From Pity to Praise

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field” -Matthew 13:44

This parable is simple, but raise as many questions. Why would anyone bury treasure in a field? When he’s found it, was a man ethical and covering it and then purchasing the field? What does the treasure represent? Many interpretations vary throughout church history. While these questions are important. things to consider its meaning is the real power of the parable.

In the time of Jesus, no one put their money in the bank. If they needed to keep it safe, they would bury it in the ground. To find treasures in the ground would not have been surprising to anyone. Furthermore, the man would not have been considered unethical for covering it and purchasing the field. The standard was basically, whatever you find outside someone’s house is yours -finders keepers.

I think the big question of this parable is what is worth so much money that a man sells everything in joy and buys the field?

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells parable to explain the kingdom of God (heaven). In Matthew 13:9 Jesus is says, “He who has ears let him hear.”

Jesus is telling us, and no uncertain terms, that the kingdom of heaven is very valuable. It is also, very accessible. The man who found the treasure did not travel to a far away galaxy. He didn’t change his situation. He went about his day, and to his surprise, he dug up the treasure.

The parable in Matthew 13 had several parables, four of them feature fields as there location. The sower, the weeds, and the mustard seed. I think Jesus wanted to communicate something about the kingdom using fields.

One thing I have noticed through reading the New Testament is that when Jesus gets the kingdom of God, He puts away talk of miracles He begins speaking about ordinary things. Because the normal working of God is fourfold in the ordinary. He can work outside of the normal things, but His normal workings are inside of everything day life.

A field is something we take for granted. We pass by them all the time, and we give almost no thought to what’s inside. The kingdom of God is like that. It’s always around but seldom on our minds. In parables, Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God to the forefront of our minds. He’s telling us what it’s like and how important it is.

I believe there is much to be said about following Jesus from this parable, but I do not think this is His primary concern. His focus is on the kingdom of God. This includes discipleship, but something must happen before we give our lives to Jesus. We have to find something, and that’s what Jesus is telling us here: what is it like to find Jesus.

Finding comes before life-giving. When we find a treasure like God’s kingdom, the cost to follow becomes insignificant. This means the parable isn’t so much about what we’re willing to give up to gain the kingdom but that the kingdom is worth losing everything to gain it.

Being in a world at war with God, and coming under God’s rule is not like paying dues to a country club. It’s more like suffering the abuse of the world. Paul puts it this way in Philippians 3:7-8,

“But whatever I gain I had. I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

These aren’t the words of a man who lost anything. He found something worth suffering everything. This parable is not about losing. This parable is about gaining.

We are living in dark times right now, but the light always overcomes the darkness.

Here is America, as we move from summer to fall, the days are getting shorter. That means that the darkness will last later in the morning and comes earlier in the evening.

My husband leaves for work around 6am, while it is still dark and full of shadows except for the lamp that is on in the corner of the front room.

It isn’t enough light to see the entire space, but it acts as a beacon to tell him where to go.

If you open a Bible to the first page the Old Testament starts with, “Darkness covered the face of the deep,” until God said, “Let there be light.”

John 1:5 tells us, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness had not overcome it.” This verses echos the broader thing that divine light enters the world, pushes through the shadows, and ultimately triumphs over darkness.

We are going through dark times. We are being reminded of COVID again with Dr Fauci testifying in Congress. COVID was declared a global pandemic. There were deaths, enforced separation, loss of work, and many businesses were forced to shut their doors which caused severe emotional distress, that we are still feeling the effects of today. But there will always be darkness and there will always be light.

Just like my little lamp in the corner, we can’t see the entire path ahead. But we can’t see enough to be drawn into the direction we are supposed to go.

Jesus remind us in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” This verse reminds us the Jesus brings divine truth, guidance, and eternal hope, dispelling the spiritual darkness of confusion, and despair in our lives. Jesus illuminates our path so we do not get lost in the darkness.

He offers a vibrant, eternal relationship with God that transforms how we live every day.

“He summoned the multitude, and said to them, Hear and understand. That which enters into the mouth doesn’t defile the man, but that which proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles a man” – Matthew 15:10-11

Jesus told us what really defiles a person. In the Old Testament defiled meant you were spiritually unclean or impure. It rendered you unfit for divine purposes, as in a priest could not serve while he was defiled, or a “regular” person would not be able to go to the temple, until you were cleansed.

To the Jewish people of Jesus’s day if you ate without washing your hands, or ate certain foods, touched a dead person, touched someone with leprosy, or touched bodily fluids you would be defiled and would need to go through a cleansing ritual.

Jesus flips the narrative on what the law said, and says those things don’t make you defiled. But how could Jesus do that? How could he change the law given by God? Eating with unwashed hands was not a biblical law, but a tradition of the fathers . He could change the law because He was the one who made the laws. He was fully God in His eternal spirit and divine nature.

Jesus makes it clear that the development is a matter of the heart, not the stomach. In Mark 7:18 19 Jesus told His disciples, after they were away from the multitudes, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, that purifying all foods?”

The Old Testament says we should eat certain things. But Jesus in the New Testament Jesus declared all foods clean.

Jesus turned certain parts of the Old Testament on its head. Not moral laws but ceremonial laws.

We become defiled when we in our hearts and minds give space for sinful thoughts, instead of shutting them down.

My pastor will stop sending the Psalm in a few weeks as there is 150 Psalms. He said he was going to start with Psalm 1 in the near future. I will begin sharing when he sends them out.

Rather than blaming God when everything is going wrong we should consider Jeremiah 17:5. Perhaps we have set our hearts on His strength not our weaknesses.

I blamed God for a lot of things in the past because I did not understand what He was doing in my life. I had indeed made some mistakes , but blaming God instead of taking responsibility for them only led to more blame. It took me years to learn that the blame game would never give me closure.

Trust is a serious issue to the Lord. He invites us to trust in him with all our hearts in Proverbs 3:5.

Isaiah 2:22 is a good reminder to always put our trust the Lord rather than man. “Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for of what account is he?” It is easy to look to others for strength and hope. We seek people’s advice and worse we seek their approval, and all the while we fail to look to the Lord for these things.

There is one Bible verse I keep close to my heart. It is Psalm 142:4 in the King James Version. “I looked on my right hand, and behind, but there was no man that would know me, refuge failed me, no man cared for my soul.” It makes it easier to navigate through life when I have one question in my heart when people want to come into my life. “Does this person care for my soul?” David wrote this Psalm when he was hiding from King Saul in a cave. David felt completely alone, abandoned, and forgotten by people, realizing that human beings could not save or protect his life. The next verse he wrote says, “I cried to You, Lord. I said, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

The truth is that man is fragile. Man ceases to breathe, ceases to live. So why do we place our hope and our strength in such fragility? Why not look to the Lord who is eternal and sovereign?

We are all guilty of depending on man. But what should we do instead – we have the privilege to look to the Lord. We should take advantage of this privilege while we still have a choice.

This type of thinking does not go well in today’s society. To the world, we are highly evolved creatures, who don’t need God. But God knows our frame, he remembers we are dust.

The world worships and praises those of high influence and status, but in the end, our frames are weak because they are dust. I think it is good to remember that we are just mere humans. We are not God, and we should not view ourselves with pride, ourselves, or see ourselves as though we are gods.

David said in Psalm 144:4, “Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.”

We would do well to think deeply about the day we will pass from this life into eternity.

“Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days, let me know how fleeting I am” -Psalm 39:4

I think there is a serious price to pay if we take this lightly. The Lord reminds us in Jeremiah 17:5, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from the Lord.”

As we wait upon the Lord and align with His will, we experience the fullness of His grace and faithfulness.

Scripture contains many accounts of people who waited years before God’s promises came to pass. Waiting on the Lord develops character and deepens our trust in Him.

We can look at the account of David who was the chosen heir to Israel’s throne, but he spent years dodging King Saul‘s wrathful pursuit. Despite having two different opportunities for vengeance, David resisted the temptation and spared Saul’s life. He chose to adhere to God’s timetable for his coronation instead of dishonoring the Lord by killing the divinely anointed king.

In the Psalms, David reveals His intimate awareness of the Lord’s work in his life. David not only ascended the throne through patience, but he also learned that God’s way is always best. He grew in his commitment to trust the Lord rather than force outcomes through his own actions.

We cannot rush God’s timing, and our patient endurance doesn’t earn His favor, that already ours through grace. But waiting on the Lord does reshape us. David didn’t receive his blessings because he was special or because he earned them through patience. He received them because God is faithful to His promises. And that same faithfulness extends to us as we wait on Him.