“The Kingdom of Heaven Is Your Greatest Treasure”
Once upon a time…a man found a treasure. I know that’s not a lot to go on, but it could be an interesting story. In fact, it has been an interesting story in movies and books and in real life. What makes the story so interesting? People understand it. We know what a treasure is, even if we don’t generally find them. We know what it would mean to find a treasure and how excited we would be, wondering, hoping that we might be able to keep it. And that means that we can relate to the stories Jesus tells about finding treasures. A man buys a field not because he wants the field, but because he knows about the treasure buried in it. A pearl merchant buys the single most incredible pearl he has ever seen. That must be quite the pearl. That must be quite the treasure.
But when Jesus tells these stories, do we really understand what those treasures are? Do we really understand what true treasure is? Do we behave in ways that are appropriate for seeking spiritual wealth? Do we place value on the kingdom of heaven, value that makes it the most valuable thing in our lives? Those are the questions with which Jesus confronts us as we hear him speak 3 short parables in today’s Gospel. And when we listen and take to heart what Jesus says, he leads us to conclude that the kingdom of heaven is our greatest treasure.
The verses in front of us wrap up a section of Matthew chapter 13. They make up the last three of seven parables that Jesus teaches in this chapter alone. We have heard some of the others in the past few weeks if you have participated in our services. In all of these parables, Jesus is using stories, stories about familiar or relatable things to teach lessons about spiritual matters. Jesus teaches us a lot about various aspects of the kingdom of heaven. He allows us to see details that would otherwise remain hidden.
And it’s not hard to get the point of the parables in front of us today. There are some obvious similarities between the first two, the finding of the treasure and the finding of the pearl. In both, something of incredible value is discovered. In both, the person who finds it sacrifices everything else to get that valuable treasure. Jesus is teaching us that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else. It is our greatest treasure. The action taken by both men in the stories Jesus tells makes sense if the treasure they find is truly valuable. Let’s just use some round numbers. If I find a treasure in a vacant lot and that treasure is worth a million dollars, it would be plenty sensible to sell my house to buy the lot with the treasure for $250,000. It may be a lot to spend, but I would end up with much more than what I gave up.
And OK, that scenario seems a little unrealistic for today. When Jesus was sharing this parable, it would have been much more common for people to find buried treasures. People were known to bury part of their net worth in the ground for safekeeping, and they did not always have a chance to retrieve it later. The treasure in the story is so valuable that it is worth giving up everything else for the man who happened upon it. Now, Jesus is not telling us how we might be able to buy our way into heaven. He is not suggesting that it is a commodity to be purchased. He is telling us that it is worth giving up anything else in order to have it and to hold onto it. The kingdom of heaven may be something that seems to come to us by chance—not that we were specifically looking for it. Our parents bring us to the baptismal font and raise us up with Bible stories and church. Our neighbor invites us to come and see why she loves her church so much. A friend drops off a book that I read. Whatever the details, God works through his Word to show us not just our sins but also our Savior from sin in his dear Son Jesus Christ. And there we have it—the greatest treasure. God works in our hearts through the Word and through his sacraments and we become part of his kingdom. And it is worth anything that we might have to give up.
What might we have to give up? Our selfish desires. Our misplaced priorities. Our focus on earthly things. We could find all sorts of examples. And truth be told, we can have a very hard time giving some of these things up. It is easy to claim to be a Christian but not to help someone in need when it is inconvenient. It is easy to claim that the kingdom of heaven is my greatest treasure and then to skip church when I just don’t
feel like going or when I am upset about something that happened there. We tend to avoid going to the extreme these parables talk about and truly giving up everything else that we have because we know that the kingdom of heaven is more valuable, and that is sin. That is condemning.
That would be unforgivable were it not for Jesus doing the exact opposite. He gave everything up for us to be a part of his kingdom. He left his heavenly throne to live in our dirty sinful world. He gave every bit of effort needed to withstand every temptation of the devil and to remain innocent. And then he gave up his very own life. He had nothing left to give. That’s how valuable you are to him. And that is how valuable the gift is that he has given to you.
It’s interesting to note the difference between the two very similar parables. The merchant was out looking for pearls. He didn’t just stumble across something. He was comparing valuable pearls with other valuable pearls. We might think about how people look for answers to the big questions of life. They may look for answers in in science or philosophy or politics or other examples of wisdom. When used correctly, these things may be very valuable, but none of the other pearls compare to the one, the most beautiful, the most precious, the most valuable of all. That pearl of amazing value is worth giving up everything else, just like the treasure found in the field.
And with one final parable, Jesus reminds us of the reason why. He tells us that in the end, the bad fish will be separated from the good. The wicked will be separated from the righteous. The wicked will be cast into the fiery furnace that is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. The kingdom of heaven is rescue from that. It is your greatest treasure because it is eternal treasure.
Not everything that can be said about the kingdom of heaven can be captured neatly by the parables that describe some aspect of it. And not all of the details of the story are going to coincide directly with a specific truth about the kingdom. Jesus teaches in parables in part because the people who understand the main point will inevitably get something out of them. Those who refuse to listen to the central truth, however, won’t get the point.
Jesus is the point. To truly know him as Lord and Savior is to be righteous. Your sins are washed away because of his life and his death. They are gone and cannot condemn you. You get what you have not earned and you don’t receive what you have deserved. That makes you, Jesus makes you, the desirable fish caught up in the net.
But that same net catches bad fish, fish that represent the wicked who will be thrown out. Connecting all these parables, we might think of these fish as people who have some awareness of the treasure and the pearl, but they aren’t willing to give up everything they have for those precious treasures. They may come to church. They may give offerings. They may say the prayers and sing the songs, but their sinful hearts remain dark and hard. They want to hold on to their selfish ways. They want to think about church in terms of what I can get out of it in a self-serving way rather than getting out of it what God wants them to: the love of Jesus and the salvation that he gives. And those bad fish will be thrown away. The wicked will be thrown into that fiery furnace. It doesn’t matter how close they were to the kingdom, how tightly caught they were by the net of God’s Church. What matters is whether they truly knew and believed in Jesus as their Savior, their greatest treasure.
Jesus’ disciples were confident they understood these things. They were owners of new treasures and old. They could rely on Old Testament teachings and New Testament revelations. They could appreciate every new insight that God gave them into the kingdom of heaven, the treasure, the pearl.
That’s what Jesus wants for you. He wants you to know what an amazing treasure you have in your possession. It is worth giving up anything else for it. It is worth it because it is an eternal treasure. Let that be your confession in your heart, with your mouth, and through your life: the kingdom of heaven is my greatest treasure.
The Text: Matthew 13:44–52 (EHV)
44“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again. In his joy, he goes away and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. 46When he found one very valuable pearl, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48When the net was filled, they pulled it onto the shore. They sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw the bad ones away. 49That is how it will be at the end of the world. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous who are among them. 50And they will throw the wicked into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 51Jesus said to them, “Did you understand all these things?”
They answered him, “Yes.”
52He said to them, “Therefore every expert in the law who has been trained as a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure both new things and old things.”