“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” Matthew 13:44
My Summary & Reflection
In this parable, “the kingdom of heaven” is compared to a treasure hidden in a field. When a man finds the treasure, he hides it and joyfully sells all that he has in order to buy that field.
When I first envisioned the treasure, I thought of a treasure chest like in pirate movies, filled with gold, diamonds, and rubies that had been buried underground. When I thought about it this way, though, I wondered why not remove the chest and buy the treasure directly? Then, I reframed my thought to something a bit less portable. I thought then that treasure itself must’ve been something that was ingrained within the field itself – like oil or precious minerals in the ground. Whatever the treasure was, the man believed it to be worth all that he had. He went away and joyfully sold all that he had in order to buy that treasure-filled field.
In this way, I believe that Jesus is telling us that the kingdom of heaven is a treasure that is worth all of our earthly possessions. Also, in order to have it, we have to be willing to joyfully give up those possessions. We can’t have both the treasure and what we had before we found it.
The other part of this parable that I want to explore is the phrase, “for joy thereof”. I take this to mean that the man was pleased and excited to be able exchange all that he owned in order to buy this treasure-filled field. To me, that means that he clearly believed that the value of that treasure greatly exceeded what he currently had. The parable didn’t say that he fearfully sold all that he had, or with great reservation sold all that he had, but he did so with joy and confidence that this was clearly the right call for him.
This parable tells me that the kingdom of heaven is a greater and a better thing than anything that we have experienced so far. It is a treasure so great that we should not only be willing, but excited, grateful, and certain about trading all that we have here on earth for it. That is the cost of the kingdom; that is what is required – all that we have and we should be joyful in paying.
Your Reflection
- What are you willing to trade for the kingdom?
- Are you as certain as the man in this parable, or do you have fear or reservations? Why?