Title: Treasure Hunt
Date: 2007-09-30
Reference: Matthew 13: 44-46
The last couple of years Hollywood has done very well with pirate movies featuring, of course, buried treasure. Finding hidden treasure has always been a big business. I’ve heard about expeditions to find sunken Spanish ship wrecks full of treasure, gold hidden by the Confederate Government, and many other hidden treasures waiting to make a person wealthy. I receive spam regularly from people who claim to have a lead on a treasure. They’ve found a map, stumbled across a hidden treasure. All they need is some seed money to help them fund the project.
We all enjoy buried treasure stories. One of my favorite comes from the turn of the 18th century when Charles IV was King of Spain. He sensed correctly that the French emperor, Napoleon, could not be stopped. He made a decision concerning his priceless collection of antique clocks and the Spanish Crown Jewels. He had a trusted servant bury the clock collection in the wall of one of the 365 rooms of the royal palace. He had him bury the crown jewels of Spain the walls of another of the 365 rooms.
The trusted servant cut a piece of fabric from the draperies in each of those rooms just in case the Spanish monarchy was ever restored. Charles was right. Napoleon invaded and placed his brother Joseph on the throne. In 1814 the son of Charles was made King. The first thing he wanted to do was find the crown jewels. But there was a problem. Joseph Napoleon had been something of an interior decorator and he changed the draperies in every one of the rooms of the royal palace. The new king faced a choice. Tear the bricks out of 365 rooms or let it be.
For many years everyone assumed this was just a legend until a few decades ago a plumber working on some pipes in one of the rooms of the palace found the antique clock collection. Someday, someone digging through the walls of that palace may uncover a hidden treasure, the only lost crown jewels of Europe.
Jesus told two parables about treasure. In one story a man plowing is surprised by hidden treasure. In the other story a pearl merchant is seeking a treasure and finds something better than he ever imagined finding. In both instances Jesus compared the treasure hunt to the Kingdom of God.
An old catechism teaches we were created for a personal relationship with God, a friendship with God. I’ve always believed each of us will be restless until we find rest in God. We will never be fully satisfied until God is the center of our being. This relationship with God is the treasure we are all seeking. Some people find it suddenly, unexpectedly. Others find it after a long, deliberate, intentional search. When we find the peace and purpose of such a relationship we should let nothing at all stand in the way of our receiving it.
The sermons of the last few weeks have been inspired by the Fruit of the Spirit Passage in the 5th chapter of Galatians which says: “God’s spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self controlled.” When we are enjoying a friendship with God and God’s spirit comes to live in us, our lives display this fruit.
Today’s reading from the Bible gives two ways we are on a treasure hunt. Some of us are surprised finders of the Spirit of God in our lives. We weren’t looking for it.
One morning when we were least expecting it we stumbled on the peace, purpose, and joy of a relationship. Others of us have been serious seekers after something meaningful in life and we find something better than we’re seeking.the peace, purpose, and joy of a relationship with God. Whether you are a surprised finder or a serious seeker, the moment of decision is the same for all of us. Will we finally accept the relationship with God, God has been offering through Jesus Christ?
Jesus describes a plowman slumped over with fatigue at the end of a long day. He had been plowing in a Palestinian field. He has been there all day. All he wants to do is collect his pay and go home. Suddenly the plow strikes something and he finds a ceramic jar full of treasure. He buries the jar, goes to the land owner quits his job. He sells everything he has in order to buy that field. This seems a bit dishonest. The Rabbis had a teaching in that day and age that said “If you found a buried treasure, it’s yours. Finders Keepers.” In Jesus’ day buried treasures were regularly found. Palestine was a land bridge between Egypt and the other great empires. When your country was invaded you hid your treasure in the ground. Much of us was never recovered. Some men in the late 1800's were digging up a garden in the city of Sidon and found a copper pot full of gold coins. They tried to cover it up but were so happy they couldn’t keep quiet. The may of the city recovered the coins.
What is Jesus saying in this parable about your life? Jesus is saying that some of you will be surprised by the sudden discovery of the reign of Christ in your life. You weren’t expecting it, you aren’t looking for it, you didn’t intend to find it. But you are surprised by the joy of a relationship with Christ.
In the Bible, (Romans 10:20) God says: “I was found by those who were not seeking me. I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.” The last thing you may have expected as you got out of bed this morning was that you would be surprised by hidden treasure and that life could and would be very different. The pages of the Bible are full of people whose lives were suddenly and unexpectedly changed forever by the coming of Christ. The Shepherds abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Suddenly there was a heavenly army singing about glory to God. The shepherds went to see Jesus, surprised by a treasure they weren’t even seeking.
The good news for anyone of us is that at any moment we can be surprised by hidden treasure in the person of Jesus Christ. We can be seized by joy. C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled Surprised by Joy relating his unexpected conversion. The man in the parable sells everything he has because he is overwhelmed with joy. The word of the Gospel is this: You can be suddenly surprised in finding a relationship with God and it’s like finding hidden treasure.
The second parable describes a pearl merchant. His work was to actively search for find pearls. In Jesus’ day Pearls were the greatest gem stone. Pearls were the most precious stones. One historian tells us Cleopatra had two pearls worth four millions dollars. Julius Caesar bought his mother a pearl worth 350k. The merchant found a pearl unlike any he had ever seen. It was a perfect pearl and he knew he had to have this pearl of great price. He had been searching for it and finally he found it. He was willing to liquidate everything in order to purchase this one pearl. No price could be put on this pearl. It was the pearl the merchant had sought for a lifetime.
In 1917 New York socialite traded her 5th Ave. Mansion for a million dollar stand of perfect, natural pearls. The merchant in Jesus’ story did the same. He traded everything fort one pearl. He found what he wanted and more.
Jesus knows there are people in life who are actively searching for meaning. They study religions, philosophies, seeking meaning and purpose. People seek to fill the emptiness they feel deep down in their souls. They know life has to be more than they are experiencing. There has to be a reason for it all. There must be purpose for living. Again we were created for a relationship with God. Only in relationship with Jesus will we find the meaning we are searching for.
Again the Bible tells of many people who were seeking and who found. Simeon waited at the temple in Jerusalem for years waiting for God to do something. He was about to die when suddenly Joseph. and Mary brought their baby boy, Jesus, to the Temple. Simeon took Jesus into his arms and realized Jesus was the reason he had been waiting.
We seek satisfaction in careers, possessions, money, education, power, and entertainment. Nothing seems to satisfy. Ecclesiastes says its like chasing the wind. A young man and his wife were on the fast track socially in a large city. The social season was about to begin and they went to a wealthy matriarch and asked to borrow a strand of pearls she owned. They thought wearing this necklace would help them climb the social ladder. The matriarch reluctantly loaned the pearls. While the pearls were in the possession of this couple they were stolen. They went to a pearl merchant and had him craft a passable substitute for what they had lost.
They mortgaged everything they had and borrowed all they could borrow and faced lifetime of trying to cover up for the disaster. Years later as the matriarch was dying the guilt stricken young woman, now in the middle of life confessed they had never returned the real pearls only a replica. The old lady raised up from her death bed and said: “You fools. No one ever loans the real things. Those were paste pearls. Cometic jewelry. You’ve wasted your life. Jesus says don’t waste your life seeking cosmetic jewels.
The plowman and the merchant decided to put everything on the table that stood between them and treasure. We should do the same. No matter if we are blind sided by the truth or find the truth after a long and deliberate search. The truth is this.We were created for a relationship with God. This relationship is made possible through Jesus Christ. We will never, ever, be satisfied until we are enjoying this friendship with God. Nothing should stand in our way of enjoying this treasure.
