Treasure and Pearls
Consider John and Mary, owners of land out in the Sierra Nevada range of California. For years, they had noticed what I would have called a piece of trash in the shape of a metal can barely breaking the surface of the earth out in a section of their property. They thought it may have been placed there to hold flowers on a grave and had simply been buried with the passage of time. Curiosity finally got to them when they considered it might actually be some kind of marker. So, they decided to dig it up. What they found were eight cans containing gold coins minted between 1847 to 1894 with an estimated value of ten million dollars.
Are any of us truly immune to that kind of story? It fires the imagination even from a young age. Growing up, I was always told that the woods around me surely had to have some arrow heads hiding just below the surface from bygone Lenni-Lenape settlements. I dug around several promising sites in the woods around our house to no avail while friends a couple of miles away even found a stone tomahawk. A few years ago, there was a big story about a guy walking in the mountains of California and finding a six-pound gold nugget on public lands. These are the kinds of stories that drive our imaginations wild – in fact, I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get your attention back – but hopefully, Jesus can.
Because He tells a similar story in Matthew 13:44-46. A man discovers a treasure hidden in a field. Not an unusual thing before the advent of federally insured banks, and certainly not unusual in ancient times. Somebody put it there like someone did out on that property in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The only problem is, well, the guy who found it? He didn’t own the property. No matter, he’s going to buy it because he is all about that treasure. He knows the value and so he sold absolutely everything he had faster than a fire-sale. And then he bought that field.
Now. If we knew for a fact everything we owned paled in comparative value to the treasure on the property we were going to buy (that there were eight cans of gold coins buried on it, for example), we’d do it too. But we’d have to know for sure it was worth it. The guy sold everything. Let that sink in… because our most valued possessions are usually not the most expensive. They are the heirlooms. The pocketknife from my grandpa. The quilt my grandma made specifically for me. What have you got? What would it take for you to give it up? It would need to be a treasure indeed.
So, this is where the gears of our minds start grinding. He sold everything but he’ll be richer than he has ever been and can replace or maybe even buy back the things he sold to begin with. Win/win. But the next parable puts a wrench in that. You see, we get the impression the guy bought the field from someone who didn’t know the part about the treasure. But the guy selling pearls? I’ll guess the seller knows a thing or two about quality when it comes to pearls. Same buyer situation though, our merchant wants that pearl and sells everything to get it. He pays market value. He now possesses the best pearl he’s ever laid his eyes on and he’s… not… letting… go…. He’s pearl-rich and cash poor and now out of business.
“No, no, no, you must have that wrong – this pearl is just a pearly steppingstone to greater things! He’ll make a profit and move on to the bigger and better!”
Where does Jesus say that? He never tells us this treasure or this pearl is leverage. It’s not. The treasure is the point. The pearl is the point. And if we’re of the sort who are willing to hear, something Jesus has said is statistically unlikely, we’ll realize the Kingdom is the point. We don’t get the Kingdom to move on to something else. We get the Kingdom because there is nothing else.
That’s what we are supposed to hear.
Are we ready to give up everything for this Kingdom? That pocket-knife, that quilt? How about rich family traditions running counter to the Kingdom? How about our reputations? How about a hobby or career standing in the way of true discipleship? How about our pride in our own understanding? If the answer is “no,” then we don’t have ears to hear and really don’t understand the true value of the Kingdom….