God’s Treasure

(Based on Matthew 13:31-33; 44-46)


“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

That’s a curious question Jesus asks, right in the middle of these sayings. Of course, we’re listening, Jesus. We are soaking up every word you ever uttered. And yet Jesus seems bent on prodding us with this question, as if he was saying “Do you get it? Do you really understand what I’m trying to say to you?”

This doesn’t strike me as an offhand remark, something like the tedious habit some people have of following each sentence with that irritating “you know?”, as if they can’t think of anything else to say, but they don’t want to stop talking.

No, I think Jesus may well be trying to give us a new thought that is on the edge of our comprehension, one that we are so unaccustomed to hearing he does well to wonder if we are catching his meaning.
* * * * *

He’s talking about the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Kingdom of Heaven - a curious remark when you stop to think about it. I dare say most of us think of it as the heavenly after-life, one we’ve grown accustomed to hearing about and hoping we’ll get into some day. But if that is all it is, these sayings are difficult to comprehend.

It’s valuable, it’s a treasure buried in a field so valuable a man would sell all he has to get it. It starts small, but grows incredibly. Eugene Peterson increases the size a bit by changing the metaphor from a mustard plant to a pine tree. I think Jesus would approve of that.

But where will we find this Kingdom? What will it really look like? And what relevance does it have to us, here on this side of the grave?

Frankly, it’s not very helpful if what it refers to is something we have to die to get into. And that’s pretty uncharacteristic of the rest of Jesus’ sayings. The beatitudes, the Golden Rule, the Great Commandment of love, all are solidly grounded in the present. They apply in the here and now.

So if the Kingdom of Heaven is supposed to be understood as a “Here and Now” place, just as we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer - “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” - then I think an attitude adjustment is in order.
* * * * *
The Kingdom is quite simply that place where God is king. To enter the kingdom of God is to become a naturalized citizen of heaven. It is to live life as a member of God’s family. It is to think of God as a present reality. We do not walk alone.

With that said, where do we look for it? Where is that pearl of great price? Where is the field worth selling all we have to purchase it?

Many people spend their lives searching for “the truth” but they wonder if any one will ever find it. It’s sort of like treasure hunters trying to find the Lost Dutchman Mine in the Superstition mountains of Arizona. Or the lost treasure of Captain Kidd. Or the “Open Sesame” Cave of Wonder of Ali Baba. So many hunters, so few finders.

Do you suppose we’ve got it wrong?

Maybe Jesus wasn’t sending us on a scavenger hunt, maybe we’re not supposed to be the ones looking. What if Jesus is the hunter, and we are the treasure?

I know that sounds crazy, but think about it. If you look at the Bible as the story of the human race gone missing with God trying to find us and bring us home, it takes on a whole new meaning.

The children of Israel lost in Egypt are rescued by God and set free on a journey to new life and hope. They are given the Law of Moses so they won’t get lost again.

They get lost.

Judges are provided to give them guidance, but they prefer establishing their own form of government. Kings are what other nations have, they want them too. So God gives them Saul and David and what turns into a double line of kings in a divided kingdom, men who, by and large turn out to be corrupt, greedy, despicable tyrants. Again the Jews get lost.

God then provides a series of prophets, spokesmen who can give them guidance. Such prophets supplied them a more direct line to God, but that doesn’t work either. “If you can’t prophesy anything nice,” the people complain, “then don’t prophesy anything at all”- and again they get lost.

Now Jesus has come, the living embodiment of a searching God, the shepherd trying to reclaim his sheep, the God who spends his all - the life of his incarnate son, to demonstrate just how valuable he considers these precious human lives he’s created.

Suddenly these parables come leaping off the page. A pine seed - so small, so insignificant, but look what it can produce. Thus, the kingdom of Heaven is made up of insignificant human lives, mister and missus anonymous, but the accumulation of these nameless people is a mighty tree of strength and endurance.

A germ of yeast, so small we can’t really see it, turns out to have power that lies dormant in its chemical structure. More important, that power can permeate the whole lump of dough, making it rise many many times its own size.

And we, the people of God, far from being soiled, worn out, worthless - as we have been taught to think of ourselves - are treasure, buried in an empty field, and infinitely valuable. As one wagster put it, “If God had a refrigerator, our pictures would be on its door”. Face it, God’s crazy about you.

Are you getting it? Jesus asked. “Do you really get it?”

* * * * *

I’ve had my days of feeling worthless. I’ve had my moments of shame. I carry memories that plague me like locust that don’t wait seven years to come down on me with their buzzing fury. Why did I do that? Why did I say that? Oh how I wish I could do that over again.

And St. Paul - the mighty giant of the Christian faith, Paul - cries out about his “thorn in the flesh”, his constant reminder that he is far from perfect. “That which I should do, I do not; and that which I should not do, is the very thing I do do every time. Woe is me. Who can rescue me from this hell I’m in?”

Jesus himself depicts it indelibly in his Sermon on the Mount. “You say, thou shalt not kill, but I tell you, all you have to do is hate your brother and you have already committed murder. You say you will not commit adultery, but I must remind you, even if the only thing you’ve done is lusted after another, you’ve already done the deed.”

“Good Lord, master,” his disciples object, “If that’s true, who can ever be saved?”

Miserable sinners. Loathsome to ourselves. Despised by all decent people. Surely God knows the dreadful truth better than anyone else. We are worthless.

But what does the Bible show us? A God who never gives up on us. Hear Jesus’ reply to his disciples, “Left up to ourselves, it is impossible. But cheer up, with God, all things are possible.”

Here’s the good: ours is a God who says “I’ll pay the price. You’re worth it to me.”

* * * * *

The Kingdom of Heaven is you and me. The Kingdom of Heaven is growing in us. The Kingdom of Heaven is a treasure of infinite worth. The Kingdom of Heaven is that place where God is King - and that is in our hearts. It is in our mouths. It is in our hands. It is in our pocket books. It is in our imaginations. It is in our hopes and dreams. It is in us, right here, right now.

This is the amazing news God has for us. But be careful. This is not news that should make us proud and boastful. We have not been given permission to strut like peacocks, or stand in the Temple loudly proclaiming “God, I’m so glad I’m not like other people. I’m way better than that pitiful sinner over there.” Ah, how our attitude can tarnish the precious metal of God’s treasure.

But we can also tarnish it by robbing God of his treasure, by living as if we were the ones in charge, the seekers, the builders of our own dreams. Like the ancient story of tower of Babel, we would prefer to be our own masters, our own gods. And like Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the landlord’s vineyard who kill the owner’s son so they can claim the vineyard as their own.

We are the owner’s treasure; we do not belong to ourselves.  Amen.