The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

[Minh]

Greeting,


I have a question concerning the meaning of the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. Some people insist that the parable is often misinterpreted as the believer quest to abandon all worldly and sinful things of this world to obtain the true and everlasting treasure: Jesus Christ. Instead, the actual meaning should be about Christ as the man who purchase the His people as the treasure.

What is your take on this?

Text:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." (Matthew 13:44, NASB)

 

[Minh]

*Bump*

 

[Jonathan95]

It literally calls the kingdom the treasure. Not the people.

I agree with Matthew Poole's commentary:


Matthew 13:44

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.


Whatsoever belongeth to the kingdom of God, whether the word, which is called the word of the kingdom, or the grace and favour of God, which he by me dispenses out under the administration of the gospel, is like, that is, should be adjudged, esteemed, and used like as
treasure hid in a field.

Men should do by it as they would do upon the discovery of a great sum of money, buried up in the earth, in some field not yet their own. Suppose a man had made some such discovery, what would he do?
He would rejoice at it, he would hide it, he would sell all he had and buy that field.
So should men do to whom there is a revelation of the gospel, and the grace thereof; they should inwardly rejoice in the revelation, and bless God for it, and, whatever it cost them, labour that they might be made partakers of that grace.

Earthly possessions cannot be had without purchasing, and those who have not ready money to purchase with must raise it from the sale of something which they have; therefore our labour for the kingdom of heaven is set out under the notion of buying.

But the prophet, {Isaiah 55:1,2} let us know that it is a buying without money and without price. However, there is some resemblance, for as in buying and selling there is a parting with something that is ours, in exchange for something which is another’s, so in order to the obtaining of the grace of the gospel, and the kingdom of glory, to which the remission of sins leadeth, we must part with something in order to the obtaining of it. We have no ready money, nothing by us, that is a quid pro quo, a valuable price for Divine grace; we must therefore part with something that we have, and it is no matter what it be, which God requireth.
Where this discovery is made, the soul will part with all it hath, not only its old heart, its unlawful desires and lusts, but its riches, honours, and pleasures, if it can by no other means obtain the kingdom of heaven, that it may obtain it; they are all of no value to it.
Nor is it at all necessary in order to buying, that the thing parted with be of a proportionable, value. Amongst men, wedges of gold have been purchased for knives and rattles, &c; nor doth any thing we can part with, that we may obtain the kingdom of heaven, bear any better proportion; yet it is a buying, because it is what God is pleased to accept, and upon the parting with gives us this heavenly kingdom.

 

[Jack K]

Minh, both of the points you propose are valid.

The most obvious meaning is that the value of the kingdom of heaven far exceeds anything of this world, and that when we see this we will gladly give up the world's treasures to belong instead to Christ. As Jesus will say later, "No one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will fail to receive a hundred times as much" (Matthew 19:29). This fits naturally within the surrounding parables, which are about the difference between the true followers of Christ and those who only look like followers. True followers are those who discover the treasure of the kingdom, see its value, and give up everything for it.

But this is a hard teaching, isn't it? We struggle to truly give up everything for Christ. So, as with any hard teaching, one of our great encouragements is to see that Jesus never calls us to follow where he has not first gone himself. This means it is good for us also to see that the parable shows us the heart of Christ. He too gave up everything—his very life!—for the kingdom he was ushering in. "For the joy set before him, he endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2). So as we come to this parable we also fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith this parable is about.

The great joy of the kingdom of heaven is that we gain Christ and he gains us. It is joy for both us and him. It is worth casting off everything else, for us as it also was for him.