off of Christmas, you almost have to detox your kids from the gimme, gimme attitude. Throughout the month of December whenever our kids would watch TV, every time commercials came on all we’d here was, “I want that. I want that.” Of course, then they go to grandma’s house for Christmas and are thoroughly spoiled.
I don’t fault grandma. That’s her job, but as parents, our job is to bring our children back down to earth and help them to understand that you don’t just get something because you want it. There is a price to be paid for everything you want, and since you can’t buy everything, you must make a choice about what’s really important.
I remember as a kid I had learned to ride a bike on my brother’s bike, but more than anything in the world I wanted a bike of my own. My mom took the opportunity instill in me this value of money and the work that goes into buying things. I did odd jobs around the house, and I saved my birthday money. It seemed like I saved forever when in reality it was likely only a couple of weeks. In the end I had a sandwich baggie full of change and a couple of dollar bills. We scoured the newspaper classifieds for a bicycle, and my mom and I went down to buy it.
Looking back, I likely hadn’t saved as much as I thought I had, and my mom likely paid for most of the bike. But it was my very first bike, and I had bought it with my own money. It’s a lesson that each of us have had to learn, and it’s a lesson that we as parents work hard to teach our children.
As we continue our study of the parables of Jesus, we find a couple of parables in which Jesus is teaching the same thing. In Matthew 13:44-46, we find a couple short parables. Remember, parables are a story that helps reveal a deeper truth, in this case about the Kingdom of Heaven. While you could pick apart every word in a parable in order to decipher deeper and deeper meanings, they typically have one main point. If you start looking too deeply into them, you begin to lose and confuse the main point just like with any other analogy.
As we look at the first parable, we find a man who, while digging in a field, finds buried treasure. At first this may sound like a tale from Treasure Island where someone tries to dig up pirate treasure, but to be certain, that is not what it happening here.
In our modern age, when we have money or items of value that we wish to keep safe, we have many options available to us. We can take them to the local bank. They’ll deposit the money into an account or place valuables within a lockbox in their safe. If you don’t trust the banks, you could always purchase your own safe and keep your items on your own property. However, the people to which Jesus was speaking didn’t have these luxuries available to them.
A tale such as this would have sounded completely natural to Jesus’ audience. Banks were reserved only for the wealthy. The average Joe couldn’t just walk down to the bank and make a deposit. In a land where a man’s garden might quickly be turned into a battlefield, people needed a place where they could keep their valuables safe from invaders.
As people fled their homes they would often bury their valuables. The thought was that they would return to reclaim their valuables once everything settled back down. In the worst case scenario you would tell your family members so that they might recover it if you’re unable. In this scenario, the owner of the treasure likely wasn’t able to tell anybody about the treasure before meeting an ill fate. As such, the treasure remained hidden and the land passed to a new owner.
We then come to the man at the center of the parable. We are given no indication as to the circumstances under which this man found the treasure, but since it states that he found it, it’s unlikely that he is the one who buried it. We have no reason to believe that he was searching for any treasure or was doing anything malicious when he found it. It’s likely that he was either a renter or a hired hand tasked with caring for the garden. Either way, when he stumbled upon this treasure on someone else’s property, he immediately understood its value.
The man buries the treasure again and proceeds to sell everything he owns so that he might purchase the land and obtain the treasure for himself. It may seem a little shady that this man would find the treasure and then try to con the landowner knowing full well the true value of the land. However, while the land was under Roman law, in day-to-day life, traditional Jewish law was the law of the land. Traditional Jewish law stated, for lack of better terms, finders keepers. According to the Jewish law of the land, this man was the rightful owner of the treasure.
We could continue to dig into the details of this, but as I said, if you begin to dig too deep, as with any analogy, the true meaning begins to be lost. In short, this man, in the course of his normal, daily activities, stumbled upon a great treasure. Upon finding the treasure he went to great lengths to ensure that the treasure was his, to the point of selling everything he owned.
The second parable is much like the first. However, in this parable the merchant knew what he was looking for. He was actively on a quest for fine pearls, and when he found one of great value, he sold everything he owned in order to buy it.
Pearls, during this time period, were fabulously priced. The average person couldn’t hope to ever be able to buy a pearl. The merchant in question, had dealt with pearls for quite some time. He understood his wares and was looking for more. However, he wasn’t looking for just any pearls. He had his eyes set on fine pearls. He searched high and low knowing full well what he was searching for.
One day in his searching he came across a pearl of great value. Being a pearl merchant, he would be the one to know what it took for a pearl to be of great value. Once he found it, just like the man who found the treasure, he sold everything he had in order to obtain it.
Looking from the outside in, this may sound ridiculous. If you sell everything you own in order to buy a luxury item, where are you going to live? What are you going to eat? However, if we begin to dive into those questions, we miss the whole point. Parables typically have one main point.
Both the man digging in the field and the merchant searching for pearls found something of great value. Intrinsically they knew the value. Upon that discovery each did everything in their power to make that treasure their own. Thus is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Throughout history many people have stumbled upon the knowledge of God without looking for it. The Apostle Paul was heading down the road to Damascus when he had a surprise encounter with God. Much like the man in the field, he wasn’t looking for the Kingdom of Heaven, but when he found it it changed his life.
On the other hand, in Acts 8 Philip meets with the Ethiopian Eunuch. When he finds him he is reading the scriptures looking for answers, searching for that great treasure. In his search, Philip directs him to the messianic prophecies and the life of Jesus. In his searching he found the pearl of great value that he had been searching for.
With both of these cases, and with many more throughout history, the story has been the same. When a man or woman discovers the Kingdom of Heaven and understands its intrinsic value, there is nothing in this world that is worth more. These men sold everything they owned so that they might claim their treasure.
The Kingdom of God is the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us, but in order to understand it, we have to see its value. We must understand who we are and what is being offered. We must understand that we are not some glorious king or queen capable of such treasures on our own. We are a poor peasant lost in sin with no way out.
It doesn’t say it in these parables, but reading between the lines, I’d dare to say that neither of these men paid the full price for the treasure they found. How could they? If they’d had the resources to acquire the treasure on their own, what need did they have of the treasure. Likewise, we cannot hope to earn the Kingdom of Heaven on our own.
By Carl Heinrich Bloch
God has given us his salvation as a free gift. The treasure that we could not purchase on our own has been provided to us. It’s not something you can buy with silver or gold. It is a free gift, but that does not mean it comes without cost. The price you’re willing to pay will directly reflect the value that you place on this treasure in your life.
We live a comfortable life here in America. We have our jobs, car, house, and family. We don’t have everything, but we are comfortable. We’re living the American dream. Throughout history men and women have died for this treasure because they have seen its great value. Throughout history men and women have sacrificed their lifestyle, their families, and their health because they understood the value of this great treasure, and they were willing to sacrifice everything to acquire it.
I don’t know what it will cost you to acquire this treasure. It may cost you your comfort. It may cost you your friends or family. The price you’re willing to pay will directly reflect the value that you place on this treasure, the Kingdom of Heaven, in your life. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for this treasure?