‘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.
Blog discussion question: Certainly God doesn't want us to hide the kingdom of heaven from others, does he?
3 comments:
Seems like this parable was just discussed?... Was it in a sermon not that long again Pastor Jerry or did we sort of look at it in another Gospel earlier? I don't remember, but it seems very familiar. God is not suggesting here that we should hide the kingdom, but it is something that is so precious that we should wish to want to keep it special. But it is rather the second half of the parable that Jesus is wanting to be seen here: "Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field". Here Jesus is saying that the Kingdom is worth so much we should be willing to give up all we have in order to work towards the Kingdom.
This one verse parable and the following two verse one of the pearl merchant give readers the possiblity for a wide range of interpretation. Those that focus on our working toward the kingdom can read we will DO whatever it takes to purchase the kingdom. It helps to know that burying treasures was commonplace in those days(there were no banks to store their wealth). It also helps to know that in those days, they lived by the "finders' keepers" rule. In this case, the "finder" of the treasure had nothing more to do. The treasure was instantly his. The purchase of the field had nothing to do with the claim on the treasure, but everything to do with response to its value compared to anything he had in possession. The kingdom is not ours to hide.
Maybe this is reading too much into what Jesus said, but if the treasure was "hidden" in the field in the first place, did the finder simply "stumble" upon it? Don't know.
Thanks to RJQ for reminding us that the safest thing to do with valuables was to hide them (remember the parable of the Talents). So, obviously, as Jesus tells the parable, the treasure had been buried by someone else ("hidden in a field"). Who previously owned the field? Was it the first bury-er? Don't know.
Whatever the case, the finder sells all that he has to buy the field in which the treasure had been hidden, making the treasure far greater than all of his accumulated wealth which he sold to buy the field.
So, it seems that Jesus isn't saying that we should hide the kingdom from others in order to safely keep it as ours, but rather when one stumbles upon the kingdom of God (God's loving reign) one immediately knows that its worth is far greater than anything we could accumulate to quench our thirsts and satisfy our souls. What joy!
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