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"All Depends on Our Possessing...." (The preached version is better.) Text:
Matthew 13:44-52 Three final parables wrap up Jesus' teaching about the reign of God in Matthew 13. The traditional interpretation of these parables sees Christ and his salvation as the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great price worth more than anything else in life. And certainly we have and could continue to speak about Jesus and his salvation as a treasure of great value. I've always felt a little uncomfortable, however, when you talk about the Christian as the man and the merchant who found the treasure and the pearl, then going and selling all that he has in order to buy the field and the pearl. You don't buy Jesus or his salvation. It is certainly not wrong to say that this means salvation and faith is the most important possession and is worth more than anything and everything. One does “have” faith, the hand that grasps the promises of God. “All depends on our possessing God's free grace and constant blessing, Though all earthly wealth depart” says the old hymn.
In parables, however, the protagonist is always God. Look at the parables in this chapter for a moment and notice that in the parable of the sower, the sower is God. In the parable of the wheat and the weeds, again the man who sowed the good seed is “the Son of Man.” In the parable of the mustard seed the sower is God. And in the parable of the leaven the woman is God. This being the case, then, let's look at today's parables in possibly the reverse way we have usually looked at them, where the man and merchant who finds the treasure and the pearl is God. For, as I said in the introductory paragraph in your service folder, “Who really finds who when it comes to God's gift of salvation?”
There's another hint that this may be a more helpful direction as we notice today's Old Testament reading. Who is the treasured possession there but God's people? “The Lord your God has chosen you…the Lord set his love on you and chose you…the Lord has brought you out and redeemed you” [Dt. 7:6-8 (ESV)]. And again, in today's Epistle, it is you, the Christian, that is called, predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” [Romans 8:31 (ESV)]. So let's look at today's parables through the eyes that see that it is the Christian that is God's treasure and pearl. After all, remember how Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” [Matthew 10:29-31 (ESV)].
Therefore, the reign and saving activity of God is like a man finding treasure hidden in a field and buying it. We do not seek God. He must come seeking us. And that's what he has done and is doing today. He sent his only Son, taking on our human form of his mother Mary. He came to “redeem” the world. The word “redeem” means, literally, to “buy something back by paying the price of its slavery.” So the man and the merchant who “in his joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field and that pearl” points us to the total sacrifice of Christ to pay the price of our slavery to sin and thus release the world and ourselves from our bondage to sin and death. Christ “sold all that he had.” What did he have? As the Son of God “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, upholding the universe by the word of his power” [Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)]. Nevertheless, “though he was in the form of God, (he) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” [Philippians 2:6-8 (ESV)]. Having paid this price for the life of the world, God has established his original ownership of his creation, once stolen by the rebellion of the devil, now redeemed, saved, reclaimed and renewed.
These parables are meant for our comfort and encouragement, especially when it seems that things are not going so well for us or for Christ's kingdom. We are reminded that the reign of God begins, continues and will be fulfilled by God's powerful Word alone. The reign of God often is hidden to our eyes and contradicted by the world. Nevertheless, do not doubt the great love of God for you his treasured possession. For He has found you and ransomed you “from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” [1 Peter 1:18-19 (ESV)].
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.” Just as in the parable of the wheat and the weeds which are allowed to grow together until the harvest when God will sort it all out in the end, so, as when men sort the good fish into containers but throw away the bad, so the angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous. From beginning to end your salvation is the work of God making you his treasured possession solely because the Lord loves you.
I always get a little chuckle when I read the end of Matthew 13 when Jesus asks his disciples, ‘Have you understood all these things?” and they say go him, “Sure!” I don't think they really did, completely. And neither do we. But they would as he was training them to bring this message of salvation to the whole world rightly dividing the Word of Truth, Law and Gospel. The understanding required for salvation is that of the simple trust of faith in his Word. The understanding required for being an apostle, a pastor, a teacher, an evangelist is of a little higher level for the purpose of seeking other souls whom God treasures. As I am finally able to announce, our former Director of Christian Education has been trained for the kingdom of God through our Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and has (finally) received his first call as a pastor in The Evangelical Lutheran Church to Faith Lutheran Church in Dexter, Missouri. We rejoice and thank and praise God, and pray his continued blessings on Mike as with the blessing of the Book of Daniel, “those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” [Daniel 12:3 (ESV)]. All depends on our possessing God's free grace and constant blessing. And all depends on God possessing us, He who has redeemed you, bought you back from the slavery of sin and death, forgiven you all your sins, clothed you with his own white robe of Christ's righteousness so that you will also shine forever in the eternal mansions of heaven. ___________________
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