Pentecost 10 (6)

Matthew 13:44–52 (NIV84)

44 “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. 45 “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. 47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 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. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked. “Yes,” they replied. 52 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.”

The Amish (/ˈɑːmɪʃ/; Pennsylvania German: Amisch; German: Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins.[2] They are closely related to Mennonite churches, a separate Anabaptist denomination.[3] The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will).

The similar parables of the Treasure in the Field and The Pearl of Great Price teach the same lessons.

Lesson #1: There are things that are considered to be very important, valuable, of high priority.

Lesson #2: In order to have those things, a person will go to extremes to sacrifice what they already have in exchange for them.

Question: What are the things that are most important?

Question Two: What are we willing to sacrifice to have those things?

See passages on being willing to give up everything to follow Jesus and his teachings.

Introspection: Do we? Or are we more prone to compromise, put off until later, disregard what is most important?

Have you ever noticed how some people tend to fill the space that they are in? I don’t mean that they grow into their clothes but that they will fill their storage space, living areas, garages, and sheds with their accumulated items often until they need more a bigger storage space even to the point of having to rent off site storage units. This phenomena may sneak up on us as we gather items one shopping trip at a time or one Amazon Prime delivery at a time. But when it comes time to move or to down size we are struck with the reality that “Oh my, I have a lot of stuff.” And according to some “experts” much of what we have accumulated over the years is of real no value and we need to spend some time getting rid of our treasured possession. For example:

Outdated documents

Cars you no longer need

Storage units

Kids’ outgrown items

Work clothes

Spare sets of tableware

Other heirlooms

VHS tapes, vinyl records

Wall hangings

Books

Furniture

Vacation memorabilia

Old electronics

Water bottles

On the surface it may seem as though Jesus is giving advice on how to minimize the abundance of possession and own only a couple of things that are of the greatest value. True, he does teach elsewhere that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. St. Paul writes that we are to be content with having food and raiment. (clothing). The parable of the Rich Farmer warns against greed and selfishness. There is much to say about the proper balance between needs and wants.

Jesus relates to this common idea of balance between true treasure and just having a bunch of stuff as in both cases the person recognizes what is most important and sells everything to possess it. But he uses that common truth to emphasize a higher priority. He teaches that his followers are to consider the kingdom of heaven to be the number one focus in life and everything else is to be secondary.

See parallel passages.