Stories Jesus Told:
Cash in the Attic
Matthew 13:44-46
Cash in the Attic. Have you seen it? It comes on HGTV, and the premise of the show is the producers go to a person’s house, clean out their basement or attic, or some other clutter from their home, and take it to auction in the hopes of raising money to do another project that the person wants to do like paint a room, or take a trip. It is thirty minutes spent discovering if what they chose was trash could be turned into treasure.
There is a plethora of these types of shows on television now. I think of a program called Flea Market Finds. The hosts scour the nation’s flea markets in search of elusive treasures that someone thought was trash, because we do know that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Vanessa’s and my favorite past-time when we lived in Kentucky was to spend our weekends going to flea markets in the area. There were quite a few of them, and it was lots of fun to browse through the rows and rows of stuff, pilfering, looking for anything that might catch our eye. Unfortunately for us, we never found any treasure in any of our searches. Usually what was another person’s trash ended up being our trash, too. But we never stopped searching because we believed that one day we would find a treasure that would make us rich, or at least, make enough money to take a week-end trip.
You see, we’ve all heard stories of people who lucked up and found something hidden away in an attic that turned out to be really valuable, and we figure, if it could happen to them, it could happen to us. We hear stories like Ted and Virginia from Arizona. There story was found on Antiques Roadshow on PBS. Ted inherited a blanket from an aunt, and not caring much for the blanket, just threw it on a chair in the bedroom. There it stayed for years until the Antiques Roadshow came through Tuscon. Just for kicks, Ted and Virginia carried the blanket (the aunt told them it was Kit Carson’s) to see if it was worth anything, thinking perhaps it might be worth a couple of thousand dollars. Donald Ellis was the appraiser that day, and he almost fainted when he saw the blanket. Turns out the blanket was an original Navajo creation dating to the early 1800’s, of which only fifty remain in existence, and none in the condition of Ted and Virginia’s. Mr. Ellis appraised the blanket on the show for $350,000. Ted and Virginia sold the blanket at auction for close to half a million dollars. From trash to treasure, indeed.
Stories like the man and his maps are similar to the stories Jesus told in today’s scripture. As Jesus told his stories to the disciples (remember, he has moved from the crowd into a house and is having a discussion with his disciples about the parables he has spoken), he tells two stories concerning the Kingdom of heaven, and the stories feature elements and characters that are familiar and plausible to the disciples. There is the man who discovers the treasure hidden in a field. We can’t quite make sense that a man would discover treasure in such a place, but when we recall that there were no banks in first century Palestine, it can make a little more sense to know that people held their valuables in the ground near their homes. And, to know that whenever an army would invade a land, people would hide their valuables in the ground before fleeing in the hopes that they could return to the land one day and retrieve their valuables. Both were common practices in Jesus’ time.
Pearls, too, were immensely valuable and desirable in the ancient world. They were desired not only because they were valuable but because they were beautiful, too. People found pleasure and joy in handling pearls, and in simply possessing them. This was another image that would capture the disciples attention.
And Jesus said, “The Kingdom of heaven is like a man who discovered this treasure hidden in a field…,” and “The Kingdom of heaven is like a pearl merchant on the look out for choice pearls…” So Jesus wanted to communicate another truth about this Kingdom that he was initiating. He wanted to use common pictures to say something about what these disciples were getting into as they became his followers. What did Jesus say about his kingdom?
With the telling of these stories, Jesus communicated to his disciples that there is a treasure worth possessing, yet not as the world counts treasure. There is something of inestimable worth that exists for which every human heart longs. I am reminded of the MasterCard commercials we’ve seen—priceless! You know the ones that say, “Some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” Those commercials, which are masterful at capturing our emotions and our core values, communicate what we believe in our hearts in this over-commercialized world—that some things are just priceless. That is what Jesus is communicating to his disciples—that there is something that is priceless.
Our faith, the Christian faith, tells us there is a treasure. We stumble upon this treasure week in and week out when we come to church. This place, this sanctuary reminds us of the treasure we seek. Yes, some come like the man to the field, stumbling upon the treasure, and some come like the merchant, spending their lives to find that one, great pearl, but we all come. We come, and are reminded that we are in the midst of the Kingdom of God, and we are reminded the Kingdom of God is real. Our hearts are struck with a new beauty, and uplifted by the passion of the One who gave all for us, and we experience the joy of knowing Christ. We leave thinking, “I should be closer to Christ. I should do more for Christ. I need to give all to Christ.” We may even leave desiring it, but the day closes, the new week dawns, and we generally lay aside the pursuit of the one treasure only to pick up the pursuit of another—wealth, or comfort, or health, or happiness.
Why the futility in our search? It goes back to the philosophy from which most of us live our lives. The philosophy is called post-modernism. In this philosophy, the question is not so much whether we have achieved anything, but whether achievement is really even possible. The truth is that we have worshipped at the altar of materialism and consumerism, and they have both failed in helping us find true peace and joy. We spend our week earnestly spending ourselves to possess a nicer car, a bigger home, a better job, nicer toys, a more exciting adventure, and when we obtain it, we soon lay it aside to continue the pursuit for yet another treasure, for this one, too has left us sensing there is still something more.
How do we spend ourselves? How about 70 and 80 hour work weeks? And working these kinds of hours is more than simply wanting to earn more to buy more. Certainly, more money equals more possessions and more possessions equals more happiness. But it also has to do with seeking acceptance and craving success. The more productive we are the more valuable we are, to ourselves, to our boss, to our family. Oh, it goes deeper than simply working to earn money.
We also spend ourselves running from activity to activity, event to event. Between our own desires to have a social life and enjoy all that life has to offer, and our children and grandchildren being involved in more activities than we can humanly maintain, we spend our lives on the run. We flit from one activity to another, whether aerobics, piano lessons, school activities, tennis lessons, football practice, basketball games, church meetings, Rotary Club or Lions Club. We believe it is in the meetings and activities that we will find meaning and purpose, peace and happiness. But alas, it never works. Were we to actually achieve a semblance of joy or peace at the end of the day we would be too stressed to enjoy it, and we are too tired to spend time building a relationship with the persons we most need to build relationships with.
We spend ourselves on entertainment hoping beyond hope that these activities will bring us some sort of joy in life. And they do, but only for a season. I think about the reasons we go to the casinos or buy lottery tickets. I’m not condemning anyone for doing either of those things. But I do want us to understand why we do them. We can say that we just do it for entertainment, but in our hearts, we know that we are seeking a treasure. We want to hit the jackpot that will change our lives. Well, it may change our lives, but not necessarily for the better. We plop down cash for that weekly lottery ticket anticipating the big payoff, and imagining all the good things we could do with it. We spend ourselves looking for a treasure.
Because of the failure of materialism and consumerism to touch our deepest needs, it is only a short step to disbelieving God, and disbelieving the reality of a treasure which will satisfy every longing heart. But our faith tells us there is a treasure, and the treasure is found in possessing the Kingdom. Jesus, in these parables, affirms all that the Bible teaches concerning our pursuit for that intangible, eternal treasure for which our hearts long. The Kingdom is ours when we sell out to obtain Jesus Christ. He is the treasure, for he brings the Kingdom—to us and to his creation.
These stories also affirm another truth that startles us—possessing the kingdom is costly. I can imagine the scene in the man’s home that day. “Honey, let’s go, we’ve got to move. I’ve sold the house.”
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“Just come on, you’ll see.”
“Well, let me pack our stuff.”
“You can’t. I sold that, too.”
“What about the animals?”
“Sold them too!”
“And the wagon?”
“Sold.”
“And the acreage?”
“Sold!”
“Everything?”
“Everything!”
“But why?”
“To buy a field.”
“A field? Have you lost your mind?”
“No, my dear, for this field is the most valuable field I could ever own. Nothing will surpass its value. I had to have it.”
Don’t get hung up on the ethical question of whether the man deceived the original landowner. It was perfectly ethical under Jewish law for the man to act in this manner. The point is that the man knew the value of the treasure. He knew it was costly, but he was willing to pay the cost. And the pearl merchant, too. He knew pearls. He had spent his life seeking them, and finding this one pearl that glistened above all others, gave his fortune to possess it.
If we are to possess the kingdom, if we are to possess Christ, it means we are to sell out completely. It will call for nothing less than complete surrender on our part. Jesus doesn’t want our tears for the hurting, or our pity for the poor. He doesn’t want our prayers for the sick, nor does he want our money. He wants us! Totally, completely surrendered to his will. The funny thing is that when he gets us totally surrendered, he gets our tears and our pity, our prayers, and yes, our money—whether we win the lottery or not.
But we are too quick to count the cost, or should I say, we are more aware of the cost than we are the treasure. It is a price that some are just unwilling to pay. We are unwilling to let go of those things we believe are treasure to obtain that which is real treasure. The truth is we just get comfortable, and we like our comfort, thank you very much! Prosperity has made us comfortable. We fail to step out in faith to reach the lost because the boiler might break or the roof might leak. But I don’t mean to be too hard on us again. Everyone goes through this same stage, either as individuals or as institutions. What begins as high expectations, tempered by the passage of time, eventually ends in mediocrity and reasonableness.
I think of “gung-ho” cops. Do you know what they are? They are police officers who come on the job believing that they will be the ones to catch all the criminals and clean up the streets of their community. They come believing themselves to be invincible. But time passes, and the passion cools, because for every criminal they arrest, every ticket they write, they discover there is yet one more job left to be done. Reality blinds them, and they let the treasure slip away, or they forget about the pearl. Have we become that way in our lives? Have we become that way in our church? Have we discovered the treasure and found that it simply costs too much?
God has shown us the treasure of his kingdom. He has called us to receive the treasure of being in the Kingdom. It is within the reach of all of us—on one condition—if we really want it.
The auctioneers are standing by at the auction. God is here to tell you there’s cash in your attic. It is time to clean it up, sell it out and trade it in for the real treasure. So, sell out your sin. Sell out your pain. Sell out your pride. Sell out your arrogance. Sell out your selfishness. Sell out deceitfulness. Sell out your hatefulness. Sell out your envy. Sell out your jealousy. Sell out your comfort. Sell out your complacency. Sell out your mediocrity. Sell out your reasonableness. Sell it all out. You’ve discovered the treasure of the Kingdom. Sell it all out, and trade it for a new life of peace and joy in Jesus Christ. It’s time you discovered you really do have cash in the attic.
