Parables Of The Treasure And The Pearl Of Great Price. Series

Parables of the treasure and the pearl of great price.

The parables of the treasure hunters.

Matt.13 :44-46

I'm afraid that we have made Jesus into a gentle founder of the Christian faith, whose sweet words offer comfort to the distressed and whose death provided forgiveness for our sins. We have also watered down the message of Jesus and we have lost its radical call for discipleship and commitment and for giving our all to obtain an infinitely costly Kingdom.

In this study we'll consider the two short parables that will help us hear the costliness of the Kingdom..

"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."(Matthew 13:44)

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."(Matthew 13:44-46)

These parables are related to each other, not only because they build off each other, but also because Jesus did not give these parables to the multitudes. Jesus spoke them only to His disciples. Matthew 13:36 says, “Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.” Jesus then explained that parable, But then, staying in the house with His disciples, Jesus gave four more parables that were meant only for them.

Today, we can store treasure in the bank or in a safe deposit box. But in Jesus' day, burying treasure was an extremely common way of safeguarding it. One's treasure might be stolen by thieves or plundered by foreign invading armies. But if it were hidden skillfully, rarely it be detected.

But people often died in such invasions or died without disclosing the location of the treasure to a relative. In that case, a hoard of coins or jewels buried in a pottery jar might be discovered later that would make its finder rich. Today people dream of getting rich by winning the lottery, but ancient literature is full of stories of people finding buried treasure and becoming fabulously wealthy. Jesus' story along this theme would have captured the imagination of his listeners.

In Jesus' story, a man found the treasure in a rural field. Perhaps he was employed as a laborer and his plow hit the container. Or perhaps erosion had uncovered a portion of the treasure. We just don't know.

But when the man finds the treasure he is overcome with joy. He buries the treasure again so that no one else can find it. Then he sells everything he has and buys the field.

There are two keys to understanding this parable:

1. "In his joy..."and

2. "sold all he had and bought that field."

In the parable, the man's joy is in his good fortune of finding a huge treasure hoard that will make him rich for life. Anything he spends to gain legal right to that treasure is worth it, since the value is so exceedingly much greater. The emphasis here is on the importance of parting with everything he had and own in order to obtain something inestimably greater. This is not a parable about buying salvation, but the incredible value of salvation that far surpasses any amount a man might be able to scrape together to try to acquire it.

While the subject of the Parable of the Hidden Treasure is a man who scrapes up enough money to purchase a piece of land, the subject of the next parable is a wealthy man.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."(Matthew 13:44-46)

He is called a "merchant ." He specialized in searching for and acquiring fine pearls, which he would then sell to retailers. He was doubtless a wealthy man who was used to spending and receiving large sums of money.

Pearls were highly valued in ancient times. This was before the time of cultured pearls, so pearls were not plentiful. They were regarded as precious stones in antiquity, taken by divers from the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. Pearls were used for necklaces and other ornaments, and could be extremely costly, so the word "pearl" came to be a figure of speech for something of supreme worth. Thus when the pearl merchant in Jesus' parable finds one "pearl of great price"(KJV), "great value"(NIV, NRSV), he leaves the potential seller of this priceless pearl, liquidates all his assets down to the last penny -- "sold everything he had"-- and then rushes back to buy the wonderful pearl that has enchanted him.