Please notice that Jesus began this particular parable with the words “In addition…” He was adding to what he had just taught his disciples. He had just said that the kingdom of heaven was like a man who discovered treasure hidden in a field, who covered it over again, and who then sold all that he had to buy the field and redeem the treasure in it.
Last week’s Info for Islanders (Liberation for EU migrants) was about this. It was about Jesus and how he valued people – people hidden and unobserved in the field that is the world. He saw people as treasure. He gave his life for them – so that they might be totally restored and might even have the life of God within them.
Jesus wasn’t a politician. He didn’t come to this earthly field merely to make oral promises (let alone promises set in physical stone). He didn’t come to this earthly field to become a powerful and great leader. He came to purchase the people in this field through his death - to give his all – to relinquish his own life. He laid down his life at the hands of all the sinners who were against him.
He suffered all the sins that all guilty sinners could do – or persuade or pay others to do - to him. He gave all that he had so that people in this field – this unhappy world – could live for ever. Their value was hidden – but not to him.
Read again Jesus’ “In addition” parable - a separate parable from the one about the treasure hidden in the field. He said, “In addition, the kingdom of heaven is like a person on a journey looking to find excellent pearls, who, on discovering one pearl of multiple preciousness, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
What does this parable actually mean? Could it possibly refer to a person in this field that is the world, a person journeying through life, yes, but searching all the time for something or some person of real good? “There are many who say, ‘Who can show us any good?’ |