The Parables of the Treasure and the Pearl (Mat. 13:44-45)
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
After he is finished with the first four parables, Jesus turns his attention to the disciples and offers them three more parables of the kingdom and then a concluding parable that summarizes the whole section of Mt. 13:1-53. The parables of the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great value are almost identical and we will consider them together. We will begin with the pearl. The NRSV (quoted above) says the pearl was of great value. Many people are more familiar with the King James translation which says it was a pearl of great price. Both are legitimate translations of polytimos, but the price of the pearl is never at issue in the parable and it is therefore clear that the idea of its value rather than its price is at the heart of the parable. (I am not alone in this understanding. All the major modern translations, including the RSV, NIV, REB, and NKJV translate polytimos as “value.”)
At the heart of this idea of value is the emphasis on affordability. The wealth of the land owner and merchant are never at issue. They might have been poor, they might have been rich, they may have even had wealth seemingly beyond measure. That’s a significant issue only to the extent that it is not at issue in these two parables. In contrast to the actual dollar amount is the fact that each treasure was affordable (after all, “affordable” means different things to different people). No one who is financially or morally bankrupt is excluded from the kingdom; they simply have to be prepared to sell all that they have and follow Christ. This is precisely why it is more difficult for a rich (or self-righteous, which is a form of moral wealth) person to enter the kingdom (Mat. 19:23). By kingdom standards all of us are below poverty level, but if I consider myself rich in any way, paying the price of all my wealth for the treasure is a high price indeed. Consider the people Jesus sided with: women, the unclean, the morally questionable, and children. None of these classes of people could make it on their own standing in the religious society of Jesus’ day. And yet all of them could afford the price of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. In contrast, the morally rich—the scribes and Pharisees—looked down their nose at Jesus and rejected is offer as invaluable rubbish.
But there is another side to this coin. While the kingdom of heaven is affordable, it is not free. In both cases (the landowner and the merchant) the treasure cost them everything they had. The language is almost identical. Both had to sell all that they had in order to purchase the treasure. This is a theme that we will run across time and again in the Gospels and it stands in stark contrast to the popular conception of salvation. The received version is that salvation is very costly for God and free for us. Consider Rom. 5:15, “But the free gift is not like the trespass,” or “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Is. 55:1). This theme of “free for us” clearly fits into these two parables in the sense that the treasure is affordable, but that’s only half the equation. Salvation is at the same time “affordable” and “extremely costly” for the buyer. Anyone can afford it, but in the end it will cost the buyer, no matter how wealthy, everything.
Emphasizing the free character of salvation without considering the cost of discipleship is simply an extension of the Protestant tendency to emphasize God’s absolute control in such a way that all other considerations (human will that is real and active because it is made in, the image of God, etc.) are dismissed. In the Protestant view, salvation is strictly a God thing. In Mat. 13 we see the kingdom presented as an offer from God that must be taken hold of by humans at great cost to them. St. Paul is certainly correct in saying that the gift is free, but there are strings of responsibility attached. Taking the gift means taking the responsibility that goes along with the gift. While the burden of that responsibility is light and the yoke easy (as God counts “light” and “easy”), the very act of taking hold of the gift will cost us everything we have: The merchant, “on finding one pearl of great value . . . went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Lest this sound burdensome and undesirable, we also need to consider this in light of the first parable. The person buying the field in order to procure the treasure, in his joy sells everything he has in order to buy it. The treasure is of great value; it is a bargain, no matter what it costs us in commitment. The treasure is not only a tremendous value procured at a tremendous cost, it is a tremendous joy to have. So it is, in these two parables, that the kingdom of heaven is not simply one option among many, it is rather the only option, something that is qualitatively different than every other option out there. Once confronted with the kingdom, it is simply crazy to consider anything else.
These parables cast a different light on Jesus’ claim, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus’ claim is exclusive to be sure, but it is not merely a narrow exclusivity in the sense of “I’m right and you’re wrong.” It is also speaking of a qualitative difference. Someone wants to buy a boat and there are two available. One is a worn out wooden affair with holes that need to be fixed before it is seaworthy, and joints that are so old that it is questionable whether it will even hold together in the water. The other is a brand new fiberglass (or aluminum—choose your favorite) affair with internal buoys so it can’t sink and a state of the art four stroke motor. The two boats are the same price. Given the options, there is only one choice. The wooden boat so qualitatively different the other boat is the only possible choice. This is the joy (in contrast to the oft-perceived sternness) of Christ’s offer of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure of surpassing value.
Copyright © 2006 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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