Buried Treasure

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field.   Matthew 13:44

Jesus used a third picture to help us understand the Kingdom of God. What God is doing is like treasure buried in a field. That’s different from treasure on display.

God’s Kingdom is not like the crown jewels on display in London for everyone to admire. God’s Kingdom is like treasure hidden in a field. That means many pass by it without ever knowing that they’re missing something of great value.

Jesus spoke about the man who finds this kind of treasure. Perhaps he’s hired to plow the field and suddenly he hits something, so he gets down and digs around in the dirt. Then he realizes he’s just stumbled on buried treasure! What should he do? Jesus says he’ll cover it up and sell everything he has to buy the field.

And he’ll do it with joy! People who sell all they have usually do so because they’re bankrupt and miserable. Folks in the marketplace must have wondered why this man, who was selling everything, wore a grin from ear to ear! He couldn’t stop smiling because he knew he’d stumbled on the opportunity of a lifetime.

The marvelous thing is that even after he signed the papers to buy the field, he still didn’t know the full value of what he had found. But he knew it was worth more than anything and everything else in his life.

The priceless treasure of Christ’s Kingdom is ours. We are truly rich in Christ, but the day is still to come when the treasure will be dug up, each piece laid down, and its true value fully known. What we have in Christ right now is only a foretaste of what is to come; the full glory of what we have in him is hidden from view. But when he comes again, the treasure chest will be opened, and we will gasp as we see for the first time the full value of what he has done for us.

For further reading, see 2 Corinthians 4