Treasure the treasure of the Kingdom - Matthew 13:44-52

Have you ever come across one of those social media pages of people who resell the items that they found at garage sales and thrift stores? It’s amazing what people discover hidden among what others have passed by. Between worn-out furniture, old dishware, used clothes, outdated technology and strange home decor some uncover crystal dish sets, genuine works of art, rare first editions, and all sorts of other collectibles worth hundreds if not even thousands of dollars. That’s what makes these stories so fascinating. Though an incredibly valuable treasure sat right before their eyes, some people failed to recognize its worth and treated it as ordinary and cheap.

Now, most of us here this morning aren’t professional treasure hunters. But I have come to learn that many of you still enjoy the search. Some of you are thrifters and Facebook Marketplace scrollers, people who love the possibility of finding treasure hidden among the ordinary. But picture a treasure that would make every other thing you own seem worthless by comparison. What would it be? Tickets to the Masters? The trip of a lifetime? A rare bottle of bourbon? Dazzling jewelry? Perhaps a Porsche 911? Well, this morning Jesus tells us about a treasure far greater than any of those combined. A treasure to which nothing else can compare. Today Jesus invites us to treasure the treasure of the kingdom because nothing is more valuable and nothing is more urgent. 

Jesus introduces us to two very different men. The first, a nondescript man in a field. We aren’t told much about him. Was he a worker in that field? Perhaps. Was he simply a fortunate passerby, could be. All we know is that he stumbled upon the treasure of a lifetime partially hidden in a field that did not belong to him. From the moment he saw it, he knew what he’d just discovered. So he temporarily covers it up, takes mental pictures of the spot and goes off to buy the field in exchange for all his earthly possessions.

The second man’s path to riches looked a little different. He wasn’t an accidental discoverer. He was a man who dealt with items of extreme worth day in and day out. A merchant of fine pearls. He knew quality when he saw it and this particular pearl was unlike any other. It far surpassed anything he’d ever seen or even imagined. He knew he had to have it. And so he too goes and sells all his earthly possessions so that this one priceless treasure would be his.

Good stories Jesus. They give us the warm fuzzies. But truth be told, Jesus wasn't just telling feel-good anecdotes. He was teaching his disciples lessons through these stories we call parables. A parable is an earthly story that reveals a heavenly truth. As we study a parable, we want to avoid getting bogged down in the weeds by attempting to equate each and every detail into a perfect one-to-one comparison. Instead, we simply need to ask ourselves, “What is the main point that Jesus is teaching us?” Here in both these parables it’s clear, Jesus is telling us about a priceless treasure of incomparable value. Something worth giving everything else up in exchange for.

So then what is this treasure? Well it’s not literal wealth or priceless pearls. Rather it's what brings us into the kingdom of heaven, the gospel. The message of everything that God has done for once lost sinners like you and me through Jesus including the forgiveness of sins, adoption into God’s family, and the promise of eternal life. This treasure removes our guilt. Calms our anxious hearts. Gives hope to the weary, purpose to the despairing and promises an end to every kind of suffering. What a treasure it is!

But I want to look once more at these two men who discovered it. One stumbled upon it unexpectedly. The other spent his career searching for it. Two very different paths but the same joyful response. Once they saw its value, everything else in their lives was put into perspective and nothing compared. They recognized that this treasure was infinitely valuable.

In many ways, our stories sound a lot like these two men. Some of us, by God’s grace, have spent the majority, or even our whole lives, mining the treasures of his kingdom contained within the Scriptures. Others have spent years searching for it. Days spent desperately seeking truth and peace before the Spirit brought them to discover this treasure in all its beauty. Still others might admit that they stumbled onto it almost accidentally as they drove past or turned around in our parking lot. Our stories are unique. Different paths, different backgrounds, different ages and stages of life and yet, by God's grace, we have gathered together this morning to treasure the treasure of the kingdom.

But I wonder, at times does this eager enthusiasm fade? Has it become somewhat familiar and ordinary? Do we find ourselves acting like the man in the field, only in reverse, where we uncover this treasure on Sunday, celebrate and rejoice in it for a few hours and then return it back to its dusty depths of our hearts to lie dormant for a week or two? No, it's not lost, you know exactly where it is. It's sitting on the nightstand beside your bed. It's on your phone. It's within arm's reach every day. Yet there it stays. The Bible remains closed. Devotions go unread. Conversations with our heavenly Father postponed until tomorrow. We say we'll come back to it later, to treasure it when I’m feeling more up to it. 

Isn’t it amazing what our sinful hearts can do? I would imagine that if any of us here today discovered a priceless Picasso you wouldn’t go and hide it away in the recesses of your basement storage room. You would proudly put it on display for all to see. Yet we have something infinitely more valuable than even a one of a kind Picasso that’s here one day and gone the next. We’ve been gifted the treasures of the kingdom of heaven that pours out grace abundantly upon us and yet at times we treat it as ordinary and take it for granted. More than we’d care to admit, our enemy the devil convinces us to temporarily bury this treasure in our hearts beneath other things. Good things turned bad when they overshadow the most valuable treasure ever given.

Thanks be to God that the value of the treasure does not depend on how well we’ve treasured it. Jesus' work for you and me doesn’t become less valuable because we’ve neglected to appreciate its value in our lives. The message of the Gospel remains infinitely valuable because it tells us of an accomplished unchangeable truth. That God treasured lost sinners like us even when there was nothing loveable or valuable about ourselves. That God sent his one and only Son to buy us back from the dominion that sin had over us. That he paid the price we could never pay. Not with all the riches of this world but his own holy, precious blood. And that by faith you and I are recipients of the riches of his kingdom. That’s a treasure that will never spoil or fade, or be taken away from those who believe.

And so it’s a treasure we desire to return to again and again. And even better, it’s not hidden away. It’s not buried in a field or sunk beneath the depths of the sea. It’s “hidden” in plain sight. Revealed in the pages of Scripture. Proclaimed on Sunday morning. Delivered via the sacraments into your hearts and lives. God continues to put before you the most valuable treasure ever known, himself! And it becomes unmistakably clear, that nothing is more valuable than him.

Jesus goes on to tell the disciples one last parable. This time of a great net that snatches up all sorts of things. Some things good, some things bad. His point is this, the day is coming when those nets will need to be sorted out. When the good fish will be separated from the bad ones. We know that day is Judgement Day and there will be very real ramifications for those who do not treasure the treasure of the kingdom. And so Jesus is painting a picture of urgency, that nothing is more urgent than that all would come to know this treasure.

That’s why in verse 51, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks, “Have you understood all these things?” Literally, have you pieced these things together? It wasn't enough for the disciples to simply know about Jesus or to be loosely associated with him. No, because those who have discovered this treasure have been given an urgent mission. Jesus continues, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” God does not want anyone to perish but wants all to know him and be saved. He wants all people everywhere to treasure the treasure of his kingdom. And so Jesus describes what it means to truly be his disciple, someone whose heart is captivated by Jesus and who cannot help but bring that treasure out for others to see. Because the things that fill your heart will naturally make themselves evident in your lives.

Over this past year, I've had the privilege of doing just this. Of searching the treasures of God’s kingdom and sharing that with you. It hasn’t been my ideas. Not just my stories. It’s been God’s treasure. Week after week we’ve opened this storeroom together to bring out treasures. Some old. Some new. But each week, at its core, it’s been the same thing, gathering together to appreciate in a new way the riches of God’s Word. Today marks the end of my public role in that here at Messiah. As I leave, I know that this will continue with Pastor Lewis and then in just a few short weeks a new and improved vicar will arrive and be given the privilege to do this as well.

But dear friends of Messiah and disciples of our Savior, have you understood? Because this urgent call is not only for pastors and teachers and vicars, it’s for you too! So, have you pieced together the infinite value of the treasure of the kingdom? Of grace for sinners that is so urgently needed by so many? Know that the Spirit has entrusted this priceless treasure to you. So continue to be for yourselves people who search the inexhaustible storehouse of God’s Word and then don’t be stingy with this treasure. Don’t keep it hidden away. Fling wide the doors. Open the treasury. Bring out its riches. Let others hear the good news so that they too may treasure the treasure of the kingdom.

This world searches for treasure of great value. But by God’s grace, God has already placed the greatest treasure of all into your hearts. Seemingly ordinary people filled with the extraordinary treasure of God’s grace. Don't lose sight of its value not only for yourselves but for this desperately poor world around us. May we continue to treasure the treasure of the Kingdom knowing that nothing is more valuable and nothing is more urgent. Amen.