Matthew 13:44-46
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Everyone loves a treasure hunt!
Young children love hunting for Easter eggs; our boys love it when I create scavenger hunts for their Christmas gifts; and pirates love to seek sunken gold...Yarrrr!
Everyone loves a treasure hunt!
For a number of years the treasure I hunted was books. I collected first edition copies of books written by my favorite authors, many of which were out of print and hard to find. In the days before the internet made hunting for books far easier, I would look for opportunities to go into Chicago and scour any and all used book stores I could find. I would scan the dusty shelves of decades-old volumes until I, by chance, would find a volume I was looking for, or, better yet, a book I wasn’t looking for but was an even better find for my collection!
And when I found such a book my heart would start pounding and I would grab the book off the shelf as if it were made of solid gold!
In this parable Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven like it’s buried treasure.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Two questions come to mind.
First, what does Jesus mean by saying the kingdom of heaven is like a “treasure hidden in a field”? Why, or how, is the kingdom hidden?
Second, what does it mean that the man “sold all he had and bought that field”?
It helps to know that in Jesus day it was quite common to hide one’s treasure or wealth in the ground. The region was highly unstable, politically speaking, and there frequent wars and rumors of wars. And since banking as we know it didn’t yet exist, when people feared some kind of invasion or conflict, they would often protect their assets by burying them in a secret hiding place. Then, if the person who buried the treasure died, it would remain hidden until someone stumbled upon it, often many years later. The basic rule of the time was “finders keepers.”
It’s quite possible that Jesus was envisioning a hired worker toiling in a field who stubs his toe on buried treasure!
Jesus is saying, I think, that there is a kind of hidden nature to the kingdom of God. It’s hidden in the sense that it’s a spiritual kingdom and we often miss it because we either aren’t looking for it at all, or are simply looking in the wrong place.
Jesus is also saying there is a surprising grace to the kingdom; that it is a gift that we don’t deserve and yet can “stumble upon” and receive as a gift.
The Apostle Paul, for example, is one who stubbed his toe on the treasure of the gospel, so to speak! He was on his way to persecute followers of Jesus when the Lord himself confronted him in a light from heaven. Paul did nothing to earn or seek the kingdom of heaven, Jesus brought it to him in an act of surprising grace! Then, only after discovering the inestimable value of Christ did Paul write:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... (Philippians 3:7-8)
So what are we to make of the man in the parable re-burying the treasure until he can buy the whole field?
Jesus is simply emphasizing the value of the kingdom of heaven compared to the other treasures of our lives. If I were walking through an abandoned field and stumbled across a buried treasure that was worth 100 times what I could earn in a lifetime, but it required me to sell my own home in order acquire that particular piece of property, what would I do? Would I cling to my home or would I gladly, even joyously, sell my home and purchase the abandoned field with the treasure.
Of course I would sell my home; I would be a fool not to!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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