Matthew 13:44-46 English Standard Version
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
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.
The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is a story about pirate gold, stolen from Spanish sailors, who stole it from the Incas in South America, who had invaded the lands of other people and built an empire in the Andes Mountains.
The pirates had buried the gold on a Caribbean island. After the treasure map was lost and later found, people from all over England went in search of it.
This is a cautionary tale of mutiny, bloodshed, and—in the end—untold riches.
It is a parable about people’s ill-gotten gains and all of the trouble it brings.
In Jesus’ parable about hidden treasure, our Lord doesn’t focus on where the treasure came from, who might have known about it in the past, and so on.
That isn’t why he told the parable. The important points here are that
(1) the kingdom of heaven is a hidden treasure worth more than anything else we could ever have, and (2) sometimes people stumble upon it unexpectedly.
How easy it is to be utterly wrapped up in the struggles of life:
getting an education, landing a job, finding a spouse, raising kids, fending off health problems, growing old, saving for retirement, eventually, facing death.
How easy it would be to brush off eternal life as vague religious stuff, and to listen to the continuous barrage of sneers of people who call it “pie in the sky.”
But what a surprise to find that Jesus came to show God’s love for us sinners!
Eternal life and the kingdom of heaven are as solid as treasure found in a field.
These two parables are like conjoined twins.
They are very similar but they also have marks of individuality.
They both teach the truth that the supreme blessing, by far the most priceless discovery in life, is the discovery of God.
To be in His Kingdom, to be a member of his family, to receive Him and His love and power is the true treasure of living.
They also teach that God is not only VALUABLE but ACCESSIBLE.
John 3:16-21 English Standard Version
For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world,[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
We can all have Him, we all have unlimited access to Him from the very poorest dirt farmer to the wealthiest pearl merchant, the seaman upon the raging seas.
We may find Him in different ways but we have Him when we value Him above all else.
Romans 5:1-5 English Standard Version
Peace with God Through Faith
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our sufferings produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
I. THE VALUE OF DISCOVERING GOD.
The two pictures are simple but powerful.
In first century Palestine, when armies marched across the land, people saved their possessions by burying them.
Rabbis had a saying, “There is only one safe repository for money – the earth.”
A poor dirt farmer is plowing somebody else’s field.
He does it to feed himself and his family.
He knows every clod in that old patch and probably hates each one.
When his plow goes deep and hits something hard he curses the rock. But when he digs it out it is not a rock but a chest – a chest filled with more money than he has ever seen. He buries it and sells everything he owns so he can buy the field.
The second man is a wealthy pearl merchant.
The pearl in that day was like our diamond, a rare treasure.
One day he came across the most beautiful, valuable pearl he had ever seen.
He too sold all he had so he could buy it.
The pearl and the treasure represent, of course, the Kingdom of God, all those blessings and benefits that are ours in being rightly related to Christ.
We often think of religion as something which takes all the joy out of life but, instead, it’s like daily work, finding buried treasure, like finding a perfect jewel.
When God opens our eyes we get our priorities right.
We see that which is truly valuable.
Passengers on a cruise ship give little thought to the life jackets under their bed.
They are crude and ugly and rough and uncomfortable.
But let the ship start to go down and the jackets are prized above all items.
To many, Christianity, like those jackets, is something to fall back on in life’s emergencies, but the rest of the time it is a hindrance to full and free living.
To others, however, Christianity is as valuable, every day and in every way, as a life jacket is to a drowning man.
Jesus is the Bread of Life.
He is the Water of Life.
Just as our bodies starve without bread and water, so our higher nature starves without Him who satisfies the hungers and thirsts of our souls.
Jesus is the most valuable thing in life, the one thing we could not do without.
In the name of God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen …
Praying …
Ascribe to the Lord Glory
A Psalm of David.
29 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,[a]
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.[b]
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth[c]
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless[d] his people with peace!
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 