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Readings: Ex 34:29-35 • Ps 99 • Mt 13:44-46
Our Gospel passage today consists of the two shortest of Jesus’ parables. And as I read them again the other evening, one thing in particular jumped out at me.
How likely would it be just to stumble on a treasure buried in a field? They certainly didn’t have metal detectors in Jesus’ time. So I’m guessing it would be pretty unlikely. And how likely would it be to find a pearl worth so much that only by selling everything you own could you buy it? Having lived on Cape Cod for many years, I’ve eaten a lot of clams and oysters, but I’ve never found a single pearl, much less one worth so very much.
Considering first that treasure in the field, we know one thing: it was buried. In other words, it was hidden. Many people had probably walked right over it, never realizing it was there. About the only way to find it is to be led to it.Didn’t you sense that the man who found the treasure didn’t expect to find it, that he really wasn’t looking for it? But when he does find it, he immediately recognizes its worth and does pretty much what we’d all do. He sells everything and buys the field. And now both the field and the treasure are his.
Jesus tells us that this unexpected treasure, this thing of such great value, is just like the Kingdom of Heaven. For some of us, then, the Kingdom isn’t something we can find on our own. We can only be led to it. It might seem as if we just stumbled on it by happenstance, but no, that’s not how God works. It is through His amazing grace that we are shown the way to the Kingdom. It is a gratuitous gift, one we can’t earn, one we don’t deserve, but to receive it we must be open to the movement of the Spirit in our lives.
Only then will we be able to respond to His urgings. Only then will we recognize the Kingdom that God has placed right in front of us.
Oh, yes, there’s one condition: we must be willing to rid ourselves of everything else. How did the Gospel put it? “He sells all that he has…” And from this God’s Kingdom comes!
The parable of the merchant and his pearl is similar, but with an important difference. Listen again to the story: “…the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”Do you see the difference? In this instance, it’s about a man who is a merchant of pearls. His job is to look for and find pearls. It’s what he does. And as he looks, this one time he finds a remarkable pearl, a pearl of great value.
But the merchant of pearls doesn’t discover the Kingdom strictly by chance; no, it was the result, the fruit, of a long search. And he knows his business. He knows pearls. He has studied them. He knows their value. He knows worthless pearls, the fakes, when he sees them. He won’t be deceived. And so, when he finds this remarkable pearl, he sells all he has to buy it.
This, brothers and sisters, is the Kingdom. Nothing on earth, nothing in the universe, has greater value. Both of these parables have the same purpose: to reveal the presence of the Kingdom.
But in one parable the Kingdom is discovered through a gratuitous act by God. God acts in us through His Holy Spirit, the Spirit who guides and inspires, leading us to Himself. And in the other parable we find someone exerting great effort in the search for God, an effort the leads to a recognition of God’s presence and His action in our lives. God leads us to His Kingdom is different ways, doesn’t He? But it’s always through His grace that we are able to discover and possess it.Life is short, brothers and sisters, but it’s filled with opportunities to seize the kingdom, that treasure of inestimable value. These moments of grace are the most precious moments in our lives. Let’s not waste them, letting them pass by unnoticed.
And once you possess the Kingdom, don’t rebury it in another field, or lock it in a safe. Share it with the world. Show others how valuable it is. Build up the Kingdom as Christ commanded us.
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