In Search of Treasure (Matt 13:44-46 A sermon by Kim Thoday)

Most people seem to be anxious to obtain a bargain; hence the language of commerce – “free,” “buy now and save,” “sale,” “bargain bonanza,” “cheap,” and so on. This reminds me of a family who lived next door to us when I was a kid. The husband held a war service pension and was at the time retired. He was apparently always keen on a bargain and often told stories about how he liked to drive a hard bargain. One of his diversions, when he saw specials on at the super-market, was to go and buy up bulk. He then sold these goods to his wife as she required them at the normal retail prices, and they would be paid for out of her housekeeping allowance that he set for her. As bizarre and extreme as this case was, there is no accounting for the ways and wiles of human beings when it comes to making a buck. Many years later, I could not help but wryly smile, when I learned that after her husband’s death, she had sold the family home, and was living the high life travelling all around the world.

Jesus of Nazareth knew of the dichotomy of the human heart when it comes to the seeking of treasure. He profoundly understood our capacity to long for both worldly treasure as well as the intangible treasure of love, understanding, meaning and belonging. Consequently, many of his parables and teachings are concerned with this duality especially in regard to the seductions of wealth and power. Sometimes Jesus would use stories about the human instinct to accumulate and profit in order to reveal the nature and value of the new social, economic, religious and political order that he was about establishing, i.e. the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Heaven. So in this parable from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man discovers and rushes off to buy that field, selling all that he has to achieve that end.

Jesus has this amazing knack of telling stories and using life illustrations in ways that the common sense of them was/is inverted or subverted. Now in this parable Jesus is not upholding this man’s sudden obsession for worldly treasure as a paradigm for discipleship. Indeed, in other sayings he is diametrically opposed to the prosperity preachers of the day who value the accumulation of assets and money “where moth and rust corrupts and where thieves break in and steal.” Rather, Jesus is astutely asking of his hearers, that quintessential theological question: “which Bank?”

Some have maintained that this is an unlikely story; made up to make a specific point. But I think not so. Jesus often made use of well known scenarios and life situations. Palestine had long been a bridge between warring nations and tribes and it was constantly overrun rather like the Polish people have been in modern history. The safest thing for someone with any valuable item small enough was to bury it in the ground and if sudden death should occur then there lay hidden a treasure for some future finder. In any case, the parable is pointed: the kingdom of Heaven – that tangible new order of God that will satisfy the intangible longings of the human heart for meaning, value and purpose – will produce a delight and a desire of such degree,

the finder will be prepared to give up everything of tangible value to secure it.

There was a man called Heinrich Schliemann, who as boy, read a translation of Homer’s account of the sack of Troy by the Greeks. In the latter part of the last century scholars largely held that Homer’s “Iliad” was entirely fictitious and that ancient Troy never existed – an unlikely story if you will; made up to make a specific point. Schliemann vowed one day he would find the ruins of the city of Troy. He spent most of his formative years making a fortune and then spent his retiring years searching for the city of his youthful dreams, with the aid of his fortune.

With the permission of the Turkish Government he excavated the site near the Dardinells where he believed from his research, that the city had been. Ironically, he found not only one ancient city of Troy, but the ruins of many, each built upon the ruins of the previous, as in the case with many archaeological discoveries. Not only so, but one day, from his Troys, was uncovered a small casket that contained a set of exquisite jewels. These, Schliemann, adorned upon his young Greek wife, Sophia. She was frequently pictured wearing these jewels in the very early days of photography because her husband claimed them to be the jewels of Helen of Troy. Whether they were the jewels of the great Helen, we may never know. The point is that here we have a man who was prepared to sacrifice everything for a dream of treasure. God’s new way of living through Jesus Christ, is like that’s man’s sheer delight, joy and surprise. Jesus, in many of his parables, calls us to dream big dreams, the dreams that envisage a world without poverty and injustice; a world where God is honoured and people of all nations work together for Christ’s cause of salvation and liberation for all of God’s creation. Moreover, Jesus calls us to give up everything for this cause, to act upon the impulse of his Spirit that drives us out of our comfort and self-interest. For the reward will be great, greater than we can imagine in our wildest dreams – many great possibilities for the grand project of human being, built one upon the other. We have to make a decision. Will we, like Schliemann, have the faith, courage and conviction to trust in the reality of God’s great treasure, that we too will sacrifice everything for the sake of ourselves and all humanity?

There is an old story about the allusive Holy Grail. A knight on his quest for this precious cup came to a singing brook, deep meadows and laden fruit trees. But as he ate from a tree, the fruit turned to dust … for no food could satisfy his deepest hunger. So, riding on he saw a house and in its open door was a promised welcome with a woman framed there: her eyes innocent and kind and “all her bearing gracious.” Surely, the love of such a woman and her homely grace could satisfy his heart’s desire. But, to quote Tennyson, from whom the telling of this tale is taken,

“… when I tended her, lo! She too,

Fell into dust and nothing, and the house

Became no better than a broken shed …”

(From Tennyson’s “The Holy Grail.”)

Blessings in Jesus’ name

KIM THODAY

Hewett Community Church of Christ, South Australia

http://www.hewett.org.au