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THE CASE OF THE PRICELESS PEARL!
Given the following list
of home improvement projects which one do you think would add the greatest
value in relationship to the cost? Which one would give you the greatest return on your investment
should you decide to list your home with a realtor?
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A family room addition
-
Remodeling the kitchen
-
Adding a swimming pool in the backyard.
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Painting the exterior of your home.
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Replacing and upgrading the windows.
-
Remodeling the bathroom
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Adding a deck to the backyard
or
-
A master bedroom addition
While you and I may very well have a definite
opinion as to which project has the greatest value to us, only someone in the
business of selling preexisting homes can actually tell us which projects enhance
the value of our home. For only those in the know, those who understand
the real estate market, can place a value on a particular project.1
It is this knowledge base that we see in the
second of the two parables found in vv. 44 - 46 of Matthew 13. We read:
"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.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value,
he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
Let me remind you that these two parables were
not shared with the crowd. They were shared with the disciples in the
home of Peter's mother-in-law. Like the previous set of twin parables,
in vv. 31 - 33, they are closely related to each other. For they
each speak of a man who discovers something valuable and sells everything he
has to buy it. But the two parables are actually opposite sides of the
same coin. The first addresses the issue of cost, while the second has
to do with the value of the kingdom.
Unlike the first of the two parables, the individual
in the second is described not simply as a man but as a merchant. He
was someone who understood not only the cost of a product but the value of
it. He was someone who knew what a "good deal" looked like
in the marketplace.
It was Oscar Wilde who made the observation,
"A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
Well one thing we know about this man for sure
is that he was no cynic. He knew the difference between cost and value. In
the parable, he was seeking fine pearls. In his day pearls, much like
diamonds today, were the most valuable gem in the world. If you owned
pearls, you were considered wealthy.
Elsewhere in Scripture we see pearls held in
high regards. For example, in Matthew 7:6 we read:
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not
throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet,
and then turn and tear you to pieces."
"What is sacred" in Matthew is the
good news of the kingdom. So this metaphor forbids us to proclaim the
gospel to those who have given clear evidence of rejecting it with vicious
scorn and hardened contempt. By their actions these people simply do
not value what we have to offer them.
We also see pearls mentioned in I Timothy 2:9
- 10 where Paul said:
"I also want women to dress modestly, with
decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive
clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to
worship God."
When women wanted to show off their wealth their
evening wear included gold, pearls, and expensive clothes. Paul, however,
encouraged the Ephesian believers to aim higher. Instead of demonstrating
their beauty according to the world's standards, which included pearls, he
challenged them to manifest a different set of values through their good deeds.2
3
As a third example, it is to be noted that pearls
will be on full display in heaven. For in Revelation 21:15 - 21 we read:
The angel who talked with me had a measuring
rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city
was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with
the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as
it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's
measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper,
and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the
city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation
was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20
the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth
beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the
twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made
of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent
glass.
Wow! John saw the New Jerusalem in all
its magnificence. Each of the twelve layers of its foundation bore the
name of one of the twelve apostles. The twelve gates bore the names
of the twelve tribes of Israel, with each gate having its own angelic gatekeeper,
and each gate made from a single pearl. In short, among all the
gems of heaven, pearls were in a class of their own!
In our little parable the merchant spent his
time seeking fine pearls. My guess is that he, as a wholesaler, marketed
them to retailers who in turn would sell them to others, including the local
tourist.
Buying pearls, of course, was one way of diversifying
one's investments. But one thing smart investors did not do then, and
do not do today, was to invest everything they had into one thing. Nevertheless,
this is exactly what this merchant did - he sold everything he had to buy this
one pearl - a pearl that he knew was priceless!
Why? Simple! As someone who
understood pearls, he saw the value of this one pearl. It would be like
a collector of rare books walking into a bookstore filled with musty old books
and discovering the original copy of Shakespeare. Naturally, he would
do whatever he had to do to buy it and be blessed by it.
But in this case, spiritually speaking, what
the merchant saw was the value of the kingdom of God. And in seeing it,
he abandoned anything else he held of value for the sake of being fully able
to enjoy the value of this one thing. Yes, I value my bike as it keeps
me physically fit but it doesn't even come close in value to being spiritually
fit as a result of being in Christ.
Yes, I value a book I have entitled Marshall's
Chess Openings published in 1904. I value it in part because it has
Frank Marshall's personal signature in it. But, if my study caught fire
for some odd reason it is not the book I would grab first - though admittedly
it would be high on the list. I would first and foremost grab my original
study Bible with all of its notes in it.
You see, during our search for something that
would satisfy our deepest needs it never dawned on us that we would find all
that we were looking for, and more, in a single pearl. We may have spent
our youthful days looking for pleasure, peace with ourselves, peace with others,
peace with God, righteousness, forgiveness, freedom, the power to do what was
right, and a dozen other things. We may have thought that we could find
each one in a multitude of pearls. So we set goals only to see those
goals destroyed by our old nature.
But as we came to know Christ, as we became
citizens of his his kingdom, we discovered that everything of value is wrapped
up in a single pearl. We discovered that it is wrapped up in the person
of Christ Jesus.
And in the victory of Christ I can participate
and enjoy life in the kingdom of God. Because I:
- have been delivered
out of the present evil age.
- have been given
the power to live as I ought to live.
- have been reconciled
in Christ to God.
- have been adopted
into the family of God.
- have been declared
righteous through faith in Christ.
- have found
peace with myself and others.
- have had my
eyes opened up to the Word.
- am being transformed
into the image of God.
- have been placed
in a community that loves me.
- have been rescued
from a life of shame.4
-
You see, in Jesus' day the religious rulers
expected the Messiah to bring everything of value to men. And, in a very
real sense, that is exactly what Christ did in that everything of value was,
and is, wrapped up in him and his kingdom. But this parable tells us
that if we are to fully realize all that we have in Christ than we need to
abandon the lesser values of life.
This will only happen when we value kingdom
life far more than we value life in this world. In short, to purchase
this pearl we need to personally die to self. And we need to personally
determine, for ourselves, why the kingdom of God is of great value to us.
1 In estimating the value of anything there are soft and
hard measures. Realtors deal with the hard measure of statistical
evidence. And all the evidence shows that remodeling the bathroom will
not be money wasted. Granted, as a former olympic swimmer you may personally
place a high value on having a pool in your backyard but don't expect to recoup
the high cost of putting it in.
2 In the Ephesian church these outward styles of adornment
may have been associated with the local temple prostitutes. But whether
that was the case or not, their manner of dress demonstrated misplaced values.
3 We see a similar picture in Revelation 17:3 - 4 where
John said, "Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert.
There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous
names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was dressed in purple
and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She
held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth
of her adulteries."
4 Note! Cost has to do with price while value has
to do with the personal worth of something to me. Yes, there are hard
statistical measure of value, such as in real estate, but ultimately the true
value of something is intimately personal.JESUS & THE KINGDOM OF GOD 05/06/07 1
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