 |
spent1002
"The Great Worth of the Kingdom"
Text: Matthew 13:44-52
Date: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 
7/28/02
I trust you've seen the various commercials
for the MasterCard® charge card. Each begins by listing a number
of expenses, like at a baseball game: the price of tickets, the
program and score book, hot dogs and drinks. Then it ends, "spending
an afternoon at the ball park with your son: priceless. Some things
are worth more than money. For everything else there's MasterCard®."
It seems that we are able, to some extent, to see the difference
between incidental things and details and our higher values. Nevertheless,
there are times when we put so much emphasis on the details that
we can lose sight of and forget the higher things.
How easily do we forget or take for granted
what we have gathered here again today to celebrate-the marvelous
grace and salvation of God? At the end of the 13th chapter of Matthew's
Gospel, we have three final parables of our Lord by means of which
he seeks to remind us of the great, priceless worth of the Kingdom
he came to bring. These reminders are in parable form not only that
we may remember them, but because we need the gifts and working
of God the Holy Spirit, that faith be given and strengthened to
understand, to grasp and to hold on to God's grace and salvation.
From the parables of the treasure hidden in
the field, the pearl of great price and the net, we take three details:
the hidden ness of the Kingdom, it's surpassingly great worth and
value, and, finally, how like a net the Kingdom catches us and not
the other way around.
The Kingdom of God is a hidden treasure, and
the Treasure is Christ. He is the priceless Treasure because Jesus
is the only bringer of salvation through the forgiveness of sins.
Unfortunately, people do not always realize that sin is the problem
unless and until the Holy Spirit works through the Word of God's
Law convicting us of our sin and need of forgiveness. The hardest
words for anyone to say are the words, "I was wrong." Nevertheless,
such a confession is the necessary first step to finding the Treasure
of forgiveness.
The Kingdom of the Treasure of Christ is hidden
in a field. The field is the world. That it is hidden is not because
God wants to play games with us. He's deadly serious about his love
for his world, his love for you. Actually, the Kingdom of God is
in plain sight. It's only from our perspective that it appears to
be hidden. That, of course, is because, as St. Paul says,
"'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him'-
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things
freely given us by God.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to
understand them because they are spiritually discerned"
[1 Cor. 2:9-10, 12-14 (ESV)]. battelnet warcraft
|
Because no sinner can behold the face of God
directly and live, God communicates through means. He appeared to
Moses in the burning bush and to wandering Israel in a pillar of
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In many and various
ways God spoke to his people by the prophets. But now in these last
days he has spoken to us by his Son. He speaks to us through the
words he caused to be written through his holy prophets, apostles
and evangelists. He gives his gifts of faith, forgiveness and salvation
through Holy Absolution, through preaching, through Holy Baptism
and the Lord's Supper. These "things" can be seen with the eye and
heard with the ear. But the rule of God's grace through these means
can be perceived only by faith alone.
The Kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a
field. Secondly, Christ is the pearl of great price because of who
he is and what he has done. Old Israel was divided about who Jesus
is. Some believed him to be the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah.
Others did not. To this day only those who acknowledge him as who
he really is-God-come-in-the-flesh, true God and true Man-are the
true Israel. Even Islam accords Jesus of Nazareth a certain place
of honor; but only that of a human prophet. In recent days we are
seeing Jesus being placed like a plasticine statue along side other
gods, idols and good luck charms. And if anyone is so bold as to
state that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life (as he,
himself said), why, you're considered nothing but a hate-filled,
close-minded bigot.
Jesus is the Priceless Treasure also because
he alone is the perfect sacrifice for sin. All the Old Testament
animal sacrifices were valid and effective only because they pointed
forward to this one, perfect sacrifice. Because he is the sinless
Son of God and the sinless Son of Mary, his death was not for himself,
but for the life of the world. Solely because of his sacrificial,
atoning death does God now look upon his world, look upon you and
says, "whoever believes in the Person and Work of my beloved Son
and is baptized into his death shall be saved."
The Kingdom of God is hidden but to the eyes
of faith. Jesus Christ is the Treasure and Pearl of great price
because of who he is and what he has done. Finally, the parable
of the Net says that this great gift of forgiveness and Eternal
Life in the Kingdom of God comes to us from God. Nets catch things;
they are not caught. Just when we thought we had to seek out the
treasure of God's Kingdom, we discover, in the final analysis that
the treasure actually finds us. It's not as much our seeking God
as it is God seeking us. In his Word shared and witnessed and preached
God seeks us out and calls our attention to the treasure he has
prepared for us in his Son.
We could say that the Net is his Church: for
| |
