Fr Matthew Reese

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

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.”
—Matthew 13: 44-16

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our Gospel reading this morning, from Matthew, chapter 13, is a series of parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. Each is different, but each suggests something about the tension between divine and worldly value.

First, we have the hidden treasure in the field. Then, the “pearl of great price.” Then, the bounty of the fisherman’s catch, from which the men sort the good into vessels but throw away the bad.

As I read these passages, I am struck by how the recognition of this value—the glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven—is something which has a miraculous character to it. The treasure, the pearl, the catch of “fish of every kind”—not just the trout or the bream the fishermen expected to see—these all have a kind of epiphanic character.

And they all require choice.

They all require sacrifice: The selling of all that we have. The parting with what we hold dear. The sorting of the good from the ill.

“So shall it be at the end of the world.”

Jesus’s exhortation here is a severe one and it can be difficult to read. Contemporary audiences tend to delight in the Jesus who exhorts us to love our neighbor, but squirm at the Jesus who warns that “the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” But of course, he is the same man. He has said both things.

What seems central to this passage is our own free will.

Our freedom to choose, our freedom to unburden ourselves of that which is not life-giving, our freedom to seek after that pearl of great price.

When Jesus asked his disciples if they understood these things, they said “Yea, Lord,” but I doubt that they really did. Who can blame them? But they followed him all the same. Let us go and do likewise.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew