"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."
Matthew 13:44
There is a lot in this chapter, talking about wheat and tares and what separates them and gathering good fish and casting the bad away, etc. I think that this idea of the treasure is part of that idea of making sure we're the wheat, or the good fish in these analogies. In this one-verse story, a man finds a treasure in a field and realizes that it is more important than everything else in his life, so he hides it and goes to buy the field, selling everything else, so that he will have legitimate claim to it.
That's a powerful story. What kind of treasure must that be? What kind of treasure would *we* sell everything for? Very serious question, because I think that is the whole idea of the gospel. It is absolutely that source of joy that this man felt... "for joy thereof" he gave up everything else. It wasn't this horrible sacrifice for him... it was clearly worth it, because it brought happiness.
Now some people twist this in life of course, imagining that the treasure is something mundane like piles of gold and jewels, or if not mundane than at least less than God. They might give up their family or their job or go move to Tahiti searching for that one thing that will make them whole.
Spoiler alert though, the treasure isn't in freeing ourselves from obligation or in any passionate love affair or other obsession or addiction. Even all the LEGOs in the world, or the absolutely best job, or the perfect spouse, or child, or even getting all of those stubborn people on the internet to just agree with us... those aren't things that can possibly fill our emptiness. The one thing that can is God. His gospel is what we give up everything else for. God makes us whole. One day in his court is better than a thousand anywhere else (Psalms 84:10).
The difference between the wheat and the tares, the good and bad fishes, or the fruit of the wild and tame olive trees in Jacob 5 isn't about calculating the points that we all acquired in life and assigning people a kingdom based on whether that calculates out into an A or B or C. It isn't about how long we worked in the field or even about how many prayers we said. It is about what brings us joy, what fills us... what we yearn for. If we've learned to love God and really want to live that perfect life that he offers us, then that is the joy and desire that is going to fill our souls and bring us to him, and if we walk away from that treasure because we want the gold or the toys more than that, then that is what we will get instead. God offers us everything that he has... his treasure, that great and eternal joy... and the question is, do we want that more than everything else? Are we willing to sell everything else to get it? As King Lamoni's father put it "I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day" (Alma 22:18)... or as C. S. Lewis said, "If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell" (from the preface to The Great Divorce).
Today, let's decide what we want, and make sure we are all in on getting it. Like Joshua, let's choose God over all else (Joshua 24:15), and find his true treasure, worth more than everything else combined.
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