“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.”
Like the parable of the hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl clearly teaches that if you have found something of immeasurable value you do whatever you need to do to obtain it. Like the man who found the hidden treasure, the merchant in this parable sells all he has to obtain it. The primary difference in the two parables is that the man who found the treasure in the prior parable seems to have stumbled across it, but the merchant in this parable is one who is very deliberately searching for a particular kind of treasure.
Some people find Jesus Christ when they are not even particularly looking for Him. They inadvertently stumble across the threshold of heaven. Many are the stories of those who are low or in difficult straights and who suddenly find Jesus through a bizarre set of coincidences. It might be a well-placed billboard or a timely message on the radio. It might be a track that was left behind in a secular workplace or a divinely appointed but unexpected meeting with a stranger. Whatever it is, something or someone leads them to Jesus even though they were not looking for Him at the start of the day. Finding Christ radically alters their lives, and they reorient their lives to revolve around Him and His Word. Their dramatic testimonies are like stories of finding a limitless vein of gold in a random field.
Others come into the kingdom of God after a very deliberate search. Like the merchant looking for fine pearls, they are those who have set out to find truth. They collect truth where and when they do find some, storing up it up as a blessing not only to themselves, but to others. To those in their circles they are distributors of truth. But when they find Jesus, they realize that all they’ve ever held precious is but junk compared to Him. Like the merchant in the pearl parable, they divest themselves of all they’ve held so dear so that they might firmly grasp the one thing of true value – a relationship with God Most High through Jesus Christ the Son.
As a Pharisee, Paul studied the Scriptures and sought to know God. In his zeal to know God better than most, he even persecuted the church of Jesus Christ. But when He found Christ, he realized that all he had known before was less than worthwhile in comparison, writing, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…”
However we found Him, once we know Christ the real hunt is on. For now we have scratched at the value of who He is and what His Kingdom is like. Every other search is forsaken as we wholeheartedly pursue Him and His Kingdom, because nothing can compare to gaining Christ and being found in Him! Amen.
I don’t want to leave behind a church that is content with merely half an adventure; I want to travel with a church that is daring to go for all the immeasurably more that God has shown and still will show us.
Chris Rogers
APPLICATION: Intentionality
There is always more of us to lay aside, and always more of Christ to pick up.