True confession time.  Growing up, I often wanted to be a pirate.  The kind with letters of marque of course, free to engage any merchant ship of the Spanish empire.  We lived in N. Carolina for a couple of years, and once spent a long weekend on the Outer Banks, right in the heart of Blackbeard country.  There are countless stories of pirate treasure, stories that usually have some basis in fact, of chests of gold and jewels buried in a secret place, left for hundreds of years after the owner died or lost the map needed to recover the treasure.  I remember driving around and thinking how amazing it would be to find a treasure chest (and how much money it would be worth) and what I would do with the treasure.

That reminds me of a parable that Christ told that almost seems lost.  It’s only one verse in Matthew.   Matthew 13:44 to be exact.  I’ve never heard a sermon on it that I can remember, i while I’m familiar with the parable, I’ve never given it much thought until lately.  It gives us so much insight into what it means to be a Christ follower.  It answers the “why” to so many questions we have, and so many questions the world should have of us.  Here’s what I mean.

A man finds a treasure in a field.  He knows it’s worth more than anything he could ever possibly get on his own, no matter how hard he works.  The value of the treasure is literally more than he can count.  This treasure is also obtainable.  It’s in a field that happens to be for sale.  So the man does what any of us would do if we were faced with that situation, he immediately begins to sell everything he has – his house, his furnishings, his store, anything and everything he has.  When his friends asked him what he was doing, I imagine he said something like, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing here”.  To everyone around him, what he was doing seemed crazy.  Who sells everything they have?  Who has that kind of disregard for his possessions?  Don’t you understand that you “need” your house and your “things”?  The truth is, you would only sell everything you have when you know the payoff is worth it.  The man found a treasure in the field that was worth selling everything for, it was worth giving up everything of value here and now, because the payoff was worth it.

That’s what the kingdom of heaven is like.  It’s the treasure worth giving up everything in the here and now for.  Who cares if people think you’re crazy, you’re in pursuit of a treasure beyond your ability to count.  A treasure that makes everything you have, and everything you could ever get in this world, pale in comparison.  Our problem is that we don’t understand the value of the kingdom of heaven.  We are exactly like the rich young ruler in Mark 10.  Jesus makes it so clear to him and honestly, to us when He says, “sell everything you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”  The young ruler missed the real treasure.  So have many of us, and I have to wonder if so have I.  We don’t want to give up what we have, we are like beggars who won’t walk away from the dumpster we eat in.  We can see it, touch it, and “own” it.  So we give up the treasure in order to keep our trash.

Two closing thoughts.  First, I’m led to wonder where we lost the deep understanding of the treasure that is the kingdom of heaven.  And second, I can’t help but think that the way of earthly treasure is a nice wide road.  That leads to destruction.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.”  Jim Elliot