A Treasure, A Pearl, A Net

Matthew 13:44-52

Immanuel – 8/4/24

This is our third, and final, week in Matthew 13’s Parable Discourse. After a whole series of different responses to Jesus - acceptance, doubt, unbelief, and resistance – the crowds follow Jesus to the shore of the lake. He pushes out in a fishing boat with the 12 disciples and begins to teach the crowds in parables.

In our first week, with the Parable of the Sower, we learned how it is that people come into the kingdom of heaven. It is through earnest listening, obedient hearing: the type of hearing where a person genuinely wants to learn how to follow Jesus, and then goes out and does it.

The Parable of the Weeds, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the Parable of the Leaven all taught us how the kingdom of heaven grows upon the earth. From the smallest of beginnings – a single man from Nazareth – the kingdom grows to fill the whole earth, influencing and transforming everywhere it spreads. Of course it will not always feel heavenly, because while the kingdom grows the weeds grow with it. Believers and unbelievers, the righteous and the wicked, wheat and weeds, until Judgment Day.

Today we come to the final three parables in the Parable Discourse, each one very brief. Among these three, two themes dominate.

Purpose

1. Jesus is the treasure of heaven and earth.

2. It is worth it to count everything as loss in order to gain Christ.

Read vs 44

Kingdom Values

This is a very short parable, but it has a ton of context behind it that Jesus’ original audience would have understood.

Let’s say there was a wealthy landowner who was about to go off on a long journey. With roads plagued by thieves, he could not travel with his wealth. With no banks to hold his money, he simply couldn’t leave it sitting in his house. So what could he do with his money? Bury it in a secret place: a common practice in the ancient world.

Additionally, if you were fleeing an invading army and had to travel fast and light, you might bury your valuables so at some point in the future you could return and retrieve them.

Now, suppose that wealthy landowner didn’t survive his journey, or those fleeing an army were overtaken and killed. What do you think would happen to the buried valuables? Nothing. They would sit there, forgotten, hidden, waiting.

This practice was so prolific in the ancient world that today people are still finding hidden treasures. Take for example this horde of Roman coins found in 2016, as construction workers were laying pipes beneath a Spanish park. 1,300 pounds of coins, that was an incredible amount of money when they were first buried. The treasure’s worth is incalculable today.

The man in Jesus’ parable has just found a treasure like this, something of incalculable worth. But two factors decided who got to keep that treasure. First, who owned the land on which the treasure was found? Second, who pulled – or lifted – the treasure from the ground?

Commentator Leon Morris explains this in a helpful way.

“If the finder was an employee, his employer could argue that he was acting as an agent, especially if the employer happened to own the land where the find was made. And if he was his employer’s agent in ‘lifting’ the treasure, then the treasure belonged to the employer. This will be the reason the man hid the treasure instead of ‘lifting’ it straightaway; if he ‘lifted’ it before the field was his, it might be argued that when he did the ‘lifting’ he was acting as the owner’s agent. By buying the land before ‘lifting’ the treasure he removed all possibility of dispute.”1

The man bought the field so that when he lifted the treasure from the ground, no one else could possibly make a claim on it. It was legally his.

Now we know that finding a buried treasure was a real thing and understand the reasons behind the man’s quest to own the property in which it was found. With context in hand, we can better discern the meaning of Jesus’ parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. This means at least three things:

The kingdom is present.

The kingdom is hidden.

The kingdom is valuable.

We come to understand the value of the kingdom by the man’s response. Upon finding the treasure, the man has a four-fold response.

1. He immediately covers it up. He doesn’t want to lose it. The treasure is so valuable he cannot bear missing out on it.

2. He is filled with joy. Everything has changed. If he can possess this treasure, he knows his life will be forever transformed.

3. He sells everything that he has. And notice that he sells everything happily. Everything in his life cannot compare to the treasure. The treasure is more precious than the combined worth of all his other possessions.

4. He buys the field. Whatever the price to acquire the treasure, he is happy to pay it. And even though all he owns doesn’t come close to the value of the treasure, the man is still able to acquire the treasure.

Just so there is no confusion, Jesus is not implying that a person can buy their way into the kingdom of God. That would go against so many of His other teachings. Rather, Jesus is teaching that everything should be counted as loss next to the surpassing worth of the kingdom of heaven.

We see this highlighted again as Jesus tells another, and very similar, parable. The themes stay the same, but there is one significant difference; and this difference reveals another valuable aspect of the kingdom of God.

Read vs 45-46

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. To trade in pearls indicates that the merchant is a person of means. As some reckon it, he already has wealth. But all of that changes in a moment.

The man in the field accidentally stumbled across his treasure, but not this merchant. He is on the hunt, scouring the earth for the best in pearls. And though he knows what he is looking for, he finds something that he did not expect: a pearl that changes his life.

It is so valuable that he eagerly sells everything and effectively leaves the pearl trade behind. All the other pearls were like nothing as compared to this single, priceless pearl. His joy comes not from the profit he can make from the pearl, but from the fact that he possesses it. Now he is no longer a pearl merchant, but the owner of the earth’s greatest pearl; and it was worth giving up everything to gain!

This parable reveals the kingdom of heaven in a slightly different way than the Parable of the Hidden Treasure.

The kingdom is present.

The kingdom is to be sought and found.

The kingdom is valuable.

Jesus is teaching a paradox: the kingdom of God is present, but it is hidden. And though it is hidden, anyone who seeks will find it. Does this remind you of something else Jesus said?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” -Matthew 7:7-8

Certainly, some will stumble upon the kingdom of heaven, but far better to earnestly seek it.

A person may be going about their life, totally unaware of the kingdom of heaven, and then a friend, a neighbor, a family member, tells them about the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and suddenly they realize its overwhelming worth. They have just stumbled across earth’s greatest treasure.

Perhaps God might use you to show someone the great worth of the kingdom: That they might see they were lost in their sins, separated from God and destined to be thrown into eternity’s fiery furnace. But God, being rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which He loved us, sent His only Son to give His life in place of our own. Jesus lived a sinless life – which we did not, He faced our punishment – which we dare not, and He rose from the grave – which we desperately desire. Our greatest desire, found in the wounds of a first century man from Nazareth!

And whether this kingdom is found by accident, or with intention, it is so valuable, so precious, that it is worth the loss of everything else. Listen to how the Apostle Paul talks about this very concept. Paul begins by listing all the things that gave him earthly value, like he is showing the types of pearls he used to own. But then there is a shift, and he gladly renounces all other pearls for the supremely great treasure that is Christ!

Read Philippians 3:4b-16

Paul lists his former pearls: his heritage, his accomplishments, his reputation, his earnestness, his religion, his upright morality. All of these were reasons he was a person to be admired, the reasons he was significant. In other words, this is how Paul sought to be treasured by the world.

We do the same thing, collecting pearls in things the world celebrates: beauty, strength, achievement (which is what the Olympics is all about), or children with achievements, status, position, money, whatever else. And what we are really seeking is that the world would see us as valuable, that we would be the treasure. And if we feel like we have no achievements to offer, we feel worthless, without value, unlovable.

But Paul underwent a radical transformation when he encountered the Living Christ on that Damascus Road. Suddenly Paul realized that he was not the significant one, but Jesus is. Immediately, everything else became loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. It all became as rubbish that he might gain Christ and be found in Him.

Jesus is the treasure. And to know Him is to know peace that surpasses understanding, hope that transcends the darkness, love that is worth your life, and life that will never die. Nothing in all creation is more valuable than Christ, who loved you and gave Himself for you.

And if Christ is the treasure, then the pearls you formerly owned are worthless. So whether they were valuable in the world’s eyes or not, Christ is still the treasure. And your value as a person is derived from that which you value. This is exactly where the next parable takes us.

Read vs 47-50

This parable is so similar to the Parable of the Weeds, which we looked at last week, so I will not spend lots of time here. The kingdom spreads across the earth and gathers up all kinds of people: good and evil, those who repent and those who do not, those who follow Christ and those who reject Him.

Good and evil will grow together until the final Judgment, when Christ sends out the angels to separate the worthy and the worthless. The worthy will be with Him forevermore. The worthless will be thrown to the everlasting flame.

Let me present a question that opens a powerful understanding of the Parable of the Net. Since they are so similar, why is the Parable of the Net not grouped together with the Parable of the Weeds; just as the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price are grouped together?

And I think it is because placing the Parable of the Net after two parables about the kingdom’s worth highlights this powerful truth: your value as a person is derived from that which you value.

God is the most valuable being in all existence! He has created all things. He sustains all things in this very moment, even your own life. And despite the fact that we are sinners, every one of us falling short even this morning, despite knowing all of this, still God has given us the Son, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. His power and joy and grace and patience and gentleness and lowliness knows no measure. And all of it is directed in an overwhelming and unrelenting deluge of love towards any who believe.

Without question, God is the most valuable being in all existence!

As God in the flesh, there is no number that can be attached to Jesus’ worth.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. -Colossians 1:15-20

That in everything, Jesus might be preeminent. In other words, He is worthy!

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and blessing! (Revelation 5:12)

And at His name every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

Jesus is worthy! He the treasure of heaven and earth, the Preeminent One, worthy of living for and worthy of dying for. To see this, with the eyes of faith, is to joyfully count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8)

Therefore, if we do not value Jesus as our greatest treasure, and choose instead to pursue lesser things, things that are worthless compared to Jesus, then that means we too become worthless. To reject the most valuable being for things that will bring you no lasting joy, and cannot give life beyond death, is to be a fish in the net which has no value. They are thrown into the eternal garbage: the fiery furnace, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Read vs 51-52

I love how the disciples answer Jesus, “Yes.” Certainly, they understand far more than the crowds around them. And Jesus did say that the secrets of the kingdom were being revealed to them (Matthew 11:25). But for them to agree that they understand everything Jesus is talking about is a bit glib. They still have no understanding of the cross and resurrection.

None-the-less, they understand enough. And Jesus does not question, or give a sideways glance, He just lovingly and generously keeps giving them more of the kingdom. And He compares them to scribes, trained for the kingdom of heaven.

In the kingdom of heaven, the scribes are the ones who bring out new things and old things. Notice again the language of treasure. The new treasures are the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus presently speaks about. The old treasures are the gems hidden all throughout the ancient Scriptures – from Genesis to Malachi.

There is all kinds of wisdom in the world, all kinds of valuable knowledge, but there are no greater treasures than what we find in the pages of Scripture, for these lead us to Him whom is the greatest of all treasures: King Jesus. Therefore, a scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven can bring out treasures from the Old Covenant and treasures from the New, and all of them point to Christ.

Contrast this with the Jewish scribes that were in constant conflict with Jesus. They neither understood these treasures nor knew where to look for them.

But I praise God for the scribes of the kingdom who are a part of this local body. They teach our children. They bring out treasures for the women. They unfold the Scriptures in Adult Sunday School. They join me in this pulpit. Praise God that He has placed scribes of the kingdom in our midst, for the edification of us all! Let us regard them as the treasures that they are, treasures given by the King!

I love this part of Matthew 13. The parables of the kingdom that Jesus tells in this section should lead the church to worship. Because those secrets of the kingdom are hidden, but God has chosen to reveal them to little children like us.

If Jesus truly is the treasure of heaven and earth, then may he also be the treasure of our hearts. Let go of your former pearls. It is worth it to count everything as loss in order to gain Christ and be found in Him!

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” -Matthew 6:19-21

As Jesus asked His disciples, I as you: Have you understood all these things?

1Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel According to Matthew. Pg 359. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.