Between Sundays for Week of July 31, 2023
“The kingdom of heaven is like a 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
Jesus continues to teach with parables. In one after another, he puts forward ever more ideas of how we might imagine the kingdom of heaven. The abundance of images, on top of those we have heard in previous weeks, is itself a reminder that this kingdom that Jesus describes cannot be contained in a single picture. Mustard seeds, yeast, a treasure hidden in the fields, a fine pearl, a net thrown into the sea, each image opens another facet into the ways of God, which are not our ways.
On the surface, the parable of the treasure hidden in the field (verse 44) can sound like a call to sacrifice everything in order to get closer to the illusive kingdom of heaven. But spending time and energy identifying the sacrifices we might make misses the point of what Jesus is getting at.
As Pastor Amy suggests in her Sunday message, maybe the point of the this particular parable is not the man who sells all that he has, maybe the point is the joy. Maybe the point is not giving up everything for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, maybe the point is that even a glimpse of this kingdom takes hold of our lives so completely that we cannot live as we have before. Or maybe, Jesus is teaching us that the kingdom of heaven represents the upside-down world of God in which WE are the treasure in which God rejoices and WE are the treasure for which Jesus sacrifices everything in love for us.
YOU are a treasured creature of God’s good creation! Live in this joy in the week ahead!
P.S. How are your marigolds doing?
Jesus is still teaching in parables. In today’s episode Amy reflects on some of her experiences of teaching in Egypt over many years and focuses on the parable that describes the kingdom of heaven like a treasure hidden in a field. Asking what we’d sacrifice for such a treasure misses Jesus’ point. Realizing that we are the treasure for which Jesus’ sacrifices himself has the power to change our lives!
Ponderings
“Have you understood all this? Jesus asks after his parables. . . . What if we hear Jesus asking us this question not seriously but humorously? What if it is not a test of understanding at all but a mutual recognition of the absurdity that any of this teaching about the kingdom of heaven, much less all of it, could be understood by mortals? . . . Even if Jesus is just trying out possibilities to encapsulate the infinite realities of the kingdom of heaven through the finite limitations of human language, there is great value in the language he chooses. Engaging our own imaginations, we can learn multitudes from every metaphor Jesus grasps for in these verses. (Libby Howe, In the Lectionary July 30, Christian Century, July 2023.)
