Treasure Hunt! Series

The Parables of Jesus: Treasure Hunt

Matthew 13:44-46

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

10-23-2022

Jackpot!

In 2019, a couple in Yorkshire, England was renovating their kitchen and thought they had stumbled across some old electrical wire. It turns out it was a coin. Not just one coin but hundreds of coins dating from 1610 to 1727.

The coins sold at auction for $852,383.00! For 200 years, those coins had just been waiting to be discovered.

Earlier, this month a “demin archeologist” found a pair of Levi jeans in an abandoned mine shaft in New Mexico. They were sold at auction for $87,000!

The couple in England stumbled on the treasure under their kitchen floorboards. The other treasure was found by someone who has spent their life looking for vintage blue jeans.

Sometimes things are worth more than someone thinks. If you have ever watched Antique Roadshow or Pawn Stars, you have seen someone bring an artifact in thinking that it was junk, only to find out it was worth a million dollars. Or someone who brings in something that they thought was worth a lot of money and discovered that it was fake or not worth anywhere near what they thought.

That happened to me when I discovered that I had a first edition of “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White. On eBay, first editions sell for nearly $1,000! I was super excited and thought I had struck gold. Until I figured out that it was a Readers Digest version of the book worth about five dollars.

It comes down to how valuable someone considers the thing to be. I read of two brothers that found an old trunk full of baseball cards in their dad’s attic after he passed away. They knew nothing about baseball cards and took the trunk to a dealer who offered them one million dollars on the spot for the entire trunk!

This morning, we are continuing our series on the parables of Jesus.

We’ve studied the parable of the vineyard, where we learned that whether you came to Christ at two or one hundred and two, the retirement plan is the same, and out of this world!

We’ve studied the parable of the four soils, where we learned that the four soils were like four heart postures toward God - a hard heart, a shallow heart, a busy heart, and a receptive heart.

Today, we will study a parable that shows how the kingdom of God is like a treasure found in a field or a pearl of great price.

Turn with me to Matthew 13:44-46.

Prayer

A Chapter of Parables

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells seven parables in a row - the parable of the soils, the parable of the weeds, the parable of the mustard seed and yeast, the parable of hidden treasure, and the parable of the net.

The parables of Matthew 13 are about the Kingdom of God - the rule and reign of Jesus on the earth and in our lives.

Jesus gives another picture of the Kingdom and this time it is like a treasure.

Let’s look at the parables for today one at a time:

“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.” (Matt 13:44)

In Jesus’ time, there were banks but only the ultra-rich had access to them. It was normal for Jewish people to bury their money or valuable possessions in the ground. In fact, the rabbis had a saying that the only safe place to hide treasure is the earth.

Notice that the man wasn’t looking for treasure. He was going about his daily life’s work. But he stumbled upon the treasure in the field and it was a once-in-a-lifetime find.

“Let me tell you about a story about a man named Jed / poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed / then one day he was shooting at some food / and up through the ground came a bubbling crude / oil that is, black gold, Texas Tea.”

The field didn’t belong to him, he only worked in the field. He doesn’t steal it.

According to rabbinical law, if a worker came upon a treasure in a field and lifted it out, it would belong to his master. But here the man is careful not to disturb the treasure until he has bought the field.

Notice that the result was an extreme joy! In his joy, he sold all he had and bought the field. Obviously, the owner of the field didn’t know the treasure was there or he wouldn’t have given it up so easily.

The second parable compares the kingdom to a pearl:

 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matt 13:45-46)