Living Stones – Thursday, October 19, 2017
Finders, keepers
Matthew 13:44
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
In this parable to answer the question – What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? We encounter a man who finds a treasure in a field and quickly changes his assets structure.
Let us quickly handle some of the obvious questions that the parable raises. Who owned the field? We don’t know, but we know that is wasn’t owned by the man who is at the centre of our story. What was this man doing in a field he didn’t own? We don’t know, some are quick to assume that he was at work but that cannot be established for sure. Whose treasure was it? We don’t know, we know that it wasn’t the man at the centre of our story, we could also guess that it wasn’t the current owner of the field because he wouldn’t have sold his field with his own buried treasure. This is a simple case of finders, keepers.
Finders, keepers. This seems like a ridiculous basis on which Jesus should build a model of the Kingdom of Heaven for us to emulate. However, we should keep in mind that parables were not designed to have all of its sub elements fit neatly into some analytical tool. Rather, the parables were design to teach an overarching truth. What then is the overarching truth to be learned here. The second thing to remember is that the original audience often had different reactions at the time the parable was told compared to us taking a long look back with the space to over-analyze.
To Jesus’ audience in Palestine at the time, the law and the traditions were what governed their conduct and practices. The Jewish traditions was one of finders, keepers. There did not exist the capacity for the level of modern investigation and science to determine ownership. Second, the Roman law held sway and ancient Roman law expressed, in several ways, this idea that, “when something is unowned or abandoned, whoever finds it first can claim it.”
So, let us come back to the essence of the parable that Jesus told and identify the overarching lesson that Jesus was teaching His hearers. A man found a treasure and, having found it, staked everything he owned in order to acquire the field for himself to secure the found treasure.
This man didn’t take the risk of attempting to hold on to the treasure without establishing some legal right to it by first acquiring the field. This man didn’t take a cheap way out to the treasure that would cost him nothing but spent all that he had to secure the treasure he had found.
Jesus warned His hearers then, and us now, to consider that to lay hold of the Kingdom of Heaven, the treasure, requires that we take deliberate action to establish a legitimate claim to in and to ensure that we secure it by making the sacrifices necessary to hold on to it.
These ideas, of being deliberate about our approach to the Kingdom of God, and of making the necessary sacrifices for it, are not in keeping with much of the contemporary Christian practice. Much involvement with, and participation in, the Kingdom is merely at the convenience of the Christian who has many competing priorities which we are expected to understand.
Priorities are important. A person operating without setting priorities and then focusing on them is not likely to have control over what they accomplish, if they accomplish anything at all. Today’s challenge is that the Kingdom of God is often not on our list of priorities for focus, attention, and sacrifice.
To lay hold of the Kingdom of God requires that we recognise that this is a treasure to be secured not just by mouthed claims, but by actual actions and sacrifice to secure it as the most valuable of our possessions.
Think on these things:
- Do you have an organised list of priorities that you are working on now?
- How do you determine which things are to be at the top of your list of priorities?
- Do the things of the Kingdom of God feature on your priorities, if so where do Kingdom things fall?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would not fail to lay hold of the Kingdom of God by failing to make it a priority in our lives.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex