Matthew 13:44-46 (ESV) 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
I read a book a couple of years back called "Parable Church" by Pastor Mike Burnette (click here to purchase it). One of the things that jumped out to me in this book was actually a statement in the opening pages. It said (I am paraphrasing), that Jesus never told us how TO DO church, but He had a lot to say about how TO BE the church.
Over the course of this series, we are going to look deeper at the parables that Jesus taught. Each one gives us a glimpse at what it really means TO BE the church. The truth is, in this day in time, we tend to focus so much on the doing of church that miss the being of church.
We were created to be part of the citizenry of the Kingdom of Heaven. But to do that, we have to know the culture of heaven. It's one of the things that Summer and I learned as we lived overseas. Each place has it's own unique culture and personality. To be a part of it, something has to change about who we are. You have to leave something behind in order to embrace the new.
As Jesus told these 2 parables, He was showing us the importance of the Kingdom of Heaven. That there is value to it. But also, that it will cost you something to acquire it. That runs so counter to the FREE GRACE movements of today. There are so many people that teach and believe that grace won't cost you something. Because of that, many people never truly enter in to what they could have been for Christ. They are trying to hang on to who they were in the past while at the same time, holding on to Christ. You can't embrace 2 things completely at the same time.
Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven quite a bit. It is mentioned 32 times just in the book of Matthew. Why? Because it is important. Anything that is repeated that often in the Bible, needs to be explored.
The Kingdom of Heaven is already and not yet at the same time. What do we mean by that? It's about understanding the Kingdom has come through Jesus Christ, but at the same time, there is a time coming that the Kingdom will fill the earth...thats the not yet.
Context in the Bible is everything. One of my favorite coffee mugs has this statement on it, "I can do all things through a scripture taken out of context." When we read these Parables, you must understand that Jesus is speaking to people who have waited for generations for the Messiah. They thought that the Messiah would be a political king who would deliver them from the oppression of the Romans and set the Jewish Nation in it's place in the world.
Instead, our King came riding on a donkey, wore a crown of thorns instead of a crown of gold, a robe covered his beaten body and his earthly throne was a cross.
So Jesus is speaking to people who have no real concept of what the Kingdom would really be about. And from the moment He came on the scene, He started declaring that the Kingdom would be accessed through REPENTANCE.
Repentance is all about letting go of the past. It is declaring that those things are no longer so important that you will hide them, protect them, and live under them anymore. It is the confession of our mouth that we are changing.
As Jesus tells these stories, He is showing us that there will be people who will find the Kingdom like a treasure in the field. This person stumbled onto it. In biblical days, people would put their treasures in clay pots and bury them on their property. There were no banks as we know them. So they hid their treasures (kind of like Cousin Eddie on Vegas Vacation) all over their land. This guy is probably working the field for someone else and his plow hits a pot. It's obvious that he knows there is something valuable there, but he doesn't steal it. Instead, he goes and sells everything that he had to acquire the field that the pot is in.
Now this could be for a couple of reasons. It could be because what is in the one pot is worth more than anything that he owned at the time. But also, it could be the assumption that there is even more in the field that he hasn't found yet. But whatever the reasoning, he knows that nothing he has right now compares to what is in the field. It is worth giving it all up. It's about the value of the Kingdom. It is worth more than our past and everything we have spent a lifetime to acquire.
The second parable talked about someone skilled at finding pearls. He is searching through pearls when he runs across the finest he ever saw. He goes and sell everything to acquire it. Why? The same reason, it's greater than anything he had at that time.
Warren Wiersbe said that parables are a picture, mirror and a window. They are a picture that we can identify with. But the mirror reflects who we are in it. The window is about looking to the future of what could be.
In these parables, its about seeing the value of the Kingdom. The mirror is how we see ourselves in it...do we really value the Kingdom and our relationship with Jesus? The window is about what we are willing to do in order to live in it and to be a part of it.
Too many times we have a tendency to allow nothing, insignificant things to come between us and our relationship with Jesus. We allow our past, our present and our future to be what guides us instead living for Him. He should be the superior thing in our lives. But if you don't see your relationship as more important than anything else, you will allow anything else to take his place.
Mark 14 tells us about the event of a woman who anoints Jesus with nard oil. This flask of oil would have been worth a years salary. Yet she comes in, breaks the flask, and pours the entire jar over Him. There were those who were indignant that the woman could waste something so valuable. But she saw it as giving everything she had of value to love Jesus.
Judas, one of Jesus' disciples, would end up trading Jesus for something as insignificant as money (30 pieces of silver). That was the value he put on the Kingdom and the King in his life. For many, they have done the same things. They may not say they are trading Jesus for something like that, but they have done it in their actions.
So what can we learn as we move forward from this weeks parables? First off, you have recognize what treasure really is. You can see Jesus, without seeing Jesus. People do it every week in churches all over the world. They like the Jesus story and they like the teachings, but they miss the value of Him in their lives. The value is what drives our lives to live for Him.
After you recognize the treasure, you have to find satisfaction in what you see in it. The truth is that whatever you consider to be treasure, you will find your satisfaction in it. The parable said the man went in his joy and sold everything. He didn't do it begrudgingly or out of obligation. He knew he was satisfied in what he saw and it was better than what he had.
The last thing is that we must sacrifice something to acquire it. Everything that we have in our lives prior to finding the Kingdom should become insignificant. So much so, that we see it as something so less valuable, that you would sell it all to acquire this treasure. The Kingdom of God is different and it's value far surpasses everything else that you have. That's the window of the future. You get something so great by giving up all that you were prior to that.
Charles Spurgeon called this exchange the "great bargain". We get to trade our filthy rags (BTW, this term is really worse than what we equate it to) for the Kingdom! We get to let go of the things that beat us down to get something that lifts you up. It truly is the GREAT BARGAIN.
So I finish this post by asking a question..."What is the value of the Kingdom of Heaven and your relationship with Jesus to you?"
PJ