“Hidden Treasure”
Original sermon given July 30, 2023, written and delivered by Pastor Jeffrey Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church
Watch the sermon live.
“Hidden Treasure”
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Matthew 13:31-33, 42-52
In the name of the Living God and the Risen Christ.
Our Lord employed the most common analogies to bring the most profound truths to life for his disciples. As brilliant as this was, the first challenge for modern hearers of these parables is that the analogies and images drawn from common life in the first century are no longer common for most of us. When was the last time you planted a mustard seed? Or made homemade bread from real yeast? Hardly any of us deal as precious pearl wholesalers. Most of us fish for fun, not for our livelihood. And we’re probably more likely to “bury” treasure in hidden offshore accounts than in a nearby field.
Nevertheless, some of the biblical images from God’s word still stir the 21st century North American imagination. For example, what comes to mind when I say “hidden treasure”? Perhaps it’s one of those Nicholas Cage movies where he unearths some national secret in a basement archive. Or maybe you prefer Indiana Jones searching the desert for biblical artifacts. I know a lot of the ladies like Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. For you literary types, there’s the classic 19th century novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson— one of the most dramatized and adapted literary works of the past two centuries, from which all popular impressions of pirates are derived. At least in my life, the phrase “hidden treasure” still grabs the imagination—more so even than a big haul of fish or a beautiful bush with birds in it.
So I have to tell you my story about “hidden treasure.” When I was a boy, we used to go camping along the St. Croix River on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. A beautiful little island sat nestled in the river across from a sandbar near the campground. The name of the island was “Pirates Island”—at least that’s what my mom told us it was called. She used to tell us stories about the hidden treasure buried near the secret cove on the far side of the island. My brothers and I were convinced that somehow real pirates had made their way from the Seven Salty Seas, paddled 1,500 miles upstream through the winding Mississippi, and floated into the St. Croix. (A little unrealistic, but you know the imagination of youngsters. Free Pirate jokes after church!)
Now let me ask you something: what would you have done as a youngster camping near Pirates Island? That’s right! You’d get yourself over to that island and dig around for that hidden treasure. You’d do everything you could to find that secret cove.
And that’s just what we did: we built rafts, we borrowed canoes, we swam. (It almost sounds like the plot to a reality TV show. Very dangerous. Don’t try this at home.)
In the kingdom parables Jesus tells a straightforward message about hidden treasure. A man comes across a hidden treasure in a field, then goes and sells all he has to purchase that field. Jesus’ point concerns the kingdom: do whatever you can to seek it, secure it, uncover it. The Kingdom of Heaven is of such value, it is so precious that it should consume us and we should be willing to sacrifice so much to obtain it.
Certainly, Jesus is not saying that we can earn his kingdom, apart from his Grace: the man stumbles upon a treasure hidden in a field; the merchant happens upon the Pearl of Great Price. But once we know about it or are told about its value or behold its worth or have shared its mysteries, then all else we have is worthless compared to it.
It reminds me of St. Paul’s words in Philippians 3: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him…”
Paul gave up much for the Kingdom, that immeasurable treasure of “gaining Christ and being found in him” was worth every loss. Perhaps you can recount the things given up for the Kingdom? In large or small ways that Pearl of Great Price will cost us something: we might not advance so fast or far at work because of our Christian convictions; we give our time, our possessions, and even our very selves to the Lord and his work; we say “no” to those sins which entice us, and we empty ourselves of worldly pride and security because of the unsurpassed value of knowing Christ. In some parts of the world, in some times and places, people have been asked to give up far more than we have—family, friends, livelihood, even their very lives for the great treasure of the kingdom.
Again, this doesn’t mean that we purchase the kingdom by what we do or how we live. But it does mean that the rule and reign of God, which is given to us freely by grace, causes us to revalue, or devalue everything else in comparison. It’s all rubbish compared to knowing Christ and being found in him. All of it: the material goods, the worldly recognition, the pleasure of those secret sins, the false gods which we construct in our lives. What joy, peace, or pleasure can they give us in comparison to that beautiful, perfect pearl of being found in Him?
But this is just the surface. In so many parables that Jesus tells, there is often a surprise, little twist, as you study it deeper. Let’s turn the parable on its head, for a moment. What would happen if, instead of being the ones searching for the treasure, we were the treasure being searched for? What would happen if we were hidden treasure, and somebody was searching for us?
Brothers and sisters, this may help us uncover the joy of the gospel for us today: you and I are beautiful pearls, precious treasures. And Jesus has sold everything for us. He gave up everything, even his own life, to purchase and win us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Not with silver or gold, but with his holy precious blood and his bitter sufferings and death, that we might be his own precious possessions.
Yes, we are “hidden” treasure. Hidden in mistakes and failings, sin and suffering, unworthy or even unwanted in the eyes of the world. Yet, we remain precious in his sight, solely because he sought us out and found us, even in our sin, and even went to Golgotha to pay for us.
Well, I guess I never did tell you if I ever found that treasure hidden in a secret cove on Pirates Island along the St. Croix. Truth be told, I might still be looking for it. And perhaps in this we can uncover yet one final meaning in this parable for us. You and I are to keep seeking hidden treasures. Not in fields, far off lands, or secret coves, but in one another. We are all precious pearls, redeemed by the cross, forgiven by the blood of the lamb who was slain, declared to be holy, made rich in every way by grace. And when we begin to see each other in this way, we begin to treat each other differently. Preciously. Living the Christian life in community is like continuing the search for hidden treasure in one another.
Precious is the kingdom of God to all of us giving up much for it; precious are you, the valued treasures of a God who gave up everything for you; and precious are each one of us, the baptized who strive to see each other a little differently, as “Hidden Treasure”.
And, so we continue to pray, “Come soon, Lord Jesus.”
Amen.