Rethinking the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and Pearl of Great Price

[Music] foreign [Music] episode of reading the gospels through Hebrew eyes we've been in Matthew 13 the last couple of weeks and today's reading will remain in Matthew chapter 13. we're going to wrap up The Parables that are in this chapter now there are two parables in particular that I want to focus on they're the ones that are the beginning of this reading Matthew 13 44 and following one is the parable about the treasure hidden in the field and the other is the parable about the parallel of great price now I'm going to argue for a

different interpretation than most of the interpreters will take this particular Parable these particular Parables and I'll get to that in just a minute but hopefully it will contextually make more sense with regard to the implications of these Parables it's going to be a focus away from the commitment that the Christian makes and toward the commitment that God himself makes toward the church so we'll get to that in just a minute anyway Matthew 13 44-52 we'll have those two Parables then we'll have the parable of the Dragnet and then it'll wrap up with Jesus saying something

rather peculiar about scribes who have been discipled with regard to the kingdom of God bringing out from the treasury things new and old so that's where we will wrap up let's get going then with these first two Parables we're going to cover them but read them both and then we'll talk about their meaning so Matthew 13 44. the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up then in his Joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field and then secondly Matthew 13 45

again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one pearl of Great Value went and sold all that he had and bought it now the first thing you want to point out to you is how the spatial imagery of a field is shared by a couple of other parables in Matthew chapter 13. so if you go back to verse 24 Jesus put another Parable before them saying the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field now in that Parable it

goes on to say that his enemies sows weeds in that field but notice that this is a man sowing good seed in his field skip down to verse 31 another Parable the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his fields in both those cases you have a man who's doing something with regard to a field to his field and of course then you have here the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field now I want you to look at all these occurrences in

The Parables that begin with the sower of the seed and notice how the main actor the main doer in these Parables is most of the time clear for us until we get to these last two so you begin with the first Parable the one that heads up Matthew 13 and all the Parables that follow it this is the sower and the seed that falls on the various kinds of soil so the main actor here the doer is the sower and what does he do well of course he sows seed now who is this sore well

it's predominantly God it would also say that it's his Sowers that is his human preachers those who spread his word you go to the next Parable and you have the man and what does he do well he sowed good seed in his field that's one that we just looked at and Jesus himself explicitly identifies this man sowing The Good Seed in his field as the son of man as himself then thirdly you have a man who did what well he sowed Mustard Seed in his field and again contextually within not only Matthew 13 but also

it's Old Testament counterpart is the the man who does this is God okay so God sows the mustard seed and the son of man is the one who sows good seed in his field then you have the pair to this with the woman who hid leaven in flower and again that makes sense contextually to represent God who's hiding this leaven in this flower okay so these these first four the sower the man a man a woman all of these are in the parable themselves representative of one way or another of God or or the Son

of God now you get to the two that we've just covered a man once more does what well he finds treasure hidden in a field well who is this man who does he who does he represent in the parable and then similarly in the Greek it's a man a merchant so a merchant man what does he do well he finds this pearl of great price well who does this Merchant represent well most of the time the way this is argued is that because the Kingdom of Heaven is that which is priceless it's a treasure because

the Kingdom of Heaven is that which is the very best the greatest value it's like this Pearl and so we who wish to be part of this Kingdom should elevate it above everything else and for the joy of finding this abandon everything in order that we might be in this Kingdom so it's about a giving up of whatever must be given up in order that we might joyfully enter into his kingdom and get that treasure and get that pearl of great price now what I would argue contextually based upon everything that we just looked at

with regard to the actors the doers in these Parables that would make the most sense for the sake of consistency not to mention the fact that this fits beautifully with the Theology of the New Testament that in fact when you have a man finding a treasure hidden in a field and for for the joy of finding this sells all that he has and buys that field that's God and then a man a merchant who finds a pearl a great price once more that being God how so well this is exactly what the gospel is God

our heavenly father for the joy of having us his people his church for the joy of making us his own gives up everything that which is most precious to him his own son in order that he might buy us redeem us purchase us make us his own so we in fact are the treasure hidden in the field that God our Father goes to whatever links are necessary to make sure that we belong to him and same with the probably great price that God is this Merchant and what he finds is that which is of greatest

value to him he finds his pearl of great price and that is exactly who we are as the church and so what does God do well he makes sure that this Pearl is his again I would argue that based upon the context of Matthew Chapter 13 based upon the entire message of the New Testament that rather than focusing these two Parables upon something that we do like a complete renunciation leaving behind everything and and and purchasing this this Perla great price or buying the field so we have the treasure instead of focusing upon what we

do that this Parable fits best by focusing upon what God does for us now I'm not saying the other interpretation is blatantly wrong I'm not saying that whatsoever it has a long history in the church what I am arguing is that the context of this string of parables in my opinion strongly suggest that the man who buys the field and the man who buys the pearl of great price is in fact our heavenly father and we his people his church are the treasure we his people his church are the pearl of great price so we

are the ones who belong to God we are the ones that God did everything necessary to make us his own by the way if you if you're attending churches which have these as the gospel readings there's always an Old Testament reading that's paired with the Gospel reading and these are the these are chosen designed to complement each other now in some Churches the Old Testament reading for Sunday that's paired with these Parables fits perfectly with this particular interpretation it's from Deuteronomy chapter seven let me read you the verses for you are a people holy to

the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the Earth it wasn't because you were more in number than any of the people that the Lord set his love on you and shows you for you were the fewest of all peoples but it's because the lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of

slavery from the house from the hand of pharaoh king of Egypt God has redeemed you he has made you to be his Treasure of possession he has chosen you now that Old Testament idea of God choosing the people God choosing his people the Lord choosing the people of Israel this holy community that that segues into the New Testament with this idea of us being the treasure and us being the pearl of great price so that's the first two Parables and mull over think about that interpretation and see if it fits with Matthew 13 and with

the New Testament message in general now let's move on to the next Parable this is Matthew 13 47-50 again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind when it was full men Drew to Shore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad so it will be at the End of the Age the angels will come will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place there will be weeping

and gnashing of teeth so first of all just to make sure we kind of have the right image about this net a sagane which is the Greek word for this Sage which only occurs here in the New Testament is a and this is from John Nolan's Matthew commentary was a large fishing net that was dragged between two boats or dropped offshore by boat and then dragged to shore with ropes a huge net and with floats at the top and weights at the bottom well it blocked the passage of anything larger than the gauge of The

netting so nothing could get out it could be located in relation to sidings of Shoals or a fish or known feeding areas but it was otherwise totally indiscriminate in what it gathered up the hall could include junk and weeds as well as a wide range of sea life the wording is gentle enough to cover this but it's hard to reproduce in English so you have the word fish added in in the translation is this huge net which is pulling to the shore all kinds of stuff right you're going to get the fish you want you're

going to get the fish you that you don't want you're gonna get some some weeds you're gonna get some trash you need all sorts of things and so when you're bringing onto the shore of course one thing that you must do is sort out what you want from what you don't want the good from the bad now I want to point out how closely this Parable fits with an earlier Parable in Matthew chapter 13. so notice the parallels of language here between this Parable and the parable of the good seed and the Bad Seed and

how the there's going to be a a harvest that's coming so we just read that but look earlier at Matthew 13 40-42 Jesus says just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire so will it be at the End of the Age Again that parallels what we read in those letter verses so it will be at the End of the Age the son of man will send his angels and of course here with the parable of the net we had Angels once more being active the angels will gather out of his kingdom all causes

of sin and all law Breakers of course that parallels the evil that are described in the parable of the net and then the language of throwing them into the fiery furnace and then that place they're being weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Greek as well of course as in the translation those are perfectly parallel and then one other connection between these two is the verb Sue Lego which in the earlier Parable is translated as gather so do you want us to go and gather them no lest in gathering the weeds you root up the

wheat along with it verse 30 gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles Matthew 40 just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire okay so all of these occurrences of this same verb now when you go to verse 48 once more it's the same verb even though it's translated differently in most versions when the net was full man Drew to Shore and sat down and sulego they sorted the good into containers but you could translate this also as gather the good into containers because it's the same verb and so there's once more

a connection between these twin Parables so this of course is nothing more than a picture of what's going to happen at the end of the age where there's going to be a division it's the same division that Jesus talks about in the parable of the great judgment Throne where you have the Sheep over here and you have the goats over there so there's is a separation and of course this permeates the New Testament where the idea is that at the return of Christ there's going to be this great judgment and those who are righteous will

be welcomed by the father and those who are unrighteous the evil the law Breakers all these various ways in which the character in which unbelievers are characterized they will be thrown into the fiery furnace with his weeping and gnashing of teeth and as I've talked about in plenty of other videos that the image of gnashing of teeth does not referred to pain gnashing of teeth has Hebrew connections and in the Old Testament refers not to pain it refers to anger I always have the image of a dog snarling and showing his teeth and kind of

striking out so the gnashing is not indicative of pain the gnashing is indicative of the anger against God of those who are cast into the darkness are cast into the into the fiery furnace so both these pair both these these Parables whether it's about the weeds or whether it's about the The Unwanted fish being thrown away they both are representative then of those who reject Christ they want nothing to do with him so this has this is not a uh an issue of moral character it's not as if oh the people are really good well

they get welcomed into the kingdom and the people are really bad they get they get thrown out of the Kingdom it's not about moral qualities we all have a mixture of that within us this is all about our stance toward Christ are we in Christ or are we not are we by faith linked to the one who is our life or are we by the lack of faith not linked to the one who is our life so there is there's no middle ground in other words you're either part of this group or you're part of

that group and the one thing that makes a difference is faith faith in Jesus as the Messiah so that's the first three Parables you have the parable of the hidden treasure the parable of the the prologue great price and now you have the parable of this huge Dragnet now let's wrap things up with what Jesus says at the very end of this whole string of Parables this is Matthew 13 51-52 Jesus then turns his disciples and he says have you understood these things all these things and they said to him yes and he said to

them therefore every scribe who has been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old so scribes as you're probably familiar are those who basically were the Bible scholars of the day they were those who were trained especially in in the Torah and of course Jesus has many interactions with the scribes over the course of his ministry these are those whose main duty was to study and to teach the Torah so Jesus now in a very interesting sort of

way is applying this imagery of a scribe to his own disciples so first of all let's talk about this verb for understand Jesus says have you understood Sunni Ami in in Greek now if you go earlier in the chapter verses 11-15 that's the same verb that occurs three times this is when Jesus after he tells tells the parable of the sower of the seed kind of pauses and gives them some exegesis some interpretation an application of Isaiah chapter six and in part of that he says this is why I speak to them that is The

Outsiders and Parables because seeing they don't see it hearing they don't hear nor do they understand in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says you will indeed hear but never understand and then toward the end he says lest they should see with their eyes hear their ears and understand with their heart can turn and I would heal them so by the use of this verb Jesus is saying so do you understand that is to say do you grasp these keys of interpretation these Keys of the Kingdom that I'm giving you in order

that you might rightly understand who I am and what the kingdom of God is and what my mission is and in turn then what their mission will be now the disciples say yes well my suspicion is they they didn't quite understand as well as they as they might have thought but be that as it may they at least were beginning to have the understanding that Jesus wanted to impart to them as a gift in order that they might be his disciples be his spokesman and then also carry forward this message of the kingdom and that's

where we go to next because Jesus said therefore every scribe who has been mate2o in Greek which is translated by the ESV as well as other translations as who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven now this is the verb for make a disciple or be a disciple so I would translate it therefore every scribe who has been made to disciple or who has been discipled for the Kingdom of Heaven that is to say you're now a follower of Jesus and you've been discipled by him you've been mathewilled by him well that scribe that

is to say that Christian who's been discipled by Jesus the Messiah in order to understand his word well what's he going to be like and here we have uh kind of a mini Parable we might call it well that guy is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old now what does this look like well once more we have the same Greek word being used at the very end of Matthew in the Great Commission so Matthew 28 19 and 20 Jesus came and said to

them all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me therefore go and matthi tuo Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I Am With You Always to the End of the Age so presumably what Jesus is saying here at the very end of these Parables to his disciples as well as us today who are still his disciples is that I've given you in these Parables I've given

you the the key to understanding who I am and what my mission is all about and therefore you are a Christian scribe that is to say you're a student of the word in order that you might in order that having been discipled by Jesus you might bring out of the treasure things new and old and even though the things new and old are not explained here my assumption is that Jesus is saying you're going to be able to bring forth all of the understanding of all of the words of God that he's already given all

of the the words of the Torah and all these things that he that God our heavenly father has given to us you're going to understand the word and you're going to be able to use that word to disciple others but at the same time not just old you're going to have new things as well because you're going to have that which I am teaching you're going to have my words my Parables everything about me that I'm teaching you and that you will yet learn Jesus says you're going to be able to bring that out of

the treasury as well so as Disciples of Jesus we are those scribe students of the word who have been discipled by him and then turn around and do what we make disciples of others as well in order that they might share in the same Treasures which have been given to us by the work of the Holy Spirit so that's it for today hopefully those especially those first two Parables give you a little bit different way of understanding them uh and then also hope the rest of this has been useful beneficial to you as well hope

that you're all doing great uh and I pray that you will continue to do so this week and always as we live in that grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ who has purchased us as his own that we might be his Pro to great price and that we might be his treasure we'll see you next week [Music]