A Better Treasure
Recently I made a comment on a Substack Note that seemed to resonate. Viral is certainly not the word. I make very little noise on this platform, but when a notification pops up, many times it has been to tell me someone has liked this comment. Here was the interaction:
My simple encouragement for Brenda and her husband drew from one of my favorite parables of Jesus. In Matthew 13, we find several parables back to back in which Jesus is describing what the kingdom of heaven is like. One of those parables is about treasure.
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. -Matthew 13:44
That’s it—short and sweet. But Jesus uncovers an important truth about the kingdom. King Jesus and the kingdom he brings, the reign of God in our lives, it is like treasure. But not everyone can see it. It seems hidden—buried even. But when you find, like so many have…when you hear the good news and realize what you have uncovered and what it is worth? You can’t even contain the joy.
What surprises me in this parable is what the man seems to do so easily. He “went and sold all he had” so that he could buy that field. But didn’t his other stuff matter to him? Maybe. The question however is not about the value of his stuff. The question is about what was most valuable. And he was convinced he had found it.
This is a parable about the kingdom, but ultimately it is a parable about what truly has value. What has the kind of worth that we would sell it all to gain? Some have looked at cars this way. I will work extra to cover the high car payments because this vehicle is worth that much to me. Houses. Vacations. Clothes. You name it.
We sacrifice for what we give worth to.
The late Tim Keller defined worship in this way: “Worship is seeing what God is worth and giving him what he is worth.” If we understand that in Jesus we have truly found the better treasure, it will change our perspective on what sacrifice looks like. We can say with Paul that everything is a loss to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.1 We can look like Mary who poured expensive perfume on Jesus, only to be chastised for wasting something so valuable.2 We can sound like heaven itself even now, declaring “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power!”3
There are a lot of good things in this life that we treasure, and rightly so. This is by the design of the Creator. However, if we miss Jesus, we miss the better treasure. Jesus said it this way:
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? -Luke 9:25
Have you ever thought about Jesus like this?
Not just a set of beliefs to adhere to. Not a club to join. Not the alternative to a much worse destination.
Is Jesus a treasure to you?
Does he bring you great joy?
It is here that some will cry “fool’s gold!” They will say Jesus not only is not a better treasure, but he is no treasure at all. They will doubt his worth. And for many, the man in the parable above was nothing but a fool for thinking he had found something so valuable.
I end with the famous words of Jim Elliot, a missionary who was brutally killed at 28 years old bringing the gospel to Ecuador. Many would say of his life, What a waste. How could he give his life for this?
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
So, if you dig your fingers in the soil,
And find a treasure buried below,
Sell everything,
Sell all you have,
And go and buy the field.
Phil 3:8
John 12:5
Revelation 4:11a
Matt, this is such a powerful message, and I’m truly grateful I got to read it. You are absolutely right, Jesus is a treasure worth losing everything we think we need. I remember the day I finally decided to return to Him; the only thing I could feel was, “There is nothing I will withhold from You.” I had tried my own way, and there was nothing good there. So I chose to live His way instead, and it has been the best decision of my life.
If you allow me to add to your reflection, I was thinking about what the man in the parable did. It says that he bought the field. In those times (and even today), owning land was an incredibly valuable thing. Just imagine what he could plant, the animals he could care for, and how abundant his life likely became. This is also what happens when we treasure Jesus above everything else, He comes, and He brings abundance.
He is the greatest treasure 🙏