Chapter 4
Good Monday Morning to this week 4 of 2022
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. 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: 44-46
Two people each come upon something extremely valuable and precious, and they give up everything they have to acquire it. But the two actors are very different:
Both parables are extraordinarily brief and could not be briefer. We have to ask ourselves: did Jesus really tell such short stories? What is more thrilling than stories about hidden treasure? Why, for example, didn’t he tell about how poor the worker really is, how he starts to plow the ground, then hits something hard with the plowshare, digs out a clay pot and sees that it is full of silver coins, looks around furtively and quickly shoves the earth back over the find—and then how he buys the field, digs up the treasure, rushes home, and dances for joy with his wife and children? What a wealth of story material!
Position 1
The point aimed at in both parables is the gigantic value of what is found. The reign of God is as precious as the treasure and the shimmering pearl.
Position 2
It’s not about the infinite value of the reign of God. It is about giving, about renunciation of possessions, about unlimited willingness to sacrifice.
Position 3
The day-labourer and merchant were faced with a unique opportunity that would never come again in their impoverished lives. So the parable is all about a unique situation. Now, at this hour, God is offering them the greatest gift, and now, in this hour, it must be seized.
Position 4
It’s all fraud, the day-laborer acquires his discovery dishonestly. He leaves the owner of the field in the dark about what he has found. Moreover, the wholesaler must not let the seller know what price he will demand from his own customer. Both of them are “immoral heroes”. What Jesus really wanted to put before the eyes, is about decisive action, total dedication, goal-oriented, uncompromising that it risks everything.
The reign of God needs people who act like that. “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it”
Position 5
The whole point is the overflowing joy with which the two finders sell everything. The accent lies there, and only there, and it is precisely from there that the whole parable has to be interpreted. The joy and and fascination with the find is so great that this determines the both events. Both of them are enraptured: by the brilliance of the treasure and the shimmer of the pearl. They have been seized by a joy beyond all measure.
Conclusion
Beholding and finding the beauty of God’s cause, being seized by joy, by desire for what God wants to do in the world, so that the “desire for God and God’s cause” is greater than the sum of human self-focusing.
Wishing you a good start to this week!
Philemon
Paraphrased from Lohfink, Gerhard. The Forty Parables of Jesus