The Pearls and the Treasure
As we come to the end our summer reading in Matthew 13, we are going to look at 2 short parables that Jesus gives to again talk about the kingdom of God. Matthew 13:44-46.There really are just two lessons we need to learn from these parables, and they are so important that Jesus makes them pretty clear, but before we look at these two lessons, let’s make sure we know what Jesus means when he talks about the kingdom of heaven. Books have been written about what Jesus means when he refers to the kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God, for me the kingdom of heaven is not heaven, or the life we live when life in this world is over, the kingdom of heaven is the life God wants to experience here and now. The kingdom of heaven is a life that is filled with love and joy, it is a life where we find purpose and meaning in all that we do and it is a life where justice and mercy are extended and experienced by everyone.
The kingdom of heaven is what Jesus offered people when he forgave them, healed them, fed them and sent them off with joy to live a new life and that’s the life God wants us to be able to experience each and every day. Ultimately this kind of life is only found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, so experiencing the kingdom of heaven is found when we accept God’s grace and love offered to us in Jesus. It’s found when we accept Jesus as Savior and trust him as our Lord. One of the verses I come back to again and again is John 10:10 where Jesus said, I have come so that you might have life and life abundant. The kingdom of heaven is that abundant life that only Jesus can offer, in fact offering us the opportunity to experience the kingdom of heaven is why Jesus came.
So the kingdom of heaven is the life God wants for us and these two parables offer two important lessons about this life. The first is that it is available to us, but we have to be willing to look for it. Look at the parable of the pearl; it says the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. The merchant went out searching for the pearls. He didn’t sit at home and wait for someone to offer him pearls he went out and searched for them and the kingdom of heaven is out there for us if we are willing to search for it. We won’t find the life God wants for us by just sitting at home and watching TV, we have to be willing to look for God. We can experience a new and God-filled life if we want to, but we have to be willing to look and our search needs to be informed.
Think about the merchant again, he wasn’t looking for just any pearls he went out to find fine pearls, he wanted good ones which meant that he had to know the difference between ordinary pearls and fine ones. The merchant had to know something about pearls; he had to know what made them good, he had to know where to look, he had to know the right people to talk to, he had to do his homework so that his search didn’t end up being haphazard or random. If we want to find the kingdom of heaven and experience the abundant life God has for us, we not only need to be willing to search for it, but we need to be informed. We need to know what we are looking for and where to turn to find it.
Being informed in our search is the same lesson we learn in the parable of the hidden treasure. When we read this parable we might think that the man just happened to be walking through a field when he came upon the treasure, but that is not how people would have heard this story. In Jesus day there were no banks and there were no safety deposit boxes, so when people accumulated wealth they would often bury it on their property. Do you remember another story Jesus tells about giving each person a certain number of talents – or money. One of the servants given the money went and dug a hole and buried what was given him so he would lose any of it, and that is exactly what people did when they got a treasure, they would bury it for safe keeping, but when these people died, those treasurers would often be lost or forgotten and when someone would buy that piece of land, the treasure would often be uncovered. Over time so many treasures had been buried in the ground that people would often go searching for these riches and if they found them, they would bury them again and then buy the property to get the treasure.
Most likely this is what Jesus was talking about. A man went out and searched for some treasure and when he found it, he was so overjoyed that he went off and bought the property to get the treasure. Just like the merchant of pearls, this man went looking to find something. Maybe he had done his homework and so he knew which fields to look in to find some treasure. The truth we see in each of these parables is pretty clear, to find the treasure – the people had to look for it, and if we are going to find the kingdom of heaven, if we are going to find the abundant life that God has for us, then we need to go looking for it.
To say it more simply, if we want to find God we have to look for him. It’s not that God is hiding so he can’t be found, but God isn’t going to invade our lives every moment of the day, sometimes God simply waits on the sidelines for us to come and find him. So the question is: are we looking for God? Are we searching for God in informed and intentional ways? If we are, then we will find him because that is the promise God makes us in Jeremiah 29:12-14.
If we search for God we will find him, but the search can’t be half hearted, it can’t be random – it has be to be with our whole heart. So let’s think about what it means to faithfully search for God and the kingdom of heaven with our whole heart. If we are serious about finding God, then our search has to be filled with Desire, Determination and Discernment.
Desire: do we want to find God? Do we want God to be an integral part of our lives? Do we want the life God wants for us? If we don’t have a desire for God, we will never search in ways that help us find Him. The merchant wanted to find pearls, the treasure hunter had a desire to find riches – they were motivated, now true their motivation was money and wealth, but they were still motivated. Are we motivated to find God? Do we see all the good things that a life with God can bring us? If not then maybe that needs to be our first order of business. If we don’t see the value in having God in our lives, then we need to stop and think about all the things that a life with God has to offer us.
A relationship with God through Jesus Christ can bring peace. Knowing God is for us can bring us confidence and assurance in a world that is always changing and uncertain. Knowing that God forgives can free us from the guilt and the shame of sin. So many times we go through life carrying a burden of failure that we never feel really free to enjoy life. A life with God can free us from that burden. A life with God can also bring a deep sense of meaning and purpose. So much of life seems fleeting and meaningless and yet we were created to make an eternal difference in the world. We were created to shine the light of Christ into the darkness and that light, the light we shine makes a difference. When we begin to hear God’s voice and feel God’s power at work in our lives we can begin to tap into that deeper sense of meaning. It may not come from our job or our family, it may come in the mission and ministry God calls us to. There is value in a relationship with God that goes far beyond eternal life, there is a true abundant life waiting for us right now, do we desire that life?
Without a desire to experience God’s kingdom, we won’t search for it, so we need to have desire, but desire alone won’t get us anywhere. Just wishing or wanting something won’t make it happen, we have to be determined to make it happen. In other words, if we want to find God we need to put in the work to find him. The merchant had to search out the stores or suppliers to find fine pearls. Or maybe he had to go down to the sea and talk to the divers who pulled up the oysters. The merchant had to do something to find the pearls, he had to turn his desire into determination if he was going to find the pearls. And the treasure hunter couldn’t just sit at home and dream of finding the treasure, he had to take that desire and turn it into hard work and he had to search through the fields, maybe even dig up a few empty holes until he found the riches.
It’s not enough to want to experience God; we have to search with some determination. In Jeremiah it says if we search with God with our whole heart, we will find him. Sometimes I think this is where we are weak. We want the relationship with God, but we don’t want to work at it. We want to experience God’s grace and mercy, but we don’t want to work at putting ourselves in places where we can experience that life. We want to know our purpose but we never really take the time to think about it or search out God’s plan for us. Sometimes we just aren’t very determined. God is so clear with us, if we will search with our whole heart – if we are determined, we will find God and the kingdom of heaven and we will experience the life God wants for us.
Not only does our search take hard work it also takes some discernment. The merchant had to know the difference between a cheap pearl, a good pearl and a fine pearl. The treasure hunter needed to know the signs of a good treasure. A man from my church in Lewisburg loved to hunt for treasure. He had a metal detector and he went all over Lewisburg, all over Union County actually looking for treasure. Over the years he learned to discern the difference between something insignificant and something important. Many times he could tell by the sound of the metal detector, but he also studied coins so when he found one he knew what was valuable and what wasn’t. We need to learn to discern the voice of God. We need to learn what message comes from God and what message doesn’t come from him and this kind of discernment requires time and effort. Are we willing to read God’s word so that when we hear God speak we recognize his voice and so when we see God’s kingdom we will recognize it and join in?
Now the second lesson that these parables make clear to us is that the kingdom of heaven, this life God wants for us is valuable. A relationship with God is priceless; it is so good that we should be willing to give all we have to get it. The merchant went out and sold all he had to get the pearl and the treasure hunter sold all he had to buy the property. What they each found was so valuable that they were willing to give all they had to get it. Jesus is telling us here that the life God has for us is better than anything we can possibly imagine. The life God wants us to experience will bring more peace, more grace, more love, more power, more purpose, more life than we can possibly imagine, in fact it is so good that we should be willing to let go of everything to get it. But it’s not just that, this life God offers is so good that we should joyfully give up everything we have to get it. Look at the parable of the pearl again, it says when the merchant found the pearl it was with JOY that he went and sold all he had. In other words it wasn’t even a sacrifice – he joyfully gave it all it because he knew what he was getting was so good.
So many times when we think of giving everything up for God we think only in terms of the suffering and sacrifice required, but here God says, we should joyfully give it all up because we know we are getting something of such great value. And it really isn’t just eternal life, it’s a new life here and now, and it’s a life filled with joy and love and meaning. I have shared this before, but for me, I am a follower of Jesus today not because he offers me the gift of eternal life, but because I began to see just how great life here can be with Jesus. I saw people totally committed to Christ who were having more fun, experience more purpose and filled with more peace and power than other people around me and I knew that was the life I wanted. I searched for it through Bible Studies, retreats, mission trips, times of fellowship and worship, I searched diligently and found it in Jesus, but to get it I had to let go and trust Jesus completely. I had to accept Jesus as savior and trust him as my lord in order to begin to take hold of that new life. I haven’t regretted a moment of it. It is with great joy that I can still say that…
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.
Than to be a king of a vast domain,
Or be held in sin’s dread sway,
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
this world affords today.
