Matthew 13:44-46 I. Matthew 13:44

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Ophelia Lang
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1 Matthew 13:44-46 I. Matthew 13:44 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. In the days before banks, and safes, and lockboxes, and alarm systems, if you had a lot of money, or treasure of gold and silver, one of the best and most popular ways of keeping that treasure safe was to bury it. A rich man might bury his treasure before leaving on a long journey or in the face of an invading army. But if the rich man never returned from his journey or if he was killed by the invading army, and if he had not told anyone else about the buried treasure, then the treasure could remain hidden for a very long time, if not forever! Buried treasure in Jesus day would not have been an uncommon thing. But finding buried treasure (without the aid of metal detectors), would have been extremely rare. Jesus doesn t tell us why, because it s not important but for some reason a man was digging in another man s field. Perhaps he had been hired to do a job. As this man is digging, he discovers buried treasure. Now if he takes the treasure right then and there, the owner of the field could try to claim it for himself. So the man who discovered the treasure covers it back up again, and then sells all that he has so that he can buy the field. And of course, once he has bought the field the treasure is now legally his. Now we might ask if it was ethical or right for the man to buy the field without telling the owner about the buried treasure. Well, the first thing we have to remember is that this treasure is not in the category of lost and found because it was never lost (contra France, p. 541, n. 11)! The only true owner of the treasure is dead, and now the only one in the world who knows about the treasure is the one who found it! I would suggest that the owner of the field has no right to a treasure that was never left to him and that he doesn t even know exists. So in the same way that he bought the field without cheating the previous owner, now the man who has discovered the treasure has every right to buy the field without feeling guilty about cheating the present owner. If and when the one who sold the field finds out about the treasure, he may be angry, but he has no right to be angry, because the treasure was never truly his and that s a fact! So now let s return to the parable itself. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Just try to imagine! This is the stuff of legends and fairy tales! You re obviously not a very wealthy person, because if you want to buy the field, you have to sell everything you possess. As you re digging in the field your shovel hits something hard. You assume it s a rock, and so you begin to dig around it. Gradually, as you clear away more and more of the dirt, you begin to see the outlines of a wooden chest. What happens inside you now? You know exactly what happens, don t you? Your heart leaps and literally skips a beat. You catch your breath. You begin to tremble even as you tell yourself it can t possibly be true. Finally, you re either able to open the chest or to dig through some of the rotted wood, and beyond all of your wildest dreams you find that the chest contains gold, and silver, and precious gems. You still can t believe it. You re in a state of denial. You look around and there s no one in sight, so you leap into the air in pure euphoria and exuberance and burst out in a shriek of exhileration. You have just discovered buried treasure of a worth and value far beyond what you can comprehend! Your chest feels like it will literally explode from excitement and joy. Your first thought is this: I must have this treasure for myself. You fill up the hole and rebury the treasure. You go to the landowner and 1

2 make an offer to purchase his field. The owner accepts your offer! You rush home and immediately put every single thing that you own up for sale. You feel like you can t possibly sell everything fast enough! The day finally arrives that it s all been sold, and you have scraped together just enough money. You go to the landowner, and you purchase that field, and suddenly, the buried treasure that you found is truly and rightfully yours! It s yours! YOURS! 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. II. Matthew 13:45-46 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. In ancient times, people considered pearls to be at least as valuable if not more valuable than gold. Among the Indians, the worth of pearls was three times as much as pure gold (BAGD). Once again, let s try to imagine You are a wholesale merchant who deals in pearls (you buy and you sell). You re an expert in pearls. You ve seen countless numbers of pearls of all different qualities, shapes, and sizes. You have a true eye and appreciation for the exquisite beauty of a fine pearl. You don t just deal in pearls to make a living you deal in pearls because you love pearls because they delight you! You don t know how to explain it or put it into words, but they just do. And so as you have so many times in the past, you set out on a journey in search of more fine pearls. You are searching for fine pearls, and you probably expect to find fine pearls. But what you actually do find, you never expected. Somewhere in your travels, you come across one pearl the like of which you have never, ever seen before. In all of your long years of experience, this pearl is unsurpassed in its perfections. It is the perfect specimen of a pearl it is the standard by which all others should be measured. At the very moment that you first laid eyes on that pearl, your heart leaped within you in disbelief and utter amazement. You felt like you would literally burst with exhilaration, and excitement, and joy! You set out in search of fine pearls, and instead you found this one pearl of incomparably great value. You found one pearl of greater beauty and value to you than all of the rest of your pearls combined. And your very first thought was this: I must have this pearl for myself. You asked the owner of the pearl if he would be willing to sell. He was! But it would cost you everything. So you rush back home and immediately put all that you have up for sale including every other pearl that you possess. You feel like you can t possibly sell everything fast enough! The day finally arrives that it s all been sold, and you have scraped together just enough money. You hand it all over to the owner of the pearl, and suddenly, that pearl is yours! It s yours! YOURS not to sell, but to possess, and to treasure, and to delight in for the rest of your life! The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Conclusion Now let me ask a question. How many of us have felt any pity for the man digging in the field or for the dealer in fine pearls? How many of us, when we saw them selling everything that they possessed, felt our hearts go out to them in compassion and sympathy? Not a single one of us, right? And why not? Because these two men couldn t possibly be any happier! We have been using words like excitement, exuberance, exhilaration, and euphoria. We have imagined hearts 2

3 leaping and skipping beats. We have seen people trembling in amazement and disbelief, leaping in the air, and shouting aloud. Surely we are not out of line to imagine all of these things especially because Jesus Himself says: Then in his JOY he goes and sells all that he has. That s the point. These men were not motivated by a mere sense of duty and obligation. In fact, at this point they don t know anything at all about duty and obligation do they? One commentator actually goes so far as to say that their actions are motivated by pure selfinterest just the same as all who are truly seeking to acquire for themselves the kingdom of heaven (France). How else can we explain the fact that you just sold everything that you had in order to get for yourself buried treasure? How else are we to explain the fact that you just sold everything that you had in order to get for yourself the most beautiful of all pearls? How else are we to explain the fact that when you put everything you owned up for sale, you felt like you couldn t possibly sell everything fast enough? I must have this treasure for myself. I must have this pearl for myself. That s what you were thinking, right? Don t try to deny it! But isn t self-interest a bad thing? The point, after all, is not our own happiness, but the glory of God! Well then, what we re talking about here is just this: Self-interest to the glory of God. Let s think about it this way: You show me a person who talks all about the glory of God, and yet exhibits little to no joy or exuberance over what s in it for himself, and I ll show you someone who is robbing God of His glory. So what s in it for us? Everything right? Pardon and the forgiveness of our sins Being clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ An abiding peace and joy deep inside Freedom from the bondage of sin and the fear of death The true knowledge of God s Word in the Scriptures Participation and fellowship in the gathering of the redeemed (the church) Life abundant and everlasting Sharing in the righteous rule and reign of Christ An inheritance in the New Jerusalem and a right to eat from the tree of life and drink from the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God The true knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ These are just a few of the things that are in it for us! It is true that worldly self-interest has no time for these things. Worldly self-interest always leads us down the path to destruction. But true, biblical self-interest, always leads us to salvation and the possession of the kingdom. True, biblical self-interest is always to the glory of God! So for all of us who want to acquire salvation and gain the kingdom, we have to understand the duty of delight, and the requirement of self-interest. Because if we haven t really and truly come to see what s in it for us, then we ll never be willing to joyfully give up all that we have in order to possess the kingdom. And herein lies the secret: The true worth and value of the kingdom is hidden to most people, and yet those who would acquire it must give everything in exchange for it. Calvin writes: Though the heavenly life, and every thing that belongs to it, is the free gift of God [Is. 55:1], yet we are said to buy it, when we cheerfully relinquish the desires of the flesh, that nothing may prevent us from obtaining it. Philippians 3:8 I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 3

4 What s in it for me is Christ, and there is nothing that brings more glory to God than when I learn to delight in Christ, and when I give up all else so that I might obtain Christ and all that is in Him for me. Calvin writes again: These parables are intended to instruct believers to prefer the kingdom of heaven to the whole world that nothing may prevent them from obtaining so valuable a possession. We are greatly in need of such [an exhortation]; for we are so captivated by the allurements of the world, that eternal life fades from our view; and in consequence of our carnality, the spiritual graces of God are far from being held by us in the estimation which they deserve We do not esteem [the excellence of the heavenly life] according to its real worth, unless we are prepared to deny, on account of it, all [else] that glitters in our eyes The Gospel does not receive from us the respect which it deserves, unless we prefer it to all the riches, pleasures, honors, and advantages of the world, and to such an extent, that we are satisfied with the spiritual blessings which it promises, and throw aside every thing that would keep us from enjoying them. Did you see the self-interest at work here? So how would we describe our Christianity? Are we just going through the motions of obligation and duty? When we think about giving up all that we have, are we filled with a feeling of sadness and self-pity? Because if that s the case, this will never be enough to gain possession of the kingdom. Or are we delighting in what s in it for us? Are we full to overflowing with true, biblical self-interest? It is this kind of delight, and joy, and exuberance, and exhilaration, and euphoria that will free us to count everything as rubbish in order that we may gain Christ. It s this kind of consuming self-interest that will bring the most glory to God in our lives. Remember your first thought when you found the buried treasure I must have this treasure for myself. Remember your first thought when you saw that pearl of great value I must have this pearl for myself. How much more, then, when we have beheld the priceless riches of the kingdom, should we be able to say: I must have all these riches for myself! And so in our hearts, we rush home and immediately put every single thing that we previously delighted in up for sale. We feel like we can t possibly sell everything fast enough. When everything has been sold, we take all of the proceeds and gladly give it up in exchange for the kingdom. Brothers and sisters, the unmeasured riches of the kingdom are all yours. They re yours! Your own! Luke 12:32-34 Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. May we be motivated for the rest of our lives by a joyful and passionate self-interest, to the glory of God alone! 4

5 Teaching our Children Relive as vividly as possible the story of the man who found buried treasure and the man who discovered the pearl of great value. Q. Did you feel sorry for these two men when they put everything that they owned up for sale? A. No! Not even a tiny bit! Q. Why don t you feel sorry for these men? (Think of all that they had to get rid of!) A. ~ We don t feel sorry for these men because they couldn t possibly have been any happier! ~ They were getting the one thing in all the world that they wanted most of all (self-interest)! Q. When it comes to the kingdom of heaven, what s in it for us? A. See the second full paragraph on page 3 (fifth line down) Talk with your children about the difference between worldly self-interest and biblical (holy) self-interest. o Worldly self-interest doesn t want anything to do with the true riches of the kingdom. o Worldly self-interest actually leads down the path to destruction. o Holy self-interest shows how great and wonderful God is (See 1 st par. on page 4)! Q. What is the secret of the kingdom of heaven in this parable? A. ~ The true worth and value of the kingdom is hidden to most people, and yet those who would acquire it must give everything in exchange for it. ~ Read and/or paraphrase the quote from Calvin on page 4 Q. How would we describe our Christianity? ~ Are we just going through the motions of obligation and duty? When we think about giving up all that we have, are we filled with a feeling of sadness and self-pity? ~ Or are we delighting in what s in it for us? It is this kind of delight, and joy, and exuberance that will free us to count everything as rubbish in order that we may gain Christ. It s this kind of consuming self-interest that will bring the most glory to God in our lives. 5

What are you waiting for? May 16, 2010 Matthew 13:44-52

I. Introduction What are you waiting for? May 16, 2010 Matthew 13:44-52 Throughout this whole chapter, Jesus parables have been word pictures which everyone listening could visualize and understand. In