“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man has found, he hides, and for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.”
This verse comes in the middle of series of parables that Jesus was using to describe the kingdom of heaven. It portrays a man who came across treasure that someone had hidden in a field. He hid the treasure, then went and sold all that he had to buy that field. Jesus does not tell us what the treasure was, but it was surely precious for the man to put his whole livelihood on the line for it. However, we know what the treasure was that Jesus was illustrating. It was the kingdom of heaven. In this case, I will say that the treasure was the gospel of Jesus, which is our entryway into the kingdom of heaven. There are some good thoughts for us in this verse. The first thought that came to mind was that the gospel, good news, about Jesus coming to earth, dying on the cross for our sins, rising from the grave and eventually ascending to the Father is hidden treasure to many people in the world. We do not have to go to other nations to discover this. There are plenty of people in the USA who, though surrounded by churches of all descriptions, have no idea what the gospel is all about. This is why Jesus told us to “go into all the world” and spread the good news about what He has done. We can call it evangelism or missions, but it is important that we share the “hidden treasure” of the gospel with a world that is oblivious to what Jesus can offer. People think that the Bible and church are about religion and being religious. In fact, they think that those of us who believe in Jesus are odd and “on the wrong side of history,” as they are prone to say. We need to tell them that the “hidden treasure” is not about religion; rather it is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Those of us who know about this “hidden treasure” should uncover it for the multitudes around us. The second thought that came to mind was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not really hidden, but has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote about the mystery of the gospel. We usually think of a mystery as something that is unknown and that we need to try to uncover. What Paul means by mystery, however, is the reverse of this. He means that what had been a mystery in the past, was now made known through the coming of Jesus into the world. He described this for us in Colossians 1:26-28: “Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest (revealed) to His saints: 27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28. Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Jesus Christ.” We have discovered and uncovered the “hidden treasure” of the gospel, accepted it and now, like Paul, we need to share it. The gospel need not remain hidden as long as there is one Christian left in the world. The third thought that came to mind was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth everything that we have. After he discovered the treasure in the field, the man went and sold everything that he had and went and bought it. That was a valuable piece of property for the man to lay everything on the line as he did. This means that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth everything that we have as well. Jesus told the “rich young ruler” that what he needed to do was sell all that he had, give it to the poor and follow Him. We will not have to sell everything that we have, but we need to surrender to the Lord whatever it is that is holding us back from either finding the gospel or sharing it with the world. What are you willing to surrender in order to discover and/or share the “hidden treasure”? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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