The Parable Of The Hidden Treasure Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

CrossWay Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

The “Lady Blunt” is one of the finest violins ever crafted by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari. It was made in 1721 and is considered one of the best-preserved Stradivarius violins. In 1940, the violin was auctioned for £2,000 to the virtuoso violinist Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (ZHAHN-bah-TEEST Vwee-YHOM).

The violin then passed through the hands of several collectors and musicians until it was acquired by an anonymous British owner in the mid-20th century. This owner kept the violin under his bed for around 50 years, unaware of its value.

In 2008, this owner decided to sell the violin to raise funds for disaster relief efforts in Japan and China. The instrument was sold at auction by Tarisio Auctions for a record-breaking price of over $15 million, with all proceeds going to charity. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Blunt_Stradivarius)

In 2006, a Filipino fisherman named Palawan discovered an enormous pearl while fishing off the coast of Palawan Island in the Philippines. The pearl was found inside a giant clam caught in his fishing net. Unaware of the pearl’s value, the fisherman kept it as a good luck charm under his bed for ten years.

In 2016, after a fire forced the fisherman to relocate, he brought the pearl to his new home. Eventually, his family decided to seek advice on the pearl’s value. They contacted gemologists who verified its authenticity and assessed its value at approximately $100 million, making it one of the largest natural pearls ever found.

https://nypost.com/2016/08/23/a-fisherman-kept-this-100m-pearl-under-his-bed-for-10-years/

For many years, John and Mary took daily walks along a trail on a section of their property called Saddle Ridge. However, in 2013, as they were walking their dog, they noticed an old can sticking out of the dirt. Curious, they brushed away some moss, used a stick to dig it out, and carried the heavy container home.

The couple living in California’s gold country discovered a cache of 19th-century U.S. gold coins that rare coin experts say is the greatest buried treasure ever unearthed in the United States. The coins, dating from the mid-19th to early 20th century, were worth over $10 million.

The “Saddle Ridge Treasure” includes the 1866-S No Motto Double Eagle, which is valued at around $1 million. The couple had no idea about the treasure hidden on their land until they discovered it.

“I thought an old miner with a mule was going to appear any second,” John said in an interview.

“It was like finding a wonderful hot potato,” Mary added. “I never would have thought we would have found something like this; however, weirdly, I feel like I have been preparing my whole life for it… The answer to our difficulties was right there under our feet for years.”?

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gold-coins-california-backyard-20140225-story.html

I love these kind of stories. These ordinary people stumble upon priceless treasures in unsuspecting ways that change their lives. What is even more inspiring about these stories is that the treasure was, as Mary said, right under their feet. These types of stories also are real-life illustrations of Jesus’ Parable of the Hidden Treasure found in

Matthew 13:44

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

As we have learned, parables are short stories or visual illustrations Jesus used to reveal the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God. As I’ve said before, parables were not used to teach morals in the same way Aesop’s Fables were; rather, they were meant to provide a spiritual understanding of two truths about the Kingdom of God that we cannot know on our own.

In the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, Jesus reveals five essential principles for understanding the Kingdom: 1. Priceless Value, 2. Shrouded Visibility, 3. Personal Sacrifice, 4. Personal Commitment, and 5. Profound Procurement. Let’s go over each one in detail.

Priceless Value

Notice first that Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a treasure. The word “treasure” in the Greek sounds like our word “thesaurus.” The idea behind a thesaurus is to explore every possible way of stating an idea. In the same way, everything that really needs to be known or said is rooted in Christ. (Credit: Sermon Central)

The Scottish writer and theologian Thomas Guthrie said it this way, “In the blood of Christ to wash out sin’s darkest stains, in the grace of God to purify the foulest heart, in peace [of God] to calm life’s roughest storms, in hopes to cheer guilt’s darkest hour, in a courage that defies death and descends calmly into the tomb, in that which makes the poorest rich, and without which the richest are poor indeed, the Gospel has treasure far greater than east or west unfold and its rewards more precious are than all the stores of gold.”