Hidden and Ultimate Value:

The Parable of the Treasure in the Field
Matthew 13:44-46

(At: The Lighthouse Ministry 8/17/2008)

On September 6, 1622 a fleet of ships left the new world carrying copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, jewels, jewelry and indigo from Spanish port at Havana bound for Spain. Once a year a fleet of galleons sailed to Spain weighed down with gold, silver and jewlels plundered from the indigenous people of Spanish empire. The largest and most famous ship was called Nuestra Señora de Atocha. The fleet was six weeks behind schedule which forced them to leave during hurricane season. Sure enough, one day into their journey they ran into a severe hurricane, the hull was damaged and the ship quickly sank 35 miles off the Florida keys. There was so much treasure on the Atocha that the Spanish government went into debt and looked for the wreckage for years…but never found it. For 350 years it lay there, scattered across the pacific shelf. Then, in the early 1970’s a diver named Mel Fisher got a clue regarding its location. He collected a small group of friends and family and begin to look. Each day he would emerge from his cabin look up to the sky and say ‘this could be the day’. Day after day they worked long hours at spending a great deal of his own money. For 16 and a half years, he said, ‘this could be the day’. Finally on July 20, 1985 he was right. They found the Atocha and began to salvage 40 tons of silver and gold. They said that the bars of silver were stacked like chord wood. The total value of the treasure was $450 million. That is almost half a billion dollars. That is more than A-Rod will make in his entire career. I bet he got lots of questions: How long would you have looked? What made you look in that particular spot in that particular day? But I suspect that there is one question he never got: Was it worth the money you spent?

This morning we are going to look at one of Jesus’ shortest parables. 1 verse, two sentences. A very brief story with a great deal to say about value and priorities.

44"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. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

But first it is worth noting what Jesus was talking about when he told these stories. The shorter the passage you are looking at the more important its context becomes. In Matthew 13 Jesus is in full story telling mode. He didn’t always teach like this, sometimes he taught in a more straight forward manner. But not here. In Matthew 13 he is in full on Parable mode. Matthew 13 breaks into 2 halves: the boat (parables for the crowd) and the house (parables for his disciples) – our passage is in the latter. What does that tell us about it? Jesus is talking to believers or at least the spiritually curious.



Then, let’s look at the first lines of the other parables in this chapter, see if we can pick up themes and see if we can figure out how our parable fits in:

v3 A farmer went out to sow his seed
v11 The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you
v24 The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
V31 The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
V33 The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."
V44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
V45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
V47 Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.

If you had to summarize what this chapter is about in a brief phrase, what would you say? The Kingdom. This was Jesus’ absolute favorite topic. He taught about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God (which he uses interchangeably) more than any thing else. So what is it? It seems to me that it is worth knowing a thing or two about:

One of the biggest mistakes with interpreting the parables is to think by ‘kingdom of heaven’ he simply means ‘heaven.’ Jesus is not talking about some future blissful state – either a ‘spiritual’ ghostly state or a far away place with golden streets. It is the privilege of being one of God’s agents. I like to explain it with another parable. The kingdom of God is like a CIA agent. She lives in one country but her allegiance is to another. Her activities are as an agent of good for both countries but her marching orders come from her home country…an agent of the king living for his influence in a land that has not recognized his rule. You live in this other place, and while you desire good things for this place and people, you answer to a foreign power. The other parables in Chapter 13 are all about this mixing of kingdoms, this awesome privilege of being part of inserting God’s rule and influence into a broken world. The two short parables we are looking at are actually a little off topic. They are the only ones in this passage that are not on this mixing theme. In the middle of these parables about mixing, the teacher takes a little digression regarding how immensely valuable it is to be asked to take on this mission of infiltration and influence…of the kingdom:

The text is short, let’s read it again.

44"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.

I would like to make three brief observations about this passage:

1. Spiritual Treasure is Often Hidden
2. The Kingdom is Free but Not Cheap
3. Two Words: “For Joy”

1. Spiritual Treasure is Often Hidden

So a guy is walking along in a field. Maybe he is a laborer or maybe he is taking a short cut through the local vacant lot for sale. It is probably a field that he has walked through many times before. But this time, he stumbles over something. He looks down to find a a firm piece of metal sticking out of the ground but barely visible under the surrounding vegetation. His curiosity peeked, he begins to dig, maybe expecting a tool or old piece of farming equipment. But the deeper he gets, the bigger it seems. Finally he realizes that it’s not a discarded tool or a lost piece of Roman armor. It’s a treasure, a treasure of great value.

But first, let’s ask the contextual question, why was the treasure in the field. Does this seem a little far fetched to you. I mean, Jesus’ parables drew from the events of ordinary life or current events. They tend to be rooted in the realities of first century Jewish life. Just think of the topics of the other parables in this passage: fishing, sowing, bread making. These are standard happenings in this culture. But think about this for a minute. There were no banks back then. And on top of that, for thousands of years Israel was one of the most fought over, conquered and re-conquered pieces of real estate in the ancient world. Literally hundreds of armies had passed through here. If you were a resident of Jerusalem and a marauding army was bearing down on you, say the Philistines or the Assyrians or the Babylonians, and you had some great treasure, some possession of real value, what would you do with it. You’d go out secretly into an out of the way field and bury it. But then what happened if you didn’t survive (which often happened). The treasure was forgotten, buried for decades or centuries until the weathering processes exposed just a hint of it. This actually probably happened from time to time. It was a little like winning the lottery. People knew it happened and desperately wished it would happen to them. I think it is a little like the lotto in our culture. Sometimes my co-workers will have a bad day and say, ‘I need to play the lottery.’ I can totally see bakers or fishermen or farmers in first century Galilee, after a particularly bad day, saying ‘Shoot, I hope I trip over a treasure on the way home.’

Which leads to my first point. Spiritual treasure is often hidden. It is seldom where we expect it to be. How many times does Jesus have to tell us before we catch on. It is a major theme of his. He said stuff like ‘the first will be last and the last will be first’. Let me let you in on a secret. The church is full of losers. And you know what, it always has been. In looking over the congregation in Corinth Paul said

1:26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

This can be problematic because sociologists tell us we generally believe things based not on whether or not they are true but whether or not the people who believe them are the kind of people we want to be. But Jesus came with no flare. The scriptures say ‘He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (53:2) They would say, we know this guy, he grew up with us. He’s Joseph’s kid. He built my mom’s bread box. He’s far too ordinary to have something spiritually valuable to offer me.

When God chose to become a human and walk among us he didn’t even afford himself the distinction of being attractive. I don’t know about you, but if I were God choosing to become incarnate, I’d come as at least an 8. But he was shockingly ordinary. The unremarkable carpenter that stirred every soul. And so here’s the point; God is not that into packaging. In the Old Testament, God’s presence lived in ‘the Tabernacle’ which sounds mysterious and exalted but was a simple tent made of the skins of butchered animals.

Just before this parable, Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God comes in unexpected packages. Yeast and mustard seeds are both so insignificant to the human eye but are powerful transforming agents influencing stuff around them. Yeast mysteriously transforms flower into bread and the insignificant mustard seed eventually towers providing habitat for birds. This parable is actually not that much of a departure from these themes. Nothing about the kingdom of God can be judged by what is on the surface. Nerds, dorks, losers, these are the building blocks of God’s kingdom. God subverts the proud expectations of the world by using those that don’t look like much.

This idea that spiritual treasure is often hidden has a couple of applications. First, this gathering of yours, the Lighthouse should be a different kind of place for someone to walk into. Any high school student should be able to walk through those doors and be evaluated by a completely different standard than any other rooms they have any walked into. When a new person walks through that door, regardless of how your culture has trained you to evaluate them, look beneath the surface. By being intentional about befriending each other and going out of your way to meet the new guy you are showing care and obeying God, but it also pretty fun. People are really interesting. Finding out the special secrets that make individuals unexpectedly special is one of my favorite hobbies. Incidentally, this is how I became a Christian. I walked into a youth group, full of odd people, that I was almost sure was going to be lame. And I found treasure.

Second, the spiritual treasure that you have given your life for, is hidden to those around you and you should expect them to act accordingly. To those who don’t know the field contained treasure, the first guy seems crazy. One of my favorite bands put out an album a couple years ago titled ‘The Dancer’s Mad.’ It comes from a quote ‘To those who can’t hear the music the dancer’s mad’. If you make God’s kingdom, God’s rule, God’s priorities your own, others are just not going to understand. But you know. You know that beneath the ordinary field, in those odd people you hang out with. You know, there is treasure there. And if you don’t know, let me be the one to tell you. There is treasure there. Which leads me to my second observation:

2. The Kingdom is Free but its not Cheap

Let’s look closely at the two men in these parables. I am going to read the passage again and afterwards I want you to answer this question for me: How are these two men different?
A working man – and a wealthy man/ deliberate and by accident
What they have in common is that they both sell everything

You know you have found spiritual treasure b/c every part of your life is revolutionized – it never improves you. The kingdom is not just something you add to your life for self improvement like a diet, dating someone new, going to college or taking up a new sport. It is not merely useful. It is not an incremental improvement. This is what the world thinks of spirituality. It is part of my life that can make it better. Spirituality can be useful. It can make me more interesting or more emotionally resilient. But this is not spiritual treasure. But true spiritual treasure becomes the centerpiece around which every other possession or trait is organized.

The man in the story could never afford the treasure. He has the opportunity to acquire something of great value, which he deeply desires, but could not otherwise afford. The new life that Christ offers us is not anything we could earn or afford. He paid the price for it to come to us. If that is a new idea to you, if you think that Christianity is about being good enough that God will be pleased and let you into heaven, you are wrong. If you are still trying to earn God’s love, cut it out. You need to get a hold of the gospel, let’s talk. Being reconciled to God and enlisted in this revolutionary movement of his kingdom is a gift from Jesus. It is entirely free. But here is the paradox…while it is free, it is not cheap.

A professor from Duke University that calls himself a behavioral economist has identified a trait he calls ‘Predictable Irrationality.’ He has done a number of studies in which he has demonstrated that we are not good judges of value. In fact, he says that we tend to make the same sort of mistake every time. We far outweigh the value of the stuff that we already have if someone offers us something in exchange for it, that far outweighs its value. This observation helped me find a hole in my poker game. I play poker once a month with guys from work. It is part of my theology of the kingdom; that I am supposed to extend God’s influence all sorts of places to all sorts of people. At the beginning I was one of the better players. But then my friends got better and I didn’t seem to. But my game had a fatal flaw. I was far too timid a player. I would not give up the chips in front of me to acquire far more chips in the pot even when the laws of statistic said that the right play was to go all in. When presented with a chance to risk my chips with a great chance to win a huge pile of chips, rather than go all in I’d fold. This is where some of you are. You know there is treasure in the field, but you know it will cost you. You know the only move is to go all in, but you are too attached to the chips in front of you.

Jim Elliot, a guy who was actually killed for his desire to extend the kingdom of God, used to say, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot loose.”

Now every time I hear someone preach something like this I used to think, you’re right, I need to give Jesus everything. But I would get stuck on the how question. The only way I could figure out how to do that was to go into full time ministry. I used to think there were pastors and missionaries that gave God everything and then there were the second class Christians that just squeaked by by grace. Some of you may be called into full time ministry, but you need to hear this, most of you are going to have to figure out the arguably more difficult calling of giving everything for the kingdom while you actually have a spouse, job, house, kids and lots of other things you actually enjoy.

Most of you will go to college, get a job, get married, have kids and buy a house. These things are not betrayals of the call to the kingdom. Most of you will live perfectly ordinary lives…why…because that is where God hides his spiritual treasure. The difference is that you will live these lives as agents of the kingdom. God’s kingdom is not advanced primarily by a small group of full time Christian superstars. The real work of the kingdom is the result of ‘ordinary’ people living extraordinary lives. Your job, family and house will be all about extending the rule and influence of God. That is the good news of the kingdom…ordinary lives have extraordinary potential in God’s kingdom.

The point of this parable is not that the kingdom can be bought. It is that if it costs you everything, it is still a good deal.

3. Two Words: “For Joy”

The adults are going through a series by Jon Piper in Lifebuilders. He is a popular teacher and writer. I have recently heard him say that every book he ever wrote was motivated by these two words. ‘For Joy.’

When the man found the treasure did he say, ‘Crap, now I am going to have to sell everything. It is going to be such a hassle. I am going to have to move out of my house and get an apartment. I really like my iPod and I’m just not sure if I can do without it?’

No, he was thrilled. He couldn’t wait to do whatever it took to rearrange his life in the single minded pursuit of the treasure. Sacrifices made for Jesus and his kingdom bring more joy than the thing sacrificed. Do you ever wonder why Paul says that ‘God loves a cheerful giver’? Doesn’t it seem like God would be happy with our time, money, efforts and sacrifices regardless of whether or not we are happy about providing them? No. God does not need anything we offer him. But what he wants is for us to want him more than anything else. He wants us to enjoy him and his work. The kingdom should be a blast. And that is the litmus test of spiritual health. Do you give things to god ‘with joy’ because He and His Kingdom are far more valuable to him than anything else in this world.

So in summary: Spiritual Treasure is Often Hidden, The Kingdom is Free but Not Cheap and Two Words: “For Joy”.

So I guess the bottom line is: Buy the field. There is treasure in there.

Note: I’d like to recognize a debt to Tim Keller in this message, particularly for the point ‘Spiritual treasure is often hidden.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTV8FYZ1jVs