"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.” (Matthew 13:44)
Agriculture
This is yet another agricultural parable from Jesus in Matthew 13. How so?
Well, how else is a person apt to find a buried treasure in a field unless he
is tilling the field? If he’s a tenant farmer, which was a common practice in
the Old and New Testament periods in Palestine ,
then he’s either renting the field to grow his own crops or he’s working the
field for the owner.
Then something strange happens. The plow unearths a great deal
of money. (One can imagine coins in an earthen jar as these are frequently unearthed by archaeologist in Palestine.) And rather than report the find to the landowner, which
I suppose would have been the honest thing to do, he decides to rebury the
money, tell no one what he found, and “liquidate his assets” creating enough
capital to make an offer to buy that very field. Once he owns the field, he owns the hidden
treasure too. It's an entirely disreputable course of action, but shrewd. Perhaps
kingdom living requires the shrewdness to find the hidden treasure of Life, and
the shrewdness to give up everything of value to obtain the joy of that hidden treasure.
Thesaurus
The biblical Greek word for treasure is qhsauro,j
thesauros {thay-sow-ros'}, the source of our English word thesaurus. A thesaurus is a reference book that is literally a "treasury
of words." Practically every writer uses a thesaurus to find just the right (correct, true, accurate, exact, precise) synonym to reveal the power and meaning of language.
Joy
Do not miss that his motivation is joy. Not duty. Not obligation. But JOY. [cara, chara {pronounced khar-ah'} Meaning: joy, gladness]
The parable does not suggest that
you have to give up everything you love to buy heaven. Rather, it means that to the
man, living the rich Life of joy in the kingdom of heaven was more desirable
than any other desire of his deepest heart. He didn’t have to give up anything,
especially his happiness. Joy is what jerked his chain. He wanted the joy of
that hidden treasure more than anything, so he gladly sold everything else to get it.
He had to have it. Nothing else mattered. We’re talking white-hot passion here
folks, not cold religious duty. The man found joy hidden in the core of his being.
Paul wrote something that comes to mind. In
Philippians he wrote:
Philippians
3:7-8 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these
I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard
everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as
rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.
By “gains” Paul means accomplishments, titles, and
reputation. He means the sum of everything he has achieved. He says that
everything he’s proud of is valueless because knowing Jesus is more valuable
than the sum of his life’s work. More than that, he doesn’t consider his
successes to be merely valueless, but he considers them to be garbage! The
word for garbage or rubbish that Paul uses is sku,balon skubalon {skoo'-bal-on}. Yes, it’s an s-word meaning
dung. He considers the best of his life skubalon—excrement—compared to the value of knowing Jesus. Jesus himself is
the hidden treasure of more value than even his most precious possessions and
greatest triumphs. Nothing compares to this joy. To have him is to have the
kingdom is to have joy.
Let’s see. It’s chara versus skubalon. (meaning joy versus manure) What a choice!
We’re talking about the hidden, deep joy of Life.
Just as there is living yeast hidden in the common lifeless dough of the world,
so there is a great treasure hidden in the common field of the world. Jesus’
double-emphasis on hidden kingdom Life speaks volumes. And the exuberance and
intentionality of the guy who found it is extraordinary. That common field
laborer risked everything and sold everything to make the field his own. He had
a great secret. There’s a hidden treasure in that field. Like Paul making Jesus
his own, there was nothing else that the plowman wanted more passionately. Joy
drives Life in the kingdom of heaven. We long for that joy because we’re made
for that joy. Jesus said to his disciples on the eve of his death,
John 16:22 “So you have pain now; but I will see you again,
and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
And in one of my
favorite verses Jesus said,
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Hidden
The joy of Life is hidden in the world. It’s the
kingdom. It’s Jesus. He is the mystery. He is the secret. The Scriptures posit
that you are already in the home you long for. But like the yeast hidden in the
dough, like a treasure hidden in a field, Jesus, his message, and his heavenly
kingdom are hidden in the kingdoms of this world. The biblical Greek words for
“hidden” are all related:
·
kru,ptw krupto {kroop'-to} Meaning: 1)
to hide, conceal, to be hid 2) escape notice
·
krupto,j kruptos {kroop-tos'} or krufai,oj kruphaios {kroof-ay'-os} Meaning: 1) hidden, concealed, secret
·
avpokru,ptw apokrupto {ap-ok-roop'-to} Meaning:
1) to hide 2) concealing, keeping secret
·
avpo,krufoj apokruphos {ap-ok'-roo-fos} Meaning:
1) hidden, secret 2) stored up
Jesus said,
Matthew 11:25 “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because you have hidden (apokrupto) these things from the wise and
the intelligent and have revealed them to infants . . .”
Matthew 13:35 This was
to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: "I will
open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden
(krupto) from the foundation of the world."
And the Apostle Paul
wrote,
1 Corinthians 2:7 But we
speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden
(krupto), which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
Ephesians 3:9 and to
make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden (apokrupto) for ages in God
who created all things;
Colossians 1:25-27 I became
its (the church’s) servant according to God's commission that was given to me
for you, to make the word of God fully known,
26 the mystery that has been hidden (apokrupto) throughout the ages and generations but has now
been revealed to his saints. 27
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of
the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you . . .
Colossians 2:2-3 I want
their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the
riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, that
is, Christ himself, 3 in whom
are hidden (apokruphos) all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 3:2-3 Set your
minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life
is hidden (krupto) with Christ in
God.
Revelation 2:17 Let anyone
who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone
who conquers I will give some of the hidden
(krupto) manna . . .
These “hidden” quotes
prove the presence of a New Testament theme. The kingdom’s presence is a
mystery hidden in the world, even as believer’s lives are hidden with Christ in
God, and while, conversely, Christ is hidden in believers. His presence is
hidden in a way that confounds the intelligent and delights children. The
kingdom is hidden among us—in our relationships—like a treasure buried in a
field. As Paul Kreeft put it:
“The practical point of this theology is that since Christ is our joy (not just gives it), and since we always have Him
(“Lo, I am with you always” Matthew 28:20), therefore we always have joy whether we feel it or not. We are in heaven
already, whether we know it or not, just as a fetus is already in the world,
though the womb masks it from his eyes.” Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven, p. 198
A mystery revealed by mysteries
The kingdom of heaven’s
humble presence gets in under human radar often unnoticed. Yet to deny its
mystery is to rob heaven of its essential nature. Jesus speaks of heaven only
in the mystery of parables. The method matches the makeup. Mystery presents
mystery. A mystery is presented in mysteries. The method is in synchronicity with the
message.
Have you ever played Hide and Go Seek? I was just wondering.
For more on Jesus' parables see my blogs Heaven Is Like Yeast?, The Absurd Parable of the Unforgiving Slave, The God Who Gambles, Parable of the Vine and Branches, The Crooked Manager, The Friend at Midnight, Heaven Is Like a Crazy Farmer, He Speaks Of . . ., Salted With Fire, Talking Sheep and Goats, Is Your Eye Evil?, Two Prodigals and Their Strange Father, The Lazarus Parable Is Not About the Afterlife,and Jesus Used Parables Like a Sieve.