What’s it worth?
Readings: Matthew 13. 31-33, 44-52
We have quite the selection of parables in our second reading this morning. It’s worth reflecting on each as each gives us a different aspect of the Kingdom, like rotating a gemstone around to see its different facets.
But I’m not going to cover them all this morning, that would likely be too much. Instead I’m going to focus on the two parables in the middle, the parable of the treasure in the field and the pearl. Each is exploring the immense value of the Kingdom of God, how much it is worth.
I wonder what’s the thing which if you had it, would make your life perfect? Perhaps you’re thinking of better health, a healthier bank balance, that holiday you’ve always wanted to take. Perhaps a certain car or a promotion at work.
Those things, when we truly want them, when the urge to achieve or acquire them is strong enough, we’ll quite happily pour all our resources towards them won’t we, money, time, energy. We’ll do whatever it takes to make them a reality, sometimes to our detriment, we’ll neglect other parts of our lives in the pursuit of that goal. But the thing is worth it isn’t it.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of BitCoin. When I was studying Robotics at University it was growing rapidly in popularity. It’s a virtual currency, designed to be completely independent of banks or the fluctuations of global powers and national interests. And to get it, at least in the early days, you didn’t trade it or purchase it, you mined it. You’d basically set up your computer to use its processing power to solve complex maths problems. And for each one you solved you’d be rewarded with BitCoin. Lots of my colleagues in my department at Uni were mining it. I never really got into it before you ask. The currency itself wasn’t worth much, and there was very little you could actually spend it on, but the novelty factor was a big draw, and the sense that this was the beginning of a revolution in currency and wanting to be part of it.
But for most the novelty wore off, the hard drives and memory sticks on which the bitcoin was stored were forgotten about, left in the back of drawers or under beds. This is what happened to a guy called James Howells who accidentally threw away the hard drive storing his bitcoin. And then, a few years ago, the value of bitcoin rocketed. I checked yesterday and each is worth around £23,000.
Which means that this guys wallet is now worth around £220,000,000. And he’s poured years of time and energy, huge amounts of money into finding this hard drive. Tracking down which landfill site it’s ended up in, petitioning for permissions to dig through the landfill in the hopes of finding it. He’s poured huge amounts of money and resources into this search, has in many ways put his life on hold because he knows, when he finds it, it’ll be worth it.
Jesus says, that’s what the Kingdom of God is like. That when we discover it, it’s the most valuable thing we could ever imagine or hope to possess. And for those of us who have discovered it we find that to be true don’t we. A kingdom is coming when all is made new, when every tear is wiped from our eyes, when perfect justice and mercy shall meet, where God dwells with his people. And it’s coming because of the Gospel isn’t it.
That God comes to us in the person of Jesus, to live our life, to put a visible face to the invisible God, to speak to us face to face. That he died for our sins, bore upon himself the punishment for all the wrong we’ve ever done, to bear away from us all our sin and guilt and shame. That he rose again on the third day, defeating death and opening to us the gate of everlasting life. That he ascended back into heaven and will at last bring all who put their trust in him to be there with him, when at last heaven and earth are united and all is made new at last.
That wonderful news that God descends to our depths so that he can raise us to his heights. That, in the words of Song of Songs, my beloved is mine, and I am his. Through the cross, Jesus is ours, and we are his. That’s the treasure, the wonderful thing of immense value, the forgiveness of sins, everlasting life. God and his people united in perfection forever.
I wonder if you’ve ever heard a Gospel presentation that goes something like this; you’ve messed up, you’ve sinned, Jesus came to die for those sins, so that you can be forgiven, now come and lay down your life to follow him. In short, Jesus died for you, so the least you can do is lay down your life in return. In a sense it’s true, but it’s a bit flat and the emphasis is all wrong.
The Gospel costs, following Jesus costs. It means a changed life, a life of following in his ways, learning to be obedient. It means changed lifestyles, changed priorities, changed morality. It costs. But in this presentation the emphasis is wrong.
Next Saturday I’m back in my old Ministry Area blessing a wedding of two people I’ve come to know quite well these last few years. And in getting married do you think their focus was on what they’re losing by getting married? That they won’t be single and have a choice of partners still? That they’re going to have to be accountable to one another in their lives and in their spending? Is their focus on what they’re losing by getting married?
No. It’s on each other, the focus is that they get each other, for the rest of their lives, so they’ll freely and joyfully give up everything else to have each other.
The same is true of us and God, in coming to God, in becoming part of his Kingdom there are costs, but in return we get God. As Paul reminds us this morning, ‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things’. We easily focus on the all things bit at the end, but right before it ‘along with him’; we get God. We get Jesus, when we find it costs our reputation, a relationship, the chance to make more money, we’ll accept it, if we’ve truly seen what we have in Christ, we’ll happily let it go, because the Kingdom is worth more.
The man in the parable who finds the treasure in that field, he doesn’t go and begrudgingly sell off what he needs in order to get it. Instead ‘in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field’. When we truly understand what we have in Jesus, when we truly get it, and that’s a lifetime of discovery, everything else pales in comparison to the hope that we have in Jesus.
Which means when the going gets tough, when we struggle, when sin lurks at the door, when we’re tempted to give up on faith. What’s needed isn’t more willpower, more effort on our part. What’s needed isn’t for us to muster up some more strength and power through. Instead what is needed is to look again to Jesus, to hear again the glorious Gospel, to be reminded of all that we have in Christ, the Kingdom that we are inheriting. And then all else pales in comparison. That’s not to say we’ll be perfect in this life, that’s not to say there won’t be struggles, that we won’t stumble and fall. But every moment will be worth it, everything will be worth it, every sacrifice will be worth it, because the Kingdom is worth it.
‘For God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things’. All will be repaid and more when we see him face to face.
May we, day by day, see more clearly who Jesus is, know more truly the depths of his love for us, understand more deeply the riches of this Gospel we have received. And may that knowledge drive us to freely and joyfully lay down all else to better pursue him, to turn from sin and be faithful to him, to encourage our brothers and sisters to better follow him. May our eyes ever be fixed on him so that we may better run the race set before us and at last receive the prize.
Amen.