The Parable Of The Lost Treasure Examined Series

A few years ago a military vehicle collector named Nick Mead was browsing on eBay of all places, looking at rare military vehicles, and he spotted one that interested him. It was an Iraqi tank, type 69, in wide use in the 1980s but today considered obsolete.

In any case Nick Mead was able to trade some of his own military equipment for the tank, costing him about $40,000. Pretty expensive right?

After the purchase Mead and a friend were examining the tank, and opened the diesel gas tank to find gold bars hidden inside. There were five gold bars weighing twelve pounds each. When examined, the gold bars turned out to be worth about 2.4 million dollars.

It was believed that the gold bars had been pillaged from Kuwait, during Iraq’s invasion of the country in 1990.

Mead didn’t know about the hidden gold in the tank, but if he did, I bet he would’ve paid a lot more to get his hands on that tank.

Does anyone remember the story a few years ago, about a man, Richard Kirby who purchased a sofa from the Restore in Owosso here, and later discovered over $43,000 in it?

But Kirby when he found the money, he is quoted in Mlive.com saying, “The Holy Spirit just came over me and said, ‘No, that’s really not yours,’” Kirby said.

Godly man, he also said, “It belonged to them, and I’m glad I was able to give it back to them,” Kirby said. “As a born-again Christian, I want to do what Christ would want me to do, and I think that’s what he would want me to do.” This was back in Jan 2020.

In any case, this theme of finding hidden treasure of great value relates to our parables for today, and we’re looking at two parables, very brief, only three verses here.

It says this, from Matthew 13:44-46 “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.

45 “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.”

In both our examples today, Nick Mead and Richard Kirby didn’t know there was hidden treasure in their purchases. But they were blessed to find such treasure.

But our parable is a bit different. In the parables today, we see a man, and perhaps he’s out working in a field, or maybe he’s just taking a walk. And he sits down under a tree somewhere, and something catches his eye.

He begins pulling away the dirt and brush, and realizes there is a great treasure hidden under the tree. He hides the treasure and leaves.

He checks with the city and finds out the land is for sale. So he takes his current house, sells it, takes all his possessions, sells all of it, and takes the money and buys the field, where the treasure is hidden. And he is blessed.

What’s going on here? The parable tells us, again, this is yet another aspect of what God’s kingdom is like.

Pause, I want to review here for a second. Because we’re starting to get a bigger picture from the parables so far, about what God’s kingdom is like. Let’s take a look:

The Parable of the wedding feast taught us that the invites have gone out to anyone willing to come in their wedding clothes, the righteousness of Christ.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins taught us that we have to be watchful and ready for the return of Christ the king, watchfulness and readiness is vital, or we will be shut out.

The Parable of Counting the Cost taught us to be cautious to realize we’ve set out on a lifelong journey and we’ve made sure we know the cost is high for being part of God’s kingdom. We face many trials and difficulties, even death on the journey.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep tells us that God’s mark of being at work in pursuing people is often sorrow and suffering and lostness. This often draws people to god, isolation and lostness in life.

The Parable of the Unforgiving servant taught us that a central truth of God’s kingdom is the requirement for believers to radically forgive their enemies.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son taught us that the Father’s deep desire is for us to return to Him, no matter what we have done.

And last week the parable of the sower taught us that the state of the soil of our heart will determine how we respond to the gospel.