May 9, 2010
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Parables M1 May 9, 2010
KOG not just “out there” here
Text: Matthew 13:44-46
Big Idea: The joy of the gospel leads us to sacrifice.
As penniless peasants in China labored all day in the sticky heat and humidity of the rice the paddies they would utter proverbs like this to each other:
“No food without blood and sweat.”
“In the winter the lazy man freezes to death.”
“No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.”
Rise before dawn 360 days a year? What about vacation?
China’s storyline: Work hard and you will receive treasure in the end.
In our culture we know that if we jump through enough hoops: hoops at school, hoops at work, we will receive some kind of treasure at the end, financial reward, prestigious, an attractive partner…
In the Jewish tradition there is a similar storyline embedded in a popular rabbinic story. A generous man one day finds himself broke. He saw some rabbis that he knew he should support. He felt great angst in his heart. “What should I do?” He wondered. His wife was a devout follower of God told him, “Sell half the field” (which was the only property they had left). “Give the money to the rabbi,” she said. He did. In return the rabbis prayed for the man and his wife to be blessed. One day when the man was plowing the remaining half of the field, his cow fell and broke a leg. When he bent down to help the cow, he found a jewel. This storyline here do the right thing and you will receive treasure in the end.
Jesus often taught through parables. He often taught what the kingdom of God would be like through parables. Parables are not, strictly speaking, simply illustrations of what God’s kingdom would be like. Jesus’ parables were designed to shake us and change our minds. They were intended to disrupt the way that we see the world. Jesus in Matthew 13:11 said the parables contain mysteries into the kingdom of heaven. They provide enough clues for those sincerely interested in understanding what God’s kingdom is like, but are also ambiguous enough so that those who couldn’t be bothered to find out more wouldn’t understand.
We are beginning a new series today on the parables of Jesus. Today we are going to look at two brief parables—the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13:44-46.
In Jesus’ world people would have had a belief that treasure is something you receive after doing good. Something we gain through a prior sacrifice. Treasure is something we receive at the end of the story. In this world, Jesus tells the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl.
44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Show art image (please keep the image up for several minutes until the story about Wendy’s.
When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of heaven he is not just talking about a place we go after we die, but heaven in Jesus’ term refers to the place where God’s life and reign are being established.
The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl have slight differences. In the parable of the hidden treasure we have a man walking through a field, he stubs his toe on something and discovers a priceless gem. He apparently is a peasant because he has to sell all that he has to buy the field. In the second parable the man is not a peasant, but apparently a fairly well-to-do merchant. He doesn’t stumble across the treasure by accident, but actively seeks it out.
Though some of the details are slightly different (a poor man, a rich man, one person finding a treasure by accident, the other looking for it intently), the message of the two parables is one and the same—both parties are blown away by the incredible treasure that they find. They consider themselves the luckiest people in the world. They swell with joy.
In the parable of the hidden treasure we read about this peasant who accidentally finds a treasure hidden in the field. Now we may think, how implausible?! What are the chances? In Jesus’ day this scenario would have been very possible. People in the ancient world of the first century did not have banks or safes or insurance policies like we do today. So if someone in Palestine heard that their land was about to be raided by an army or by bandits, what would they do? Their valuables would be vulnerable if kept in their homes. So it was not uncommon for people in Jesus’ day to place their valuables in jars and hide them in some field as a way to protect them from enemy soldiers or bandits that might come and raid their land. It was obviously possible that when the enemy army would invade Palestine, the owner of the treasure would die. In many cases they would not have told anyone where the treasure was.
Peasants dreamed of finding these treasure jars left by someone perhaps years ago and forgotten in some field. But if you found one of these treasure jars in someone else’s field, you could not just pick it up and take it. The treasure belonged to the person who owned the field. The treasure was left in the ground. It simply belonged to the land owner. If the treasure was left in the ground and the person died, it belonged to the land owner. But if the land was put on the market and bought by another person, then the treasure would belong to the new owner.
This is the background of the first parable.
A peasant was walking through a field, not necessarily looking for anything unusual. He stubs his toe, looks down, and he discovers a treasure. When he realizes just how valuable the treasure is, he says to himself, “I’ve got to have this!”
And some people discover the treasure of the kingdom of God—the treasure of the Gospel by stumbling across it.
I used to live just north of Boston. There was a garbage truck driver named Craig Randall who lived north of Boston in that community named Peabody, Massachusetts. In a garbage container one day he noticed a Wendy’s soft drink cup bearing a contest sticker (use prop). He had won a chicken sandwich the week before, so Randall checked it, hoping to find some French fries or a soft drink. He pealed back the sticker and he discovered he had won $200,000. Randy literally stumbled across a treasure with joy.
Some people stumble into the kingdom of God. C. S. Lewis titled his autobiography “Surprised by Joy.” Lewis did not believe in the existence of God. But when he discovered God, or more accurately in Lewis’s words when God discovered him, he found that his greatest surprise in his conversion was joy. From time to time people started coming to Tenth, not because they were spiritually searching, but for other reasons. Two weeks ago, we baptized someone who in effect said, I came to Tenth meet girls (his Christian colleague actually said, “There are lots of pretty girls at Tenth”), but I ended up meeting God. Sometimes, people discover the treasure of God, the treasure of his Kingdom by stubbing their toe in the field.
The second parable is about a merchant who is looking for fine pearls. And again this is not something that is part of most of our worlds. Some of us when we were young, like Jimmy Pattison, put our fingers in the change slot in the bottom of pay phones, hoping to find a quarter someone forgot to retrieve. But in Jesus’ world people sought pearls in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean by diving for them. Some of the pearls that were found in Jesus’ day would have been worth the equal of millions and millions of dollars (pearls in Jesus’ day were viewed like diamonds are today).
My close friend Elizabeth Archer Klein says that one of her earliest memories is watching Japanese pearl divers in Honolulu diving into the ocean, holding their breath for what seemed like an eternity to bring up the treasures of the sea. As a little girl, Elizabeth said she was stunned by their beauty of pearls…bringing up the treasures of the sea.
In Jesus’ day it was common for people to dive for pearls, and a merchant looking for fine pearls found one of extraordinary value, and he went away, sold everything he had, and bought it. In the second parable, like many people today, the merchant was searching for a treasure. Some people today feeling like there is something missing in their life, even though they seem to have almost everything, in some cases search for a treasure meaning.
Although the stories are different, the message of the parables are one and the same. Both parties are stunned by their incredible find. They feel that they are the most fortunate people in the world. Like a person whose just won the 28 million dollar Lotto 649 jackpot, they that everything will change. If you were to ask them, “Don’t you realize you be burdened by your new wealth? Don’t you’ll fork out hefty premiums for your insurance policies?” They would look at you, as if to say, “Are you crazy? My whole life is now going to be different. And unlike the lottery, the person who finds the treasure of Christ, the Kingdom, the treasure of life with God, finds themselves on the cusp or more infinitely more blessed life…
The parables are about the joy of discovery and about selling everything, as a result. The story line is not “sacrifice everything in order to gain the treasure,” but “you have discovered the treasure, so sell everything.” They are parables about wonder first and then sacrifice. The jewel first and then the selling. The discovery first and then decision to give all.
One of my siblings, from the time she was a young girl, enjoyed school. She enjoyed both the social aspect of school and the learning aspect of school. When she was an undergraduate student in Montreal, she aspired to become a professor one day. I still recall the excitement she had when she was admitted into an Ivy League PhD program, which was the strongest program in her area of study anywhere. When you want to be a professor and you are admitted into your dream PhD program, in that moment you are not thinking about the fact that you are not going to be able to go to study at any of your back-up schools. In the moment, you’re not even thinking about the fact that you have to work and make all kinds of sacrifices to complete your program. You are lost in the wonder of the door that has opened before you.
When you utterly fall in love with someone, when you feel like you have found your soul mate, when your head and your heart are in alignment, and you commit to marrying someone, you are not thinking about the fact you are not going to be with all these other people that theoretically you could have dated. And if you are, then maybe you are not ready to get married. Maybe the person that you are with is not the right person for you, or there is something in you that prevents you from fully committing another person.
When I asked Sakiko’s parents for their blessing on my intention to marry Sakiko, I looked into a camera (I was going to send a video because they were in Osaka) and I said, “When I was a young child growing up in London, England, I fantasized about finding an old beaten map with a series of dotted lines leading me to a treasure left by pirates years ago. And so a year after that, when I stood right here almost nine years ago, and when the minister Leighton Ford, turned to me in the ceremony and asked me, “Will you forsake all others and remain faithful to Sakiko as long as you both shall live?” I didn’t say, “Hmmm, let me think about it. What are my options?” there was a solemn, but also deep, grateful “Yes!”
When you find a treasure that is of priceless value, you are not thinking primarily about the cost. When you are entering into a demanding PhD program of your dreams, when you enter into marriage, obviously there are great sacrifices to be made. But when you are in a place that you have always wanted to be, your primary emotion is not one of onerous duty, but JOY--joy in the infinite value of the treasure.
So it is with Kingdom. For some time, my dad had been concerned about me, his wayward teen son. He took me to a Christian youth conference. I really did not want to go, but to my surprise, I found myself interested in what the speaker had to say. On the final day of the conference the speaker asked a simple question. “If you were to die tonight, would you know for sure that you were going to heaven?” I hung my head thinking, that “no.” I have no idea. I knew I had turned my back on God. The speaker explained that because Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again if we I turned to him we could have a new start with God.
At that moment, it was like a huge door was opened before me to God… I thought “If I give my life to God, I will lose my place in the popular group in school, but I also knew that a door of opportunity was being opened to me… never… so I decided to pray and give my life to Him. In a way like never before, I felt really, really blessed—JOY…
I didn’t know anything about the Bible or theology, but I remember home going to my room pulling down a poster of a favorite rock band at the time KISS—that I sense did not honor God. Threw it in the fire and burned it. A friend and I had together bought our first pornographic magazine. I remember being at the 7-11 with him when we were going to buy it. When we got to store, I said I’ll keep watch at door, you never know when your parents might show up. You go in a buy it. I will guard the door. We bought it jointly, but after I said yes to Christ I remember… burning that too.
I had stumbled onto this great Pearl and that led me to voluntarily shed certain things from my life.
I felt like the most fortunate person anywhere.
Like the peasant and like the merchant, when you really discover the priceless treasure of the pearl that you have in Christ, the treasure of the Kingdom of God, the treasure of life with the king you will sacrifice anything for the pearl.
Treasure is not the end of the story. Treasure is the beginning. But when we have the treasure, we can joyfully sacrifice for it.
When you sacrifice for the treasure your is joy more complete.
If you find yourself without joy in the pearl, sort of half committed, “in-between” Christ and the world. You might ask yourself, “Have I really discovered and embraced the pearl of great price?” Am I really a follower of Christ, or would it more accurate I am an admirer of Christ?
One of the signs that we have really found the pearl of great price is that we are willing to joyfully sell everything for the pearl.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic book, Cost of Discipleship, said, (The Gospel) is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
When you know that you have discovered your only true life, you are willing to give everything for it. It is as we are willing to give everything for Christ out of a sense of deep joy in our only true life that our joy in our life in Christ is made complete.
When I was in high school, I remember that on the days before our actual football games we would practice without pads. We would wear our t-shirts, shorts, and our helmets. We would scrimmage and go over our plays at about 75 % intensity with no hitting. But there was this one player named Skidmore a linebacker who would be really frustrated by these 75% percent speed, no hitting practices. I remember at one of our scrimmages, Skidmore would bust through the line and drive his helmet into a ball carrier. The coaches and team mates would yell at Skidmore and say, “Hey! Someone is going to get hurt! We are going at only 75% intensity here. We are not hitting. Remember, Skidmore?” And Skidmore would throw off his helmet and say, “I can’t play this game at 75%! I’ve gotta play it at 100%!”
Now Skidmore was extreme, but at the time I thought he doesn’t get it, but there was another part of me that me that thinks, “No, he does get it” because football is not a game for the half-committed… for those who will give half-hearted… effort. It is a game where you will really flourish; your joy is more complete if you give it your all…if you leave it all on the field.
And so it is with following Christ. It is not a game designed for us that give a half-committed or the half-hearted effort… It is the kind of game that we are meant to give everything for the joy of the game… we are mean to leave it all on the field. As we do our joy is made complete.
Embracing the pearl of great price is like a great football player, it’s like a flourishing marriage; as you give it your best, it will yield its greatest gifts and your joy will be made complete.
Part of the way that we experience more fully the beauty and the joy of the treasure is by risking all, jumping in with all that we have.
Do you treasure Christ?
If you have never really felt the wonder and the joy and the treasure of the pearl, one way to feel the treasure might be like the peasant merchants and sell all that you have for the treasure, risking something great for the treasure.
I talked to a young person in our community who said, “I have been a Christian my whole life, but I don’t really feel God’s presence…ever.”
I blurted out, “Have you considered selling everything you have and giving it to the poor? Have you thought about going to like Iraq, or Afghanistan taking a risk for your faith?”
When we are willing to risk something for Christ—we see what a treasure we have in him.
Sometimes it’s in acting like we have a treasure in human relationship—even when we don’t feel that way—that we start to experience joy in the treasure.
Sometimes marriage counselors will meet with a couple who no longer treasure each other and will say, “Do you remember what attracted you to each other when you first started getting to know each other?” “Do you remember how you treated your partner when you first started dating?” How you took time to write notes to the person; how you bought flowers and chocolates; how you were willing to re-arrange your schedule to go out with the person? Start doing that again. Act like she’s your treasure; act like he’s your treasure; and as couples do that… as they fight for their relationship in many cases they begin to feel the treasure that they have…
Today is Mother’s Day. Part of the reason a mother treasures her children is because they sacrifice for them. And in their sacrifice their joy is made complete. If a mother has never sacrificed for her child. If she’s always had a nanny to change every diaper, to cook every meal, to get up in the middle to the night sooth the child, to put that band aid on the child’s scraped knee when they fall off their tricycle… then while that mother may love her child, her joy in her child won’t be complete because our joy is made complete when we sacrifice for someone.
Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
When you invest in something—you feel more keenly the treasure.
Another way to feel more keenly the treasure of the pearl is to share the pearl with others.
If you don’t feel like Christ is a priceless treasure you cherish, let me ask, “When was the last time you shared Christ with someone else?” Sharing the treasure that makes us treasure the treasure.
Last week someone told me they were planning on getting married. The guy said my fiancé is from an Orthodox background. She’s always believed in God’s existence, but you showed her how she could know God in a personal way. I was reminded that many people believe in God, but it’s such a treasure actually know God personally.
Last week I shared about how a Christian couple in our neighborhood had been praying for years that the wife’s brother would come to know Christ. Two weeks ago, they had the privilege of bringing him into a friendship with Jesus. When you see someone drawn to Christ or closer to Christ, you tend to treasure the treasure you have in him.
(Abrupt end)
When we find the pearl of great price, the treasure of Christ, life in the Kingdom, life with the King, out of sheer joy we sacrifice all for him… and as we give everything for him we find ourselves treasuring the treasure even more.
Pray:
Parables M1 May 9, 2010
KOG not just “out there” here
Text: Matthew 13:44-46
Big Idea: The joy of the gospel leads us to sacrifice.
As penniless peasants in China labored all day in the sticky heat and humidity of the rice the paddies they would utter proverbs like this to each other:
“No food without blood and sweat.”
“In the winter the lazy man freezes to death.”
“No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.”
Rise before dawn 360 days a year? What about vacation?
China’s storyline: Work hard and you will receive treasure in the end.
In our culture we know that if we jump through enough hoops: hoops at school, hoops at work, we will receive some kind of treasure at the end, financial reward, prestigious, an attractive partner…
In the Jewish tradition there is a similar storyline embedded in a popular rabbinic story. A generous man one day finds himself broke. He saw some rabbis that he knew he should support. He felt great angst in his heart. “What should I do?” He wondered. His wife was a devout follower of God told him, “Sell half the field” (which was the only property they had left). “Give the money to the rabbi,” she said. He did. In return the rabbis prayed for the man and his wife to be blessed. One day when the man was plowing the remaining half of the field, his cow fell and broke a leg. When he bent down to help the cow, he found a jewel. This storyline here do the right thing and you will receive treasure in the end.
Jesus often taught through parables. He often taught what the kingdom of God would be like through parables. Parables are not, strictly speaking, simply illustrations of what God’s kingdom would be like. Jesus’ parables were designed to shake us and change our minds. They were intended to disrupt the way that we see the world. Jesus in Matthew 13:11 said the parables contain mysteries into the kingdom of heaven. They provide enough clues for those sincerely interested in understanding what God’s kingdom is like, but are also ambiguous enough so that those who couldn’t be bothered to find out more wouldn’t understand.
We are beginning a new series today on the parables of Jesus. Today we are going to look at two brief parables—the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13:44-46.
In Jesus’ world people would have had a belief that treasure is something you receive after doing good. Something we gain through a prior sacrifice. Treasure is something we receive at the end of the story. In this world, Jesus tells the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl.
44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Show art image (please keep the image up for several minutes until the story about Wendy’s.
When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of heaven he is not just talking about a place we go after we die, but heaven in Jesus’ term refers to the place where God’s life and reign are being established.
The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl have slight differences. In the parable of the hidden treasure we have a man walking through a field, he stubs his toe on something and discovers a priceless gem. He apparently is a peasant because he has to sell all that he has to buy the field. In the second parable the man is not a peasant, but apparently a fairly well-to-do merchant. He doesn’t stumble across the treasure by accident, but actively seeks it out.
Though some of the details are slightly different (a poor man, a rich man, one person finding a treasure by accident, the other looking for it intently), the message of the two parables is one and the same—both parties are blown away by the incredible treasure that they find. They consider themselves the luckiest people in the world. They swell with joy.
In the parable of the hidden treasure we read about this peasant who accidentally finds a treasure hidden in the field. Now we may think, how implausible?! What are the chances? In Jesus’ day this scenario would have been very possible. People in the ancient world of the first century did not have banks or safes or insurance policies like we do today. So if someone in Palestine heard that their land was about to be raided by an army or by bandits, what would they do? Their valuables would be vulnerable if kept in their homes. So it was not uncommon for people in Jesus’ day to place their valuables in jars and hide them in some field as a way to protect them from enemy soldiers or bandits that might come and raid their land. It was obviously possible that when the enemy army would invade Palestine, the owner of the treasure would die. In many cases they would not have told anyone where the treasure was.
Peasants dreamed of finding these treasure jars left by someone perhaps years ago and forgotten in some field. But if you found one of these treasure jars in someone else’s field, you could not just pick it up and take it. The treasure belonged to the person who owned the field. The treasure was left in the ground. It simply belonged to the land owner. If the treasure was left in the ground and the person died, it belonged to the land owner. But if the land was put on the market and bought by another person, then the treasure would belong to the new owner.
This is the background of the first parable.
A peasant was walking through a field, not necessarily looking for anything unusual. He stubs his toe, looks down, and he discovers a treasure. When he realizes just how valuable the treasure is, he says to himself, “I’ve got to have this!”
And some people discover the treasure of the kingdom of God—the treasure of the Gospel by stumbling across it.
I used to live just north of Boston. There was a garbage truck driver named Craig Randall who lived north of Boston in that community named Peabody, Massachusetts. In a garbage container one day he noticed a Wendy’s soft drink cup bearing a contest sticker (use prop). He had won a chicken sandwich the week before, so Randall checked it, hoping to find some French fries or a soft drink. He pealed back the sticker and he discovered he had won $200,000. Randy literally stumbled across a treasure with joy.
Some people stumble into the kingdom of God. C. S. Lewis titled his autobiography “Surprised by Joy.” Lewis did not believe in the existence of God. But when he discovered God, or more accurately in Lewis’s words when God discovered him, he found that his greatest surprise in his conversion was joy. From time to time people started coming to Tenth, not because they were spiritually searching, but for other reasons. Two weeks ago, we baptized someone who in effect said, I came to Tenth meet girls (his Christian colleague actually said, “There are lots of pretty girls at Tenth”), but I ended up meeting God. Sometimes, people discover the treasure of God, the treasure of his Kingdom by stubbing their toe in the field.
The second parable is about a merchant who is looking for fine pearls. And again this is not something that is part of most of our worlds. Some of us when we were young, like Jimmy Pattison, put our fingers in the change slot in the bottom of pay phones, hoping to find a quarter someone forgot to retrieve. But in Jesus’ world people sought pearls in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean by diving for them. Some of the pearls that were found in Jesus’ day would have been worth the equal of millions and millions of dollars (pearls in Jesus’ day were viewed like diamonds are today).
My close friend Elizabeth Archer Klein says that one of her earliest memories is watching Japanese pearl divers in Honolulu diving into the ocean, holding their breath for what seemed like an eternity to bring up the treasures of the sea. As a little girl, Elizabeth said she was stunned by their beauty of pearls…bringing up the treasures of the sea.
In Jesus’ day it was common for people to dive for pearls, and a merchant looking for fine pearls found one of extraordinary value, and he went away, sold everything he had, and bought it. In the second parable, like many people today, the merchant was searching for a treasure. Some people today feeling like there is something missing in their life, even though they seem to have almost everything, in some cases search for a treasure meaning.
Although the stories are different, the message of the parables are one and the same. Both parties are stunned by their incredible find. They feel that they are the most fortunate people in the world. Like a person whose just won the 28 million dollar Lotto 649 jackpot, they that everything will change. If you were to ask them, “Don’t you realize you be burdened by your new wealth? Don’t you’ll fork out hefty premiums for your insurance policies?” They would look at you, as if to say, “Are you crazy? My whole life is now going to be different. And unlike the lottery, the person who finds the treasure of Christ, the Kingdom, the treasure of life with God, finds themselves on the cusp or more infinitely more blessed life…
The parables are about the joy of discovery and about selling everything, as a result. The story line is not “sacrifice everything in order to gain the treasure,” but “you have discovered the treasure, so sell everything.” They are parables about wonder first and then sacrifice. The jewel first and then the selling. The discovery first and then decision to give all.
One of my siblings, from the time she was a young girl, enjoyed school. She enjoyed both the social aspect of school and the learning aspect of school. When she was an undergraduate student in Montreal, she aspired to become a professor one day. I still recall the excitement she had when she was admitted into an Ivy League PhD program, which was the strongest program in her area of study anywhere. When you want to be a professor and you are admitted into your dream PhD program, in that moment you are not thinking about the fact that you are not going to be able to go to study at any of your back-up schools. In the moment, you’re not even thinking about the fact that you have to work and make all kinds of sacrifices to complete your program. You are lost in the wonder of the door that has opened before you.
When you utterly fall in love with someone, when you feel like you have found your soul mate, when your head and your heart are in alignment, and you commit to marrying someone, you are not thinking about the fact you are not going to be with all these other people that theoretically you could have dated. And if you are, then maybe you are not ready to get married. Maybe the person that you are with is not the right person for you, or there is something in you that prevents you from fully committing another person.
When I asked Sakiko’s parents for their blessing on my intention to marry Sakiko, I looked into a camera (I was going to send a video because they were in Osaka) and I said, “When I was a young child growing up in London, England, I fantasized about finding an old beaten map with a series of dotted lines leading me to a treasure left by pirates years ago. And so a year after that, when I stood right here almost nine years ago, and when the minister Leighton Ford, turned to me in the ceremony and asked me, “Will you forsake all others and remain faithful to Sakiko as long as you both shall live?” I didn’t say, “Hmmm, let me think about it. What are my options?” there was a solemn, but also deep, grateful “Yes!”
When you find a treasure that is of priceless value, you are not thinking primarily about the cost. When you are entering into a demanding PhD program of your dreams, when you enter into marriage, obviously there are great sacrifices to be made. But when you are in a place that you have always wanted to be, your primary emotion is not one of onerous duty, but JOY--joy in the infinite value of the treasure.
So it is with Kingdom. For some time, my dad had been concerned about me, his wayward teen son. He took me to a Christian youth conference. I really did not want to go, but to my surprise, I found myself interested in what the speaker had to say. On the final day of the conference the speaker asked a simple question. “If you were to die tonight, would you know for sure that you were going to heaven?” I hung my head thinking, that “no.” I have no idea. I knew I had turned my back on God. The speaker explained that because Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again if we I turned to him we could have a new start with God.
At that moment, it was like a huge door was opened before me to God… I thought “If I give my life to God, I will lose my place in the popular group in school, but I also knew that a door of opportunity was being opened to me… never… so I decided to pray and give my life to Him. In a way like never before, I felt really, really blessed—JOY…
I didn’t know anything about the Bible or theology, but I remember home going to my room pulling down a poster of a favorite rock band at the time KISS—that I sense did not honor God. Threw it in the fire and burned it. A friend and I had together bought our first pornographic magazine. I remember being at the 7-11 with him when we were going to buy it. When we got to store, I said I’ll keep watch at door, you never know when your parents might show up. You go in a buy it. I will guard the door. We bought it jointly, but after I said yes to Christ I remember… burning that too.
I had stumbled onto this great Pearl and that led me to voluntarily shed certain things from my life.
I felt like the most fortunate person anywhere.
Like the peasant and like the merchant, when you really discover the priceless treasure of the pearl that you have in Christ, the treasure of the Kingdom of God, the treasure of life with the king you will sacrifice anything for the pearl.
Treasure is not the end of the story. Treasure is the beginning. But when we have the treasure, we can joyfully sacrifice for it.
When you sacrifice for the treasure your is joy more complete.
If you find yourself without joy in the pearl, sort of half committed, “in-between” Christ and the world. You might ask yourself, “Have I really discovered and embraced the pearl of great price?” Am I really a follower of Christ, or would it more accurate I am an admirer of Christ?
One of the signs that we have really found the pearl of great price is that we are willing to joyfully sell everything for the pearl.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic book, Cost of Discipleship, said, (The Gospel) is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
When you know that you have discovered your only true life, you are willing to give everything for it. It is as we are willing to give everything for Christ out of a sense of deep joy in our only true life that our joy in our life in Christ is made complete.
When I was in high school, I remember that on the days before our actual football games we would practice without pads. We would wear our t-shirts, shorts, and our helmets. We would scrimmage and go over our plays at about 75 % intensity with no hitting. But there was this one player named Skidmore a linebacker who would be really frustrated by these 75% percent speed, no hitting practices. I remember at one of our scrimmages, Skidmore would bust through the line and drive his helmet into a ball carrier. The coaches and team mates would yell at Skidmore and say, “Hey! Someone is going to get hurt! We are going at only 75% intensity here. We are not hitting. Remember, Skidmore?” And Skidmore would throw off his helmet and say, “I can’t play this game at 75%! I’ve gotta play it at 100%!”
Now Skidmore was extreme, but at the time I thought he doesn’t get it, but there was another part of me that me that thinks, “No, he does get it” because football is not a game for the half-committed… for those who will give half-hearted… effort. It is a game where you will really flourish; your joy is more complete if you give it your all…if you leave it all on the field.
And so it is with following Christ. It is not a game designed for us that give a half-committed or the half-hearted effort… It is the kind of game that we are meant to give everything for the joy of the game… we are mean to leave it all on the field. As we do our joy is made complete.
Embracing the pearl of great price is like a great football player, it’s like a flourishing marriage; as you give it your best, it will yield its greatest gifts and your joy will be made complete.
Part of the way that we experience more fully the beauty and the joy of the treasure is by risking all, jumping in with all that we have.
Do you treasure Christ?
If you have never really felt the wonder and the joy and the treasure of the pearl, one way to feel the treasure might be like the peasant merchants and sell all that you have for the treasure, risking something great for the treasure.
I talked to a young person in our community who said, “I have been a Christian my whole life, but I don’t really feel God’s presence…ever.”
I blurted out, “Have you considered selling everything you have and giving it to the poor? Have you thought about going to like Iraq, or Afghanistan taking a risk for your faith?”
When we are willing to risk something for Christ—we see what a treasure we have in him.
Sometimes it’s in acting like we have a treasure in human relationship—even when we don’t feel that way—that we start to experience joy in the treasure.
Sometimes marriage counselors will meet with a couple who no longer treasure each other and will say, “Do you remember what attracted you to each other when you first started getting to know each other?” “Do you remember how you treated your partner when you first started dating?” How you took time to write notes to the person; how you bought flowers and chocolates; how you were willing to re-arrange your schedule to go out with the person? Start doing that again. Act like she’s your treasure; act like he’s your treasure; and as couples do that… as they fight for their relationship in many cases they begin to feel the treasure that they have…
Today is Mother’s Day. Part of the reason a mother treasures her children is because they sacrifice for them. And in their sacrifice their joy is made complete. If a mother has never sacrificed for her child. If she’s always had a nanny to change every diaper, to cook every meal, to get up in the middle to the night sooth the child, to put that band aid on the child’s scraped knee when they fall off their tricycle… then while that mother may love her child, her joy in her child won’t be complete because our joy is made complete when we sacrifice for someone.
Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
When you invest in something—you feel more keenly the treasure.
Another way to feel more keenly the treasure of the pearl is to share the pearl with others.
If you don’t feel like Christ is a priceless treasure you cherish, let me ask, “When was the last time you shared Christ with someone else?” Sharing the treasure that makes us treasure the treasure.
Last week someone told me they were planning on getting married. The guy said my fiancé is from an Orthodox background. She’s always believed in God’s existence, but you showed her how she could know God in a personal way. I was reminded that many people believe in God, but it’s such a treasure actually know God personally.
Last week I shared about how a Christian couple in our neighborhood had been praying for years that the wife’s brother would come to know Christ. Two weeks ago, they had the privilege of bringing him into a friendship with Jesus. When you see someone drawn to Christ or closer to Christ, you tend to treasure the treasure you have in him.
(Abrupt end)
When we find the pearl of great price, the treasure of Christ, life in the Kingdom, life with the King, out of sheer joy we sacrifice all for him… and as we give everything for him we find ourselves treasuring the treasure even more.
Pray:
posted by Shigematsu at 3:23 PM
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