For Treasure Hunters Only

[HKHaugan]

Hidden treasure---the wish, the lure and the trap. Winning the lotto, finding a gold mine or getting the big inheritance. Is that what treasure really is? Seems like the same old wishing which is more of the 'nothing new under the sun.'

When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven it is an experience of newness. “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 (Mt.13:44).

Treasure is that every next moment providing the opportunity to see, feel, sense, hear, touch something new. It is not a thing, a physical or material object like a car or a table but the inner discovery of what may be happening as the result of being in a place, or meeting a person or having a conversation or the view of a sunrise over a mountain ridge or an insight, an idea, an awareness that gives you that exhilaration that something new just occurred. There is a joy in newness.

Look at what He says in the very next verses. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it (vs.45-46). All the merchant had to do was find one pearl, which he did, and it was worth so much to him that he went and sold everything he had to possess it. That is the kind of newness Jesus promises us in the newness that is the ‘Good News.’

He doesn’t stop there. He goes on to emphasize what He means and multiplies the experience from one to many. Not only does He expand the potential but He implies that we will be able to distinguish good from evil. Read the following verses closely. “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (vs.47-50).”

You can see Jesus telling us that we, that is the believers together, will be like a net that pulls in all kinds of new experiences as the result of accepting the Kingdom. But we will have the ability in this world to sort out the good from the bad and discard the bad. The good will always be the new Jesus has produced in us. The bad will be the old reliance on worldly wisdom that brings stagnation.

At the end of the age when the angels come they will sort out those who in this world caught the new from those that relied on the oldness of the world. The ‘oldness’ ones will be thrown on the fire. The fire is the fire of self-chosen aloneness, isolation and alienation from God. The gnashing of teeth and weeping can only be the regret, remorse, guilt and self pity following the realization of that personal “If only I had thought and done things differently” feeling. But by then it’s too late.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He asks His disciples, “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they replied (vs.51).” He wants them to be very aware they are taking on something entirely new to them.

His concluding statement in this section is His promise and guarantee that newness will be their gift to others who have been gathered in the net. “He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” He reveals three things to them here. First, they will be teachers. Second, they will be teachers of the law. Third, the law will be taught as the basis for revealing the newness they were intended to bring in the first place, the newness of the new life that comes from Messiah Jesus. It is the fulfillment promised in Jeremiah, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people (Jer.31:33).”

If we take this statement and apply it personally we can see each of us as the house in which there are new and old treasures. It is the spiritual truth in Christ that lays within our hearts, the time we gave our heart to Him, His love and forgiveness, the experiences of that newness in Him we remember and share as our testimony. The new is the ongoing experience that becomes our day-to-day witness to the recent events of newness He brings into our lives each and every day. These in turn become the old that we remember.

So both the old and the new events that emerge from our relationship with the Lord Jesus are the treasures stored in our hearts. He is the foundation upon which we are experiencing the newness that is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is His rule in our hearts, minds and spirits by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Kingdom of newness in God.

My question to each is the same as that of Jesus, “Have you understood all these things?” I pray the answer is the same as the disciples, ‘Yes.’