Matthew 13.44-50

What do you consider to be a treasure?

What is something you search for, keep for yourself, and collect?

By definition, a treasure is something that you consider valuable for your life both today and in the future.

And, here’s the thing about treasure—acquiring whatever it is that we personally consider to be a treasure motivates us to get up and move into action to try and get it and hold onto it.  Or, in other words, we are willing to work as hard as we can to gain access and possession of that which we call treasure.

Some people consider things like money, jewels or jewelry, and precious metals like gold and silver to be treasures worth chasing after.  To picture these valuables, mentally imagine every photo or drawing of a pirates chest that you have ever seen.

However, some people consider things like power, equity, personal peace, world peace, and relationships to be treasures worth chasing after.

In a thoughtful blog that I was reading this week, the author presented a different road to go down when we think about treasures in our life.

On a list that the author labeled, “The 10 Most Important Things to Treasure in Life,” she included:

Music; Loved ones; Food & Nourishment; Shelter; Learning & Education; Nature and Natural spaces; Plants & Animals; Culture & Discovery, Spirituality; and, Your Health.

What this author is doing is moving our minds away from the materialistic worldview and showing us that valuable and important things for our life today and in the future aren’t always shiny and expensive.

In this list, we are encouraged to see the value in peace, health, and safety.

In our text for this morning, from the Gospel of Matthew, or, the Good News for You according to Matthew, we hear about treasures being found and treasures being chased after.

Specifically, we hear about two people who found items that the considered to be of such great value that they had to sell everything else that they owned to buy the treasure that they found.

Let’s hear Jesus’ two stories of treasure being found.

In Matthew 13:44–46, Jesus says:

[44] “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.

[45] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, [46] who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

In both of Jesus’ stories we hear about people who found items of great value.  

The value of the items found, the treasure in the field — whatever it was — and the most precious pearl in the entire world, caused the finder to give up everything they had to buy the item.

These two short stories are parables.

That means they are fictitious tales told to make a spiritual point.

Now, let me be honest.  

It is easy to read these two parables and think, “I have to find God and then give up everything I have to follow Him because He is worth more than anything else I could ever own.”

Now, even though there is some truth in that statement, it is not the lesson of this parable.  

On default mode, we believe we can be good enough for God.  We wrongly believe we can dig and search. In our broken understanding, we believe we can find the treasure that is God in Heaven without any help.

However, we have to think Biblically when interpreting the parables. The Scripture makes it clear that because of the sin that we are born with, we cannot and do not look for God, EVER!

Paul tells us this outright, without beating around the bush, in his letter to the Christians in Rome when he says:

“None is righteous, no not one;

No one understands;

No one seeks for God.”

In sin, we are called blind and deaf.  We cannot see and we cannot hear God.  Therefore, we cannot dig or search.

Not only can’t we hear or see God, but we also don’t want to see or hear God because we are so self-centered and self-righteous.  And, in that state of mind, God is just a cosmic buzzkill wanted to control us and boss us around for his own sadistic pleasure.

If these two parables are not about us playing the part of the brilliant, eccentric Sherlock Holmes, following the clues to God’s great love, what then is the point of these two stories that Jesus tells us?

What is the treasure, what is the item of great value, and who gives up everything to buy it?

Are you ready for this?

Are you ready for the answer to these questions?

Well, 

You are the treasure.

You are the pearl of great price.

You are God’s treasure.

You are the one that God continually searches for.

And, God gave up everything to purchase you when He found you.

You may have heard throughout your life that you are trash, that you are good for nothing, that you are useless and a waste of flesh and bones.

You maybe have even been treated that way by family members, friends, romantic partners, teachers, bosses, or pastors.

But, God tells you this morning that you are not trash, but treasure!

You have worth.  You have value.  You are important to the well-being of this world.

God, in Jesus Christ, found you and considered a restored relationship with you a treasure worth giving up everything He had, including His own life.

God gave up all that He had, His One and Only Son, Jesus, on the cross to buy you and bring you home to Heaven with Him.

God, in Jesus, forgave your self-righteous and self-centered sin of seeking after all of the wrong “treasures” in this world—none of which included Him.  Those false treasures, as you have, or, will find out, give you a false sense of peace, health, and security today and for your future.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20

[19] … You are not your own, [20] for you were bought with a price.

And, because you were bought at price by God, when the last day comes and the net is drawn into the boat you will be sorted out and welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven forever.

This is what was promised from the beginning of time and all throughout the Old Testament and this is the promised that was fulfilled in the New Testament when Jesus gave up everything to leave his throne in Heaven and come to earth to bring you back to God.

Those are the things that the last part of our Scripture tells us when we hear:

[47] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. [48] When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. [49] So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous [50] and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

God came to you in the person and work of Jesus Christ to find you and bring you home to Heaven.

When Jesus finds you and gives up everything to buy you, meaning that He gives His own life over to death on the cross for you—to pay the price for you sin, your sin that makes you think you can earn God’s favor by finding Him first by your good thoughts, words, and deeds—it is only then that you can find yourself believing in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven.  In that grace of God searching and finding you, you can’t help but rejoice!

There is no better news in the world than God considers you to be His greatest treasure.

In a devotional that I am working through that focuses on the Biblical truths found in Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, one writer says this:

“He could stay in His heavens and be disconnected from us, but He does not.  He could come to us in ways that would leave us guessing, “Is that God?” But He does not.  Rather, He presents to us one very clear way to saving faith, and so we run, jump, and dance to be part of it in His Church…God is active…God pours salvation on us.”

God is always actively looking for you who need to be comforted.

And, God always gets His way because He does not give up.

God finds you, celebrates that He found you, and then makes you His own through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all for you.

On Friday, I had the privilege of leading a funeral service for one of Bethel’s founding members.

Near the close of the service, I shared a bit of what it was like to spend time with the now deceased man.

Here are the words that I used to encourage Mike’s family and I want to use to encourage you as well:

If you ever had the privilege of spending time in Mike and Anny’s home, the one thing that Mike would never let you do is leave without seeing his upstairs trophy room.  With a smile on his face, Mike would recap the planning, the execution, the adventure, and the joy in each one of his hunting expeditions that led him to bring home a prize to be hung on the wall, or made into a table or a lamp.  These were Mike’s treasures.

Although those of us left behind are experiencing the pain of loss, we can find encouragement in knowing that at this very second, Jesus is giving Mike a tour of his heavenly trophy room.  

With a smile on his face, Jesus is recapping all of the planning, execution, adventure, and joy that went into his life, death on the cross, and resurrection.  The works that Jesus did for Mike to secure forgiveness and salvation for Mike and for each one of us.  And, Jesus has handed Mike his heavenly trophy, the prize that he has won, a God made crown, that will not rot or fade with time, saying to Mike, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  Mike is now Jesus’ treasure and because of Mike’s faith, Mike has full hold of the treasures that will last eternally.

This morning, as you receive the benediction and leave, it is my hope and Mike’s family’s hope that you would leave knowing that in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God has purchased forgiveness, salvation, and a heavenly crown that is waiting for you once you too leave this current life.

You too, through faith alone, are Jesus’ personal treasure.

Right now, if you are in a place where you believe that the so-called good things that you do are earning you a place in God’s Kingdom, I ask you to repent.  I ask you to confess that sin to God.  And, I ask you to receive the free gift that is the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life which was bought for you by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

I leave you with Philippians 2:5–11:

[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)

You are God’s treasure.

Go, and let other’s know that Jesus’ death on the cross shows that they are God’s treasure as well.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

October 12, 2025