That Christian Next Door

Once upon a time our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, offered the following analogy of the kingdom of heaven:

“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 v 44 ESV

I confess: I have read this passage many times and, not that long ago, I would have felt quite confident that I had received the unequivocal message from it – about putting earthly things in their right perspective.

I got the message, I think, looking back, and there is no doubt that from time to time such messages need to be reinforced – but I had got it.

So I thought.

However, as with God and all of scripture, there was more, and even when this blog post is done, there will still be more simply because our God is inexhaustible.

Taking into consideration the facts of Jesus’ analogy, here are some salient points that ministered to me (I apologize if some of this is already a well-trodden path for you):

• Our Lord Jesus Christ begins with the statement “The kingdom of heaven is like…” meaning there would be similarities between the description He would give and the real thing – some similarities being more acutely present than others.
• “…like treasure hidden in a field…” meaning hidden by someone (God) for a purpose. The treasure did not hide itself. It was made (by God), owned (by God), kept (by God) in that particular place to effect certain particular eventualities (e.g. to be found, to be claimed, to inspire the loss of every other less important thing and to inspire the gain of this most important thing – at least in the eye of the treasure-seeker).
• “…which a man found” signifying that the discovery must have been aided by the sovereign God because the treasure was hidden by the same sovereign God. A deeper layer to this comes by the way of Jeremiah chapter 29 and verses 11, 12 and 13.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29 v 11-13

• The passage in Jeremiah suggests that the type of treasure spoken of by Jesus Christ was (1) intended to be found only by a treasure-seeking human, and (2) would need to be sought for by that human with all of their heart. This opens up the idea of relationship and fellowship with God: a special context in which, I believe, the location of the field where the treasure lay was revealed.
• So, the field itself was sought for and found. However, finding the field was not enough. The treasure itself had to be sought for and also found. The steps here being: seeking God and finding Him, seeking the place He points to and finding it, followed by seeking the thing He points to and finding it.
• In Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, Jesus Christ said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. The Contemporary English Version bible translation identifies the “poor in spirit” as those who “depend only on him [God]”. So, at base level, the treasure-seeker in this analogy was a child of God.
• “…and covered up.” Initially, I struggled with this part of the analogy. We would never cover up what we know of God’s kingdom. In fact, we want others to join in the blessedness of knowing and loving the One who loved and knew them first. However, an important consideration in this analogy of the kingdom of heaven is that its reference is to personal salvation and the corollary growth that must happen in that person by means of various deaths, losses and joys leading to sanctification, consecration and more.
• The act of covering up of the treasure is less about hiding it and more about not losing it. The finality of the action hints at a previous loss and a desire to prevent a repeat of the past. The act of covering up also suggests that there may have been others who had gone to and who would come to that field. That these others did not find the treasure speaks either to the absence of God in their lives or the absence of God from the choice that led them to that field.
• “Then in his joy…” speaks of the joy associated with God’s salvation (Psalm 51 v 12). This idea is also touched on in Job 33 v 26 where it is illustrated that the God-fearing, informed experience of God includes joy. Furthermore, this God-fearing, informed experience of joy occurs typically in the context of trials and the testing of faith (e.g. Is this the right field? Is the treasure really here? Did God really speak to me? Is this really worth every thing I have?) See James 1 v 2.
• The joy is in spite of such questions above. It is sourced from a real God (1 John 1 v 1-4). It is linked to experiences of Him. It is also inspired by favorable contrasts between Him and other people or things in the treasure-seeker’s life.
• As evident in the text, joy was a present-tense reality for this treasure-seeker. It was grounded in the moment yet also aware of more. There is a future-tense joy that is palpable in the analogy. It was a joy that lay ahead – made known by God (just like He made the field and the treasure known).
• Thinking a little abstractly: the joy, like the treasure, was always there. The joy was not manufactured in the moment the treasure was found. Both joy and treasure were waiting for the soul that would cling to them. Someone could say that finding the treasure unearthed his joy but I would counter that there is an inherent joy that comes with knowing God that promises a greater joy ahead. It is this inherent joy and the promise of greater joy that drove the treasure-seeker to the unearthed treasure. Our journey with God begins and continues from joy to joy.
• This promised, greater and future joy is not dissimilar to the joy that was set before Jesus Christ as he endured the cross and despised its shame (Hebrews 12 v 2). The joy set before Christ had as its contexts the following: His oneness with God the Father (John 10 v 30), His trust in the Father (Luke 22 v 42), pre-agreed plans with the Father (Psalm 16 v 10), humility and yieldingness to the Father (Philippians 2 v 5-11) and much more.
• “…he goes…” signifying the deeper waters of trust, relationship and self-denial that must be trodden. It refers to an about-turn. The treasure-seeker stopped what He was doing to go do some other thing. Think on these: the wherewithal to consider stopping, the self-control to actually do it and the patience to delay instant gratification. These speak to the presence of Holy Spirit.
• “…sells all that he has and buys that field.” No doubt this was, in a way, quite hard and, in another way, not hard at all. Now consider that this action suggests the kingdom of heaven has a price. The analogy also suggests the natural-world cost of the kingdom of heaven differs per person: if the price for each of us individually is the sum-total of all we have individually, then some will seem to pay more than others.
• However, the kingdom of God and the joy set before us does not take the natural-world into consideration in the way we may be wont to do. In reality, we each pay the same price. We give up to Jesus Christ everything that is rightly or wrongly bound-up in our lives.

No-one goes through this process on a whim.

It is costly – even for those who think they have nothing to lose – but the gain from a life continually hidden in Jesus Christ is a bespoke treasure made by God for you that will be yours forever.

Be blessed.