Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the season of Lent. As followers of Christ, we are called to participate in the life of deep devotion, joyful sacrifice and faithful obedience. Last Sunday one friend shared that he disconnected his Dish Network, so that he can spend time reading the Bible and in serving the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus said "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." (Matthew 13:44). Burying our valuables in the ground sounds strange to us, but it was a very common practice in the first century. Today we usually put our money in a savings and loan company or a bank. We keep our valuables in a safe deposit box. However, back in those days, there were no banks for the common people. Only wealthy folks had access to banks, which in those days were not very safe places to keep your money anyway. We have all heard of wealthy people who don't trust the banks, so they stuff all their money in their mattress or they hide it all around the house? That is the same concept that the people of the first century followed, except they buried it.
In Matthew 25, Jesus told a story about a master who gave some talents (a measure of money) to his servants. The first servant was given five talents, and the second was given two talents. They invested those amounts and multiplied their master’s money. But the third servant, who was given one talent, was worried. He didn't want anything to happen to that money. He wanted to keep it safe, so he buried it in the ground.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:45). This parable describes a man who spent his life looking for beautiful pearls and then sold them to retailers for a profit. When he found the most beautiful pearl he ever saw, he sold everything that he possessed in order to obtain it for himself.
Both of these parables teach us about the incomparable value of the Lord’s kingdom. The pearl is especially appropriate for describing the kingdom because it is the only gem that cannot be improved by man.
We gave all had our hearts and minds set on something that we "just had to have", something that we were willing to make any sacrifice to get? For some of us it may have been a special bicycle, giving up candy bars and going to the movies to have enough money to get that bicycle. Or maybe, as we got older, it was a car or something for the house. For some it is a Wii, or an X-box 360, or some other fad.
Both parables involve men who bought things of great value, but they had to make sacrifices, selling everything that they had to obtain those treasures. That is the cost of commitment. Jesus wants us to understand that there is a cost involved in following Him. Most of us have grown up in a generation that does not understand true sacrifice. To many the Great Depression is just a boring story about how terrible things were in times long past. Most Americans are too accustomed to having things easy. Sometimes that attitude carries over into the church. Though we want to enjoy all the blessings of the kingdom, we don’t want to do anything, give anything, or sacrifice anything.
Just as the two men in the parables had to sacrifice in order to gain their treasures, we must also make sacrifices to gain our treasure. In Luke 14, Jesus said we need to count the cost of following Him. Failing to do so is like starting to build without checking your funds first, or going to war without counting your men. There is a cost involved in being a Christian, and we need to determine from the start whether we are willing to pay the price.
I like this quote from John Calvin, “The natural meaning of the words is, that the Gospel does not receive from us the respect which it deserves, unless we prefer it to all the riches, pleasures, honors, and advantages of the world, and to such an extent, that we are satisfied with the spiritual blessings which it promises, and throw aside every thing that would keep us from enjoying them.” Obtaining the kingdom requires sacrifice.
In Hebrews 11, we read about some great men of the Bible who searched for that pearl of great price. They were looking for something of far greater value than were most people of their times. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived as strangers in a country far from their homeland, living in tents because they were looking for a kingdom. They were looking for "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10). The men in that chapter were willing to sacrifice to achieve their goal. Like the ancient pearl divers, they were willing to risk even their very lives. "They were stoned, they were sawn in two....were slain with the sword." (Hebrews 11:37).
The writer of Hebrews holds them up as an example. Are we willing to live a life of faith? Are we willing to be a part of the Lord’s kingdom today? It involves sacrifice, but for those of us who are Christians it is a sacrifice made with joy.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGbuz8QuhmE
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