Christian Art | Parables Of Jesus | Kingdom Of Heaven | Pearl Of Great Price
Matthew 13: 44-53 | Week 17 Wednesday & Thursday (King James Audio Bible KJV)
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.
45 ¶ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
47 ¶ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
51 Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
52 Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
53 ¶ And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.
The three parables follow one upon another, and they are addressed in Matthew’s Gospel to the disciples, rather than to the crowds. The parables of the hidden treasure and of the pearl clearly develop upon the same theme, and then the parable of the net follows and expands upon their meaning, magnifying it, while also relating to the disciples’ apostolic mission. We are taught through each parable of the supreme value of the gift of grace and of the Kingdom, and also of judgement, the rightful valuing of our gifts such that we live in accordance with God’s will.
In the parables of the hidden treasure and of the pearl, the man searching the field and the merchant both find a precious treasure which is so far beyond all that they currently possess, such that they sell all they have in order to acquire their jewel.
Nothing that has gone before matters in comparison to what they have found. They may have laboured and traded for years, all their life, but now they have found the gift of God. The man working the field may have stumbled upon his gift; the merchant may always have longed and sought for it. Both must give away everything in order to be able to be with this new treasure.
Jesus tells us that all our lives’ work, as we struggle and trade and labour and compete, are as nothing in comparison to the gift of heaven. We are warned that we could become so attached to what we have struggled to achieve in the field and the market place, that we might not sell all we have. The response of the men in the parables is a guide to us: nothing that we have achieved through our trade, through our labour, can compare to the gift Christ brings to us; we are to give all such attachments away, to become unattached to our worldly position and possessions, to give away all attachments in order to focus wholly on our true life, the hidden treasure, the precious pearl. We are to stake everything to obtain this prize.
The parable of the net builds upon these messages. God’s net is cast into the sea. We are all drawn from the sea within the net. The good will be retained; the bad will be cast away.
We are to ask, then, when we are drawn into the net, have we given everything away to have with us the hidden treasure or the precious pearl? Are we wholly dedicated to God, or have we refused to give everything to be with him? Have our lives been wholly focused on God, or have we kept something back – whether attachment to money, or the things that money can buy, or to worldly prestige, or to some other state of mind, such as a clinging to pride, or some sexual activity, or self-regard, gluttony, jealousy, envy, anger… Or have we just been too busy? Whatever the excuse might be.
Christ’s message is overwhelmingly this: the pearl, the hidden treasure, can be our own. This is treasure that is new and also old: the truth of Christ’s message holds for all times, and we can all be scribes sharing this message. All we have to do is give God everything. All we have to do is give God all.
‘For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ 2 Corinthians 10: 3-5
King James Audio Bible | Endnote
Why did Jesus speak in parables?
Jesus spoke in parables as a teaching tool to impart wisdom, challenge listeners, and provoke thought.
- To teach moral lessons: Jesus used parables to convey complex moral and spiritual truths in a simple and memorable way.
- To challenge listeners: The parables often contained surprising twists or reversals, which challenged listeners to question their own assumptions and beliefs.
- To reveal truths to some, but hide them from others: Jesus explained to his disciples that while the parables would reveal truth to those who were receptive to it, they would remain obscure to those who were not.
- To provoke thought: The parables were designed to be thought-provoking and to encourage listeners to reflect on their own lives and beliefs.
What does the word parable mean?
The word parable comes from the Greek word parabole, which means comparison. In a religious context, a parable is a simple story or illustration used to explain a spiritual or moral lesson. The purpose of a parable is to help make abstract concepts or teachings more accessible and understandable to the listener.
Psalm 132, of the Songs of Ascents, is significant especially in Christian tradition. For Christians, this psalm not only recounts a devotional history of King David but also serves as a prophetic foretelling of Jesus Christ, seen as fulfilment of the Davidic covenant [ … ]
‘Death,’ says His Grace, ‘throws it all apart. For we are not as we should be. Faith requires our adjustment to God’s truth. God’s triumph in a very real sense requires in us the loss of our everything. Which, as with Mary at the other end of Jesus’s life, is God’s truth.’ The Gospel reading is of John 11: 1-45, which is a long passage, and His Grace’s homiletic theme commences in textual wilderness. Our brokenness – in this place – a family home. Our faith, our doubt, our death… The irruption – death, doubt, fear – within our precious scenes and our most intimate places. Our domesticity. His Grace speaks from the chair, as is a bishop’s prerogative, and says: ‘So much is obscure in the Gospels. We’re always reaching through them. We’re never there. Really, we never are. Our knowledge, our understanding, of the Gospels is never complete, and with each reading comes a new revelation. There are always new riches there. Just as there are between all of us, between myself and you. The Gospels are living texts. This is a part of the conversation we have with our own Christianity. It is a part of who we are in our relationship with Jesus. We are in this sense always on the brink. ‘So yes, there is plenty that doesn’t seem to make sense. As one of the order of bishops, we would be lying if we said that weren’t the case. They are not easy texts to encounter, if by that word we may signify something more than a superficial glancing off against, but rather a profound search for the word of God. The Gospels are written by people who had their own ideas, and often didn’t know what had really happened. Luke is quite explicit on this point. His is an investigation, from the explicitly claimed point of view of an historian, rather than that of a first-hand witness, who attempts, so he says, to set out an orderly account, out of the chaos, the sheer muddle, that has been handed down to him. It is possible to imagine Luke researching and composing his account after many years, when there has arisen a desire to know what exactly happened, and this implies a certain call to faith and certain demands of historicity, to historical exactitude. So in these different ways, the people of the first years of Christian faith are in the dark. There is also a decisive need to define the life of Jesus. And people didn’t get Jesus. The whole meaning of Christianity is only now beginning to take root throughout the composition. So much needs to be evangelized. The light shines almost in tentative fashion like that first star, which drew the wise men from the east to our Lord’s cradle. ‘John’s is widely held to be a very late Gospel. There are others who say that John’s Gospel might have been the first to acquire its true shape, because it most fully expresses Jesus, as we know him to be, as members of the Catholic Church. We don’t really know when any of this is being written, but we get a feel in John of a Gospel refined over many years, through a community. So there’s a lot going on there that I’d like you to think about. ‘What I would like to suggest to you is that, while within the Gospels we are often confronted with clues, guesswork, stories that have been handed down through so many people, and so in this sense we might find ourselves to be in the wilderness, this is the very desolate space itself to which we must give ourselves in order to experience Christ’s full redemption in our lives. I suggest it is for God’s glory that we do so. ‘As we become aware of ourselves, in this seminary, we find ourselves in a very secure, comfortable setting, and there are signs of Easter everywhere. Within the very fabric of these buildings, our Lord is risen; our Lord lives. But now this is our Lenten journey, where death enters, where death breaks us. We are to ride into Jerusalem in triumph, and then we are to be utterly broken, all hope gone, our hope extinguished. And really, I suggest to you, it is only by inhabiting this thought, as if we don’t know Easter is there, that our new life can follow, just when we have given up all hope, when every promise that Jesus made to us seems to have been cancelled. ‘And here now we have the story of Lazarus. I should like to suggest to you that we have a very powerful call now. In our very comfortable space, our domesticity, with all this comfort, where so very little might seem to happen each day, so it might seem to you, there is a disturbance within all of this comfort, and that is a disturbance within ourselves, and that is our call to Jesus. I think it is correct to say that our most comfortable places break in the light of Jesus from the inside, in order that we may take the necessary steps to be with Jesus. ‘Faith is not comfortable. 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