The Lessons Continue (Matthew 13: 34)

I.             Finding Hidden Treasure.

 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure which lay hidden in a field. A man found it, and hid it; and, as a result of his joy, away he goes, and sells everything that he has, and buys the field."

(Matthew 13: 44)

Although this parable sounds strange to us, it would have sounded perfectly natural to people listening to Jesus on that day. Even today this story paints a picture which people in the Middle East would know well. In the ancient world there not banks, certainly not in the way in which we understand a bank today and certainly not available for ordinary people to use. Ordinary people used the ground as the safest place to keep their most cherished belonging. This was still more the logical in a land where someone’s garden of farm field might at any time become a battlefield. Palestine was probably the most fought over country in the world at that time. When the threat of war appeared it was common practice for people to hide their valuables in the ground, before they took to flight, in the hope that one day they would come when they could return and regain them.

Roman historian, Josephus speaks of "the gold and the silver and even precious artefacts which the Jews had hidden underground against the uncertain fortunes of war." Palestine in the time of Jesus was under the Romans and under Roman law, but in the ordinary, small, day to day things it was traditional Jewish law which was used; and in regard to hidden treasure Jewish Rabbinic law was quite clear: The finds belong to the finder, whether it be dropped money or even food it belonged to the finder.

Having said that, when we are dealing with any parable, the details are never meant to be stressed; the parable has one main point, to make and everything else is subservient. In this parable the great point is the joy of the discovery that made the man willing to give up everything to make the greater treasure his own. Nothing else in the parable really matters.

The lesson of this parable is, first, that the man found the precious thing, not so much by chance, but as a result of his day's work. It is true to say that he stumbled unexpectedly upon it, but he did so when he was going about his daily business. {Other translations make it clear he was working in the field]. He must have been digging deep, and not merely scraping the surface, in order to come upon the treasure so he must have been going about his daily business with persistence. True happiness, true satisfaction, and a true sense of God, many believe can be found in an honest day's work. 

The second lesson of this parable is, that it is worth any sacrifice to enter the Kingdom of God. In fact, The Lord’s prayer tells us that the Kingdom of God is a state of being upon earth where God's will is being done perfectly as it is in heaven. Therefore, to enter the Kingdom in this life is to accept and to do God's will. 

This means that it must be worth a great sacrifice to do God's will. This man discovered the treasure, in a moment, and God’s will may also flash upon us, in a moment of Holy Spirit inspired illumination. However, to accept it may mean to give up certain aims and ambitions which are very dear to us or to abandon certain habits and ways of life which are very difficult to lay aside, or even to take on a discipline and self-denial which are by no means easy. In a word, to take up our cross and follow Jesus. But this passage says there is no other way to peace of mind and heart in this life and to glory in the life to come. So, it is indeed worth giving up everything to accept and to do the will of God.

II.            The Precious Pearl.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. 

(Matthew 13: 45-46)

In the ancient world pearls had a very special place in people’s hearts. People desired to possess a beautiful pearl, because it almost uniquely had a monetary value, along with great beauty. There is an aesthetic joy simply in simply possessing and looking at a pearl. The main sources of pearls in those days were sometimes far off and merchants would scour the markets of the world to find pearls of great beauty. But the purpose of this parable is to plant truths in the mind of the listener.

The pearl stands as an image of the Kingdom of Heaven. To the ancient peoples, as we have just seen, a pearl was one of the most beautiful possessions someone could lay hold of. That means that the Kingdom of Heaven is the also the greatest most beautiful thing we can possess.  But remember Jesus has just reminded people that to be in the Kingdom of God is about accepting and doing the will of God. 

Within this parable there is also an implied warning. It says that there are other pearls in the world, but only one pearl is of “great price”. That is to say, there are many fine things in this world and many things in which we can find beauty. In art and music and literature and all the triumphs of the human spirit; we can find loveliness. In serving our fellow human beings, even if that service springs from humanitarian rather than from purely Christian motives; We can find beauty in human relationships. These are all beautiful things, but they are all of a lower type of beauty. The supreme beauty lies in the acceptance of the will of God. This is not to completley discredit those other things; they too are pearls; but the supreme pearl is willing obedience to the will of God which makes us children of God.

It is also worth noting that unlike the man in the previous story who was working in the field and was not actually looking for treasure . The man who was searching for but came upon it. In this parable the man is someone who spends his whole life search for pearls. But no matter whether the discovery was the result of a moment of insight or the result of a life-time's search, the reaction was the same. Everything had to be sold and sacrificed to gain the precious thing. Once again, we are left with the same truth, that, however we discovers the will of God for ourselves, whether it be in the lightning flash of a moment's of illumination or at the end of a long and conscious search, it is worth unhesitatingly accepting this beautiful gift of God no matter what the personal cost.

III.           The Great Catch and The Separation.

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” 

(Matthew 13: 47-50)

It was the most natural thing in the world that Jesus should use illustrations from fishing when he was speaking to fishermen. It was as if he said to them: "Look how your daily work can speak to you of the things of heaven." At that time in the region of Galilee and Palestine there were two main ways of fishing.

One was with the casting-net. It was a hand-net which was cast from the shore. "The net was in shape like the top of a bell-tent, with a long cord fastened to the apex. This is tied to the arm, and the net so folded that, when it is thrown, it expands to its widest circumference. The fisherman would carefully watch the surface of the water, and when he spied his prey, he would cast out the net expanding as it flies, and its weighted edge settled on the bottom the fish is unaware that its meshes have closed around him. By the aid of the cord the fishermen would slowly draws up the net with the fish in it. 

The second way of fishing was with the dragnet. This is the way referred to in this parable. This net was a great square net with cords at each corner, and weighted so that, at rest, it hung, as it were, upright in the water. When the boat began to move, the net was drawn into the shape of a great cone and into the cone all kinds of fish were swept. The net was then drawn to land, and the catch was separated. The useless material was flung away; the good was put into containers. It seems to me that there are two great lessons in this parable.

Firstly, it is in the nature of the drag-net that it does not, and cannot, discriminate. It is bound to draw in all kinds of things as it is drawn through the water. Its contents are bound to be a mixture. If we apply that to the Church and our role as disciples of Jesus then as the instruments of God's Kingdom upon earth, it means that the Church cannot discriminate against who might be drawn in, it is bound to be a mixture of all kinds of people, useless and useful, good and bad.

There have always been two views of the Church--the exclusive and the inclusive. The exclusive view holds that the Church is for people who are good, people who are really and fully committed, people who are quite different from the world. There is an attraction in that view, but it is not the New Testament view, illustrated here because, apart from anything else, who is to do the judging, when we are told that we must not judge?

It is not any individuals place to say who is committed to Christ and who is not. The inclusive view feels instinctively that the Church must be open to all, and that, like the dragnet, so long as it is a human institution it is bound to be a flawed mixture, and I believe that is exactly what this parable teaches. However, it doesn’t mean we change our teaching to allow more and more people to feel included, we speak the truth and allow people to respond and leave the rest to God. 

But equally this parable teaches that the time of separation will come when the good and the bad are sent to their respective destinations. That separation, however, certain as it is, is not our work at God's judgement. Therefore, it is our duty to gather in all who will come, and not to judge or separate, but to leave the final judgment to God.

IV.           Old Gifts Used in A New Way

Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

(Matthew 13: 51-52).

When Jesus had finished speaking about the Kingdom, he asked his disciples if they had understood what he said, and they had understood, at least in part.  After this Jesus goes on to compare the scribe who instructs people about the Kingdom of Heaven. 

What Jesus is in effect saying to these mainly Jewish followers is, "You are able to understand this, because you came to me with a fine heritage. You came with all the teaching of the law and the prophets behind you”. A scribe from that time came before God and Jesus with a lifetime of the study of the law and of all its commandments. That background helps you to understand but after you have been instructed by me, you have the knowledge, not only of the things you used to know, but of things you never knew before, and even the knowledge which you had before is now going to be  illuminated by what I have told to you." There is something very interesting going on here. What this tells me today is that Jesus never desires or intended that you should forget what you have known in your life so far. Every single person comes to Jesus Christ with some gifts and abilities. Jesus does not ask that we should give up our gifts. 

Many people think that when someone acknowledges Christ, they must give things up and concentrate only upon the so-called religious things. But a teacher should not give up his scholarship when they becomes a Christian; rather they should use it for Christ. A entrepreneur need not give up their business; rather they should run it as a Christian should.  The athlete need not give up his sport, but they should play their sport as a Christian should. Jesus did not come to empty life but to fill it, not to diminish life but to enrich it. Here we see Jesus telling everyone, not to abandon their gifts, but to use them even more amazingly in the light of the knowledge which he has given them.

V.            The Barrier of Unbelief

Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

(Matthew 13: 53-58)

It would seem natural that at some point Jesus would repay a visit to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And yet it was a challenging thing for him to do. The hardest place for a preacher to preach is the church where he was a boy, or in this day and age a teenager. There was a real danger that Jesus would not be given the opportunity to speak, and we see that when he did speak, he encountered hostility and disbelief. They would not listen to him because they could not conceive that anyone who had lived among them had any right to speak in the way Jesus was speaking. The prophet, as so often happens, had no honour in his own country; and their attitude to him raised a barrier which made it impossible for Jesus to have any real effect upon them.

There is a great lesson here. In any church, the atmosphere created by the community of believers can be as important as the sermon. The congregation brings an ambience with it. That atmosphere is either a barrier through which the preacher's word cannot penetrate; or else it can be welcoming and create an expectancy that even a basic message can become a living flame. Again, we are told we should not judge anyone by their background or his family connections. Good or bad, but by what they say. Many a message has been killed stone dead, not because there was anything wrong with what was said; but because the minds of the hearers were so prejudiced against the messenger that it never had a chance of being heard. When we meet together to listen to the word of God, we must come with an eager expectancy, and must think, not of the individual who speaks, but of the Holy Spirit who speaks through them.