What is Your Most Valuable Treasure?

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

This one sentence parable has been on my mind quite a bit recently. Jesus shares back-to-back parables (this and the pearl of great value) and says that the finder goes and sells all that they have as a result.

As we consider this verse together, you’ll start to notice that the verse is not as purely financial as it might initially seem. Our whole life is to be given for the treasure. But, naturally as part of that, there are financial implications; finances are a large part of our lives. Jesus knows this, which is why many of His words in the gospel accounts have to do with money and possessions. I’ve often heard that he speaks more about money and possessions than any other topic. So, let’s take a deep dive into this one verse of over 2,000 verses in the Bible that relate to money.

The Sacrifice of the Man

Sometimes we enjoy the benefit of the Lord explaining the parables that he gives. We are not so fortunate here. There are some commentators that highlight the sacrifice of the man as the main point of the parable. And to their credit, it is an aspect that is included both in verse 44 (the treasure) and verse 45 (the pearl). Their simplified summary being: “If you claim to follow Christ, then go and give all that you have, your whole life, for him.” There is an aspect of truth to this: Christ is King over our whole life and there is not an area of our life that we should try to hide from his rule/reign. However, I think we would miss a critical aspect (perhaps even the main point) of the parable if that was all we are considering.

I think much of the value of the parable comes in the phrase “…then, in his joy…” This isn’t something that feels sacrificial. The gain of the treasure is far more than the “sacrifice” of giving all that you have.

If I were to have someone offer me $250 for all of the contents in my refrigerator, I might come out financially ahead, but it wouldn’t be my “joy” to go gather up all the contents just to nearly come out ahead. But if someone wanted to pay me $100,000 for the contents of my fridge, I would be running home to clean it out and throwing in the contents of the freezer as well—it’d be my joy to make that trade.

This is the same for the man who finds the treasure in the field, it’s not a sacrifice for him to go sell all that he has to buy the field. He hasn’t lost a thing, it’s his gain.

This is our response as we get to know our savior. As we uncover more of the treasure; As we see more of the beauty of Christ in his word; As we see what he has done to save us and lead us into a flourishing life, the rest of the world and its fading pseudo-treasures grow dim. Like the hymn says:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in his wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of his glory and grace

How Should We Respond?

Step one of our response is not to go and “do.” It is not to go sell 100% of what you have. Step one is to know your Savior. It is to gaze upon the beauty of the treasure. It is to meet with Him in His word and find the depth of his goodness and beauty.

Frederick Bruner in his commentary on the gospel of Matthew says that “Joy is the engine of change,” or “Joy is the engine of sacrifice.” As Jesus becomes our joy, everything else will start to fall into place.

In the parable, it is the joy that enables the man to go and sell all that he has in order to gain the treasure and that selling is a condition to gain the treasure. Those who came across the treasure and did not see its value thus did not find it a joyful proposition to go sell what they had. As such, they passed up the opportunity to gain the treasure. They pass by this treasure after seeing it.

Obstacles We Face

A couple of parables earlier in the same chapter in Matthew we see the parable of the soils, in which Jesus tells us that there are 3 of the 4 soils that don’t result in healthy plants bearing fruit. Think of the seed that grows in the thorny soil in comparison to the treasure parable. It gets choked out by the material things of the world. This would be like the man passing by the treasure because he sees his own possessions of greater value than the treasure.

This is the warning that I want to put before us. Throughout our lives we can amass possessions and funds, and while having these things is not wrong, valuing them more than we value the treasure of Christ is.

It is of high importance that the possessions and funds that we have are held with an open hand, knowing that it is God who gives us all things, and it is he who has the power to take them away as well.

Matthew 6:19-21 says, “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.“

How to Store Up Treasures in Heaven

We have the opportunity in our lives to “focus” on building treasures here on earth or treasures in heaven. In Matthew 19:21 Jesus tells us to, “…go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” One way we can store up treasures in the right place, and keep a “loose grip” on the earthly passions we have, is to be generous with what we have. If you are looking for a “shortcut to generosity” I recently wrote on the topic here.

Do not be discouraged if you feel like you are continually trying to tell yourself that your treasure is in Heaven and not in what you own on Earth. We won’t do this perfectly everyday for the rest of our lives. To quote Tim Keller as an encouragement to you in this,

“Anything you treasure more than Jesus Christ, it will demand your life. It will demand sacrifice. It will demand endless work. It will run you into the ground. But Jesus Christ is the only treasure who gave himself for you. Who sacrifices for you. Any other treasure you’d give anything for. Christ is the only treasure who has already done everything for you.

Why would Jesus Christ come to earth? When he was in heaven he was really rich. He was ultimately rich. He had all glory. So why in the world would he have left that all behind to get to us? Didn’t he have everything? No. If he had not become poor. If he had not been born in a manger. If he had not gone to the cross. If he had not done any of those things. If he had not been emptied of his glory. He wouldn’t have had us.

Do you know what that means? We must be in some sense more precious to him than the whole rest of the universe, because he gave it all up. We are his treasured possession.”

And this is the joy of the Gospel - As we fall short in giving Christ the value he deserves, he is in a way the perfect fulfillment of this parable. He is like the man in the field who found a treasure in a field that is of so much value to him that he gives his entire life for that treasure.