“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” – Matthew 13:44
His neighbors are peering through their windows. “What on earth? There’s a swarm of people coming in and out of his house. They’re taking his furniture, his clothing, they’re taking everything he owns! And what’s with the For Sale sign in his front yard? Did he mention anything to you about moving? Has trouble found him?”
No, trouble hasn’t found him. Quite the contrary.
One day he was walking through a field, when suddenly something caught his eye. He bent down to have a look, and noticed that there was something buried there where he was standing. He began brushing away the dirt, realizing that it was a wooden box of some sort. His curiosity got the best of him, and he continued digging with his hands. After he was able to lift the box out of the ground, he grabbed a stick and pried open the lid. “Oh my gosh… you’ve got to be kidding!”
The box was full of gold coins, thousands of them. There had to be millions of dollars worth of gold inside this box. “I will go sell everything I own and purchase this field,” he said to himself. Then he quickly put the box of treasure back into the ground and covered it with soil.
He immediately canceled the rest of his journey and raced back home. Over the next couple of days he auctioned off everything he had. He took all of the money he had collected and went back to the town where the field was. He asked a few of the locals who this particular field belonged to, and they told him. He then went to see the owner of the field.
“I would like to purchase this field from you,” he told the owner. “How much do you have?” the landowner asked? He pulled out a bag of money and handed it to him. “This is everything I own, here in this bag.” The owner opened the bag and looked inside. “Very well, this is enough. I accept this as payment. The field is now yours. Let us draw up the deed and make it official.”
The last thing he needed was a field. He had a nice home. He had everything he thought he would ever need. Until, that is, he found something that he wanted more than anything in the entire world.
Jim Elliot was a missionary who traveled to the jungles of Ecuador back in 1956 to share the Good News of Christ to the indigenous tribe there, the Auca Indians. They were known to be dangerous, as no one had been able to reach them before. Five days later, Jim and his fellow missionaries were savagely beaten and slaughtered. There were no survivors.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
– Jim Elliot
Jim saw through this world of consumerism. He saw an empty world that promised everything yet truly had nothing to offer. But he also saw Christ as the answer to a broken world that was bound by selfishness and greed. He was willing to give away everything he couldn’t keep, to gain something that he could never lose.
The Truth is our Treasure, our inheritance into the Kingdom of God. It is Christ fulfilling our greatest needs, satisfying our deepest longings, calming our hearts and giving us peace, and cleansing us before a holy and righteous God so that we may have hope.
The great price is that which was paid by Christ for our redemption. He emptied Himself of His glory, came to earth in the form of a lowly man and shed His precious blood on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
This is our treasure, our Treasure of Truth.
Former Blackout Artist 