Thought experiment. Think for a moment. Close your eyes if you want. And ponder. What’s your greatest treasure?
Be honest. What the one thing you can’t live without?
Some people probably thought of a loved one, or their family. Some might have said something like, “my health.”
Still others are a little more pious, and since a pastor is asking this question, probably would answer something like, “my faith” or even “Jesus Christ!”
Maybe if we are a little more self-critical, and in a mood of confession, we might admit that something else takes the top spot at times. Maybe our treasure is... our treasure, our stock portfolio or net worth. Maybe our dream house or dream car. Maybe its even the little device we seem so tethered to these days.
Or maybe even deeper, we might admit that my real treasure is... me. Myself. My own wants and needs and desires, sinful and twisted as they may be. My own pride and pleasure. My own sense of importance.
On one level, today’s parables – and there are 4 of them here in our Gospel reading – they call us to consider the idea of our treasures. Where do we place value in this life? What is worth selling everything you have in order to obtain? What do you keep, and what do you let go of?
And do we adhere to the values we aspire to? Do we act like the most important things are really the most important? If someone was looking over your shoulder and studying you all day for a week, what would THEY conclude is most valuable to you? What is your treasure? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
This might, indeed, it should lead us to conviction and confession. It’s a first commandment issue, isn’t it? Have no other Gods before me. We are guilty. It’s a call to repent. And turn again to Christ for grace and forgiveness.
But there’s more here than just that.
If you turn the parable around and look from a different angle, there is great comfort. And if you pair it with our other readings today, new light shines on this idea of what is treasured and valued.
In Deuteronomy, God reminds the Israelites that they are “holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession” And by faith, we, too are holy, and chosen, and treasured. God sets us apart: believers, the church, the New Israel, and makes us a holy people by the blood of Christ.
Romans makes it even more clear. God has valued, treasured you so much and so highly, that “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
In other words, God the Father gave his best and brightest, his only begotten Son, his eternal and beloved treasure – and gave him up for us. That’s how much he has treasured us, valued us. Paid the price to redeem and justify us!
Christ himself laid down his life on the cross, shed his holy, precious blood, to redeem us – not with gold or silver. But with his life. His innocent suffering and death. That I may be his own, and live under him in his kingdom... forever.
And so the man who sells all he has, to purchase the field of treasure, or the pearly of great price, that man is Christ. And you are the treasure!
Like last week’s parable of the weeds, today’s parable of the net reminds us that God will sort out the believers and unbelievers in the end. And the comfort is this – we that belong to him in Christ, he will keep. He will preserve. He will set us apart for our final reward – all the treasures of heaven.
And then finally we have this little parable about the scribe who, like the master of a house, sets forth treasures new and old.
Like the master of the house, showing off his old and new treasures, so is the scribe, or the teacher of God’s word. So is the one who holds forth the treasures of the kingdom for the people to see.
When we hear a sermon, it’s much the same way. The preacher holds up some treasure – some scriptural truth, some insight about Christ, some promise of the the Gospel – and says, “hey, look at this! Isn’t this great!” He points you to the cross, and to Christ, and says, “remember this! Look what he’s done for you!”
Even God’s law is a treasure in that it provides valuable teaching for us – both in how we should live – and in diagnosing our sins. Thus we are prepared to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, our greatest treasure, who has so treasured us!
I’m sure most of us have been, at one time or another, to an antique store. There’s a big one I like down on 377 in Watauga. The older you are, the more likely you’ve had this experience. You’re going through the aisles, looking at all these old items. And then you see something that strikes a chord, brings back some memory and sense of nostalgia. I would show my kids, “hey - see that china pattern? Those are the exact plates we had when I was a kid” or “see this gameboy? That’s what we all played on before there were smart phones” or “This old record – we played this music at my wedding” and so on...
These old treasures are valuable – not so much in and of themselves, but in what they mean to us. So too with Christ. He finds you, and immediately values you. Not because of anything in you, but because of his amazing grace. Just like most people wouldn’t pay much for old plates or an obsolete electronic game, but to me, they’re treasures.
So in Christ, God treasures you. So Christ, in his great love treasures you. So we, in grateful response, treasure him, and especially the message of the Gospel, the preaching of Christ crucified, the forgiveness that is found in him, and delivered to us in the font and at the altar. Thanks be to God, for treasures old and new. And for making us his own people, his prized possession. In Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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