“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his
Buried midway through the Gospel of Matthew, this one sentence parable – truly a buried gem (pun completely intended) – has haunted me ever since I heard Francis Chan expound on it.
Francis Chan Is My Bane
Okay, I guess he's not that bad.
Actually, I'm a huge fan. But seriously, this guy talks about some difficult stuff!
I first heard him talk about the Parable of the Hidden Treasure during a sermon he did on riches and the Kingdom of Heaven.
As I listened to his sermon, the thing that caught me off guard was the realism with which he read this verse. I grew up in church, but it never occurred to me that this parable was anything more than a “wink-and-a-nod” to sort of "ideal" mindset. In other words, I always thought of it as something that is totally worth holding onto as a beautiful concept; just not one that has any practical bearing on life. Certainly not my life!
But ... The Cost
After all, if I take were to take it seriously, who knows what I may have to give up. I mean, it could be anything. Really, it could be everything.
So, I reasoned, it must just be a spiritual mindset. (Forgive the ingrained "manifest destiny," western entitlement coming through there.)
But for Chan, the text reeks of reality; for him not only do we need to take it seriously, it might actually be a requirement.
I don’t think Chan would go so far as to say you must give up all of your earthly possessions in order to enter into the Kingdom of God, but he makes a great and hauntingly timely point.
He starts from the perspective that the verse must mean something. After all, it wasn’t spoken into a vacuum. Then he looks at the fact that most Christians aren’t rich (now or at any point in history), and we in the West are. Filthily so, upon comparison with much of the rest of the world. And so Chan's argument - frustratingly on point - is that it's really hard for Christians in the West to see the value of the
The Impossibly High Worth of God’s Life
The Kingdom of God is worth getting. I don't think God calls many of us to give up everything we have, but if he really did, it would be worth it.
Whatever the cost, the Kingdom is a steal. It just is. There is no life apart from it, as much as we squirm and squabble and try to convince ourselves otherwise.
And we do squirm don’t we? Let’s just be honest for a moment.
I’ll go first.
I really love Jesus. I really want to follow him. I really want to do life with him, and his bride, forever.
But, THE COST!
But left to my own devices ... I don’t want people to tell me what to do ... and I don’t want people to tell me where to live ... and I don’t want people to take things from me ... and I don’t want to be persecuted (like at all) ... and I don’t want to live on the street ... and I don’t want to bring risk to my family ... and I don’t want to give up my car, or job, or really anything.
On my own, I even recoil at the idea that God may someday call me to give up my collection of books. How pitiful is that!? It's not even a great collection!
I don’t want to live on less, or get rid of a car, or take shorter showers. On my own, I don’t want to give anything. I want all of Jesus, but I don’t what to change anything. I want the priceless, at no price.
I tend to try and make excuses for why I can’t really be expected to lose the bulk of my things, status, or security. And I tend to try to orchestrate my life so that the loss I do realize is - for lack of a better word - comfortable.
Seriously, apart from the Spirit’s conviction, I could probably convince myself to live life in such a way that I “sacrificed” just enough to not feel guilty. If I'm honest, I could probably feel a great deal of pride that I had taken "greater measures" to alleviate others suffering. (Greater than who I don’t know, and really it needn’t matter.)
There's No Comparison
But the parable of the hidden treasure screams against such pompous “spiritual-life-hacking.” It simply doesn’t allow it.
It throws the real value of life with God in my arrogant face. It forces me to ask the question: “How much is this worth to me? Is it worth X? Or Y? Or Z? All three, even?” Wait!? Is there really a "price" at which I wouldn't think it is worth it. Maybe that's the really question.
A Question Of The Heart
But this starts to throw everything in a startling light. It starts to become clear that this is not really a question of richness at all; it’s really a question of
The real question that starts to bubble above the surface is, "have I thrown myself at his feet as his bondslave?" Or have I allowed my heart to remain divided, holding on to God as a powerful Karma corrector, but never really intending to let him helm my life.
That is what Francis Chan threw into such stark regard for me.
On my own, I tend to ask questions like: “How much can I keep? Can I do anything but… [go here, do this, lose this thing]? What if he takes it all?” But how heinous are those questions?
The point of the parable is that nothing is worth anything when compared to the incomparable Christ!
So the Parable of the Hidden Treasure is not about giving up everything I have and not having anything left. It’s also not an impractical attitude reserved for the “super spiritual" and the "mature" among us.
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure is about understanding the real value of God, and letting that utterly change my focus in this life.
It's a hard call. Impossible even; but for Jesus' enabling.
Free To Be Bond, Or Bond To Be Free?
But where it takes us is fantastic. It’s freeing. We can start asking question like: “How much can I give?" and "Can we go [the place you suddenly love, but had never given a passing thought to before]?" and "How did I not see this before!?"
It is a paradigm shift from wanting to make sure we have enough for
Honestly? I'm not there yet, but he’s working on me. There is just too much life to be lived on the other side of death to be consumed with what happens to me on this side. And the dazzlingly beautiful, conspiratorial truth of it is this; we get to start that eternal sort of life - Jesus' life - now.
He has made himself available. All he asks is that we give up all the other things that would get in the way of grasping hold of him, and once we do that - even as we do that - to enter the race. Everything else is taken care of; like, forever.