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122. The Treasure and the Pearl


Matthew 13:44-46
Key Verse: "He sold everything he had and bought it."
Matthew 13:46-B

It's amazing the stories that we hear from time to time about valuable treasures found at yard sales. I've heard stories of people finding valuable books, valuable paintings, and on and on. While the original owner may not recognize the value of what they have, an observant person can take one man's junk and turn it into a valuable profit for him or herself. The secret is in being able to recognize a treasure when you see it.

Both purchasers in today's reading knew the value of what they had found. It was worth enough in both cases for them to go and sell everything to have the new found treasure. It doesn't sound like they were taking a risk here, or making an investment for the hope of a future return. Both men knew that what they had found was worth more and was more worth having than anything else that they presently possessed.

Jesus used this to express the value of The Kingdom of God. The question for us is do we value it as highly as Jesus says we ought?

Most of us have grown up in a western, Christian type culture. Chances are that, even if we weren't brought up in a Christian home, we've been surrounded by Christian principles and a, "Christian," view of right and wrong. We've heard about the sacrifice on the cross, but for many, it's just part of the package of Easter and lilies and candy and egg hunts. We've celebrated Christmas with all of its commercialization. The story of the babe in Bethlehem is equal to Santa and Rudolf and Frosty the Snowman. Christ has lost significance in the society that bears His name. Is it any wonder then that we do not value the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven?

Too often, it's just a painting that we put out at our yard sale. We wear Christianity on our sleeve, or these days, as a slogan on our T-shirt or bumper sticker on our car, but we don't let Christ have His way with our lives. He is not truly Lord of our lives. Rather, He is just a trinket, a good luck charm that we pray to when were extra concerned that life goes our way. 

What we don't understand is that we are the ones who are missing out. We are the ones who do not value what we have in Christ. We are the ones who don't understand that God has chosen to dwell within us. Just as it is hard to imagine all the glory that passed by Moses on the Mountain, stuffed into a tiny baby in a cave in Bethlehem, that same glory is within us because He loves us and desires more than anything a relationship with us. As a trinket, He is nothing to us but a dust collector, but as Lord, He becomes everything, guide, friend and, giver of purpose and most of all, Savior. Is He that valuable to you? Jesus here is trying to help us grasp the significance of what we have gained when we have been found by Him. It is worth selling everything else, life's goals and material possessions. He and His Kingdom are truly worth that much!

You want to know something else? You are that kind of treasure to Jesus. He found you in the dirt. But He valued you so highly that He gave up everything to have you. Phil. 2:7-8 "He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!"  And he did all that just to have you for His very own. He values YOU that much! Don't you just have to love Him back? 

Hymn: "For This One Pearl" 

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