#5
"You've got a package!"
In Solzhenitsyn's "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich,"
Shukhov, a prisoner in the gulags, wrote to his wife early on
and told her not to send any packages so as to use their skimpy
resources for their children. Solzhenitsyn writes of Shukhov,
"All the same every time anybody in his gang or in his part
of the barracks got a package - and this was nearly every day
- he felt a kind of pang inside because it wasn't him. And though
he told his wife she must never send him anything, even for Easter,
and he never went to that post with the list on it - unless it
was to take a look for some other guy who was well off - still
he sometimes had the crazy idea somebody might run up to him one
day and say: "Shukhov, what are you waiting for? You've got
a package!"
Imagine how Shukhov would have reacted if a package was placed
in his hands that he never dreamed he could receive. He would
have been delirious with joy. In the two parables Jesus tells
in Matthew 13:45-46, the characters discover something they'd
never dreamed of discovering. In one case, it's a hidden treasure.
In another case, it's a pearl of great value. Upon discovery,
they are delirious with joy and sell all their possessions to
acquire their discoveries. The treasure and the pearl represent
the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a source of such
joy that we gladly part with everything in order to gain it. Life
in the kingdom of heaven is worth giving up everything else of
value.
Jesus tells three parables in Matthew 33:44-50, and the way Matthew
presents them, it is clear that he intends us to understand them
as a series. The first two are obviously related to each other.
The third is related to the first two, though less obviously.
Amazing discoveries (13:44-46)
Matthew 13:44-46:
(44) "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. (45) Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, (46) and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it."
Valuables would be hidden in jars in Palestine, much like pirates
buried their treasure (Matthew 25:25). The land was so often ravaged
that burying valuables was a safe way to protect them from marauders.
Peasants dreamed of stumbling upon one of these jars.
The man in this story finds a treasure, then immediately hides
it. The background for this may be that of a peasant working in
the field of a landowner. If the treasure is removed, it belongs
to the landowner. If it remains in the ground, it also belongs
to the landowner, but leaves open the possibility that it could
be acquired by a new landowner, if a new landowner should come
along. This man intends on being the new landowner.
If this is the background for the parable, the man is not looking
for the treasure. In the course of his work, he stumbles upon
it. For some of us, in the course of our lives, we stumble upon
the kingdom without even looking for it.
The discovery of the treasure prompts an outlandish response.
It has changed his world view. His values change. He now has to
have that treasure. In order to get the treasure, he has to buy
the field. In order to buy the field, he has to sell all his possessions.
His possessions are now seen in light of the treasure. What he
valued before is dispensed with in order to acquire something
more valuable.
If you are reading this, you are getting a look at the treasure,
so to speak. Perhaps you may be stumbling upon it today. So, is
the discovery worth selling all your possessions?
What is it that makes the kingdom valuable? The kingdom is valuable
because of the King. John Piper: "The kingdom of heaven is
the abode of the King. The longing to be there is not the longing
for heavenly real estate, but for camaraderie with the King. The
treasure in the field is the fellowship of God in Christ."
But that leaves the question, "What does camaraderie with
the king do for us?"
Note what motivates the man in the story to sell his possessions
and acquire the treasure. It is "joy." Literally, the
text reads that "from his joy" he sells his possessions
in order to acquire the treasure. The source of joy for us is
camaraderie with the King. In John 16:22, Jesus connects "joy"
with relationship with him. Seeing him produces joy. Why is camaraderie
with the King such a source of joy? Our source of joy is the joy
the King takes in us, his love for us, his delight in us - the
joy that beams from his face as we enter his presence.
This is the joy of getting something. Make no mistake: This is
the joy of getting something for ourselves. Only one man is involved
in this story, and he acts completely in his own self-interest,
and Jesus the teller and Matthew the author would both have us
believe that he acted commendably. The man is motivated to sell
all his possessions by nothing other than his own joy.
The merchant in the second parable is a different sort of person
than the man depicted in the first parable. The first man stumbled
upon the treasure without even looking for it; this man is looking
for something. He is a merchant looking for fine pearls. He's
in the pearl-buying business.
He represents a seeker - someone who understands that there is
something more than himself out there. Moreover, he wants to do
something about it. He wants to search. He asks questions in legitimate
search of answers, not as a smoke screen to defend his position.
Some people find the kingdom by stumbling upon it; others find
the kingdom by searching for it. Perhaps some of you are searching
for that missing something. Perhaps some of you who have already
found the kingdom are searching still because you're convinced
that there's more to the kingdom than what you've seen.
The kingdom welcomes, even encourages, inquiry. In fact, there
seems to be a guarantee that those who seek God will find him.
The Lord told Israel: "And you will seek me and find me,
when you search for me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).
Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and
you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Matthew
7:7). Paul said that God made the nations "that they should
seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though
he is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:27).
When his disciples asked him why he spoke in parables, Jesus said,
"To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted" (Matthew
13:11). The parables tended to identify those who assigned enough
value to the kingdom to look for it. Those who wanted the kingdom
sought to understand the mysteries revealed in the parables; those
who didn't want the kingdom couldn't be bothered with investigating
such mysteries. So it is with the kingdom of heaven: It is waiting
to be found by those who search for it. The question then becomes,
"Are we in the pearl business?" Are we seeking, or are
we satisfied with pat, trite answers that only serve to justify
our safe but boring lifestyles?
In the course of his looking for fine pearls, the merchant makes
an amazing discovery. He's looking for pearls (plural), but he
finds "one" pearl. This pearl is "of great value."
By his subsequent actions, it is shown that he believes the pearl
to be more valuable than he ever dreamed a pearl could be.
However valuable we think the kingdom of heaven is, it is probably
a lot more valuable than we ever dreamed it could be. But in the
course of our seeking and agonizing and wondering what it is we're
missing, perhaps we, like the merchant, see something we've never
seen before. Perhaps we see the kingdom of heaven as that one
pearl of great value.
Upon making his discovery, the merchant does the same thing that
the man in the first parable did: He goes, he sells everything
he has and he makes a purchase. He sells everything he has in
order to buy the pearl. He is not buying the pearl in order to
make a profit; he's buying it in order to possess it. Once making
his purchase, he evidently gets out of the business. He's not
buying and selling anymore. What's he doing? He's appreciating!
Once we find the kingdom, and find it to be that pearl of great
value, what should we do? Appreciate it! On the one hand, we should
be in the pearl business, seeking for the kingdom and seeking
to understand its greatness; on the other hand, we should be in
the appreciation business, marveling at the greatness of the king
and his love for us when we find him.
Although these two stories come at things from slightly different
angles, they both make the same point: The superlative value of
the kingdom is worth giving up everything else one values. In
each story, the character is blown away by his discovery - so
much so that he responds in a startling way. The first character
is motivated by joy. And though it is not specifically stated
that the second character was motivated by joy, his reactions
indicate that joy, or something like it, motivated him to part
with everything in order to make the purchase of a lifetime.
Now that casts things in a different light, doesn't it? Giving
up one's possessions in this story does not equate to self-sacrifice.
So often our involvement with the kingdom of heaven is characterized
by a grim compulsion to do the right thing. If there are sacrifices
to be made, possessions to be released, dreams to be relinquished,
perhaps we'll muster up the discipline to do what must be done,
but we won't enjoy it. We'll do our best to beat our other desires
out of us so that we can desire the kingdom more. What a different
picture these parables paint. They paint a picture of someone
who is so hilarious with joy at the prospect of camaraderie with
the king that possessions slip easily from his hand without so
much as a blink of the eye. It is nothing other than joy that
loosens our grip on the things of this world.
Perhaps we have it the other way around. Perhaps we want to give
up things, or discipline ourselves to do the right things, in
order to get joy. In this story, it is joy that motivates the
man to give up things. That tells us that if we really understood
what we have in the kingdom of heaven, if we really understood
the joy the king finds in us, joy would fill our hearts, and then
giving up all those things, whatever they are, becomes easy.
I am afraid that at this time, place and pace, we've lost the
joy. We've lost the pure, simple, hilarious joy of enjoying the
king's enjoyment of us and have mucked up the life of faith will
all sorts of other junk. These parables are an invitation to enjoy
the king's enjoyment of you. So, enjoy the king's enjoyment of
you! And watch what happens in your life. In time, you won't recognize
yourself. Possessions and even once-cherished values and dreams
will slip easily from your fingers.
When Isaiah predicted Israel's return from exile, which is ultimately
fulfilled in Christ, he said, "And the ransomed of the Lord
will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting
joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow
and sighing will flee away" (Isaiah 35:10). We are the ransomed
of the Lord, released from exile and purchased by the Lord by
the blood of Christ. That's cause for joy and gladness.
C.S. Lewis' classic words from his essay "The weight of glory"
are apropos: "The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial,
but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to
deny ourselves and take up our crosses in order that we may follow
Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately
find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks
in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and
earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit
that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is
no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing
promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised
in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires
not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling
about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered
us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies
in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer
of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
These parables are an invitation to take a holiday at the sea,
and to let the king's love for us lap up onto the shores of our
heart.
Crushing agony (13:47-50)
Matthew 13:47-50:
(47) "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; (48) and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. (49) "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth, and take out the wicked from among the righteous, (50) and will cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
In the previous two parables, people were seeking the kingdom.
In this parable, the kingdom seeks people. As it turns out, the
kingdom is seeking people who value it. The third parable shows
that when people find the kingdom, it's not an accident. They
didn't just get lucky. Behind the scenes, the Lord sets the stage
for us to find him.
The dragnet, a large net that is pulled through the sea, is indiscriminate.
It gathers fish "of every kind," both "good"
and "bad." The story does not qualify what distinguishes
a good fish from a bad fish. Evidently, one is good for eating
and the other is not. Perhaps the bad ones were rotten or considered
unclean (Leviticus 11:10-12). The purpose of a dragnet is not
to gather bad fish; the purpose is to gather good fish. The bad
fish simply get in the way.
This parable clearly parallels the parable of the tares (Matthew
13:24-30, 36-43). The Son of Man sows the good seed, the sons
of the kingdom, but the devil is responsible for the tares, the
sons of the evil one. But until the harvest, the end of the age,
the wheat is indistinguishable from the tares. So in this parable,
the good fish are indistinguishable from the bad as they are gathered.
Sometimes, people who look like followers of Christ aren't followers
of Christ.
The "good" fish, then, represent the sons of the kingdom.
These are the people who, like the characters in the first two
stories, value the kingdom. The word "good" in verse
48 is the same word that is translated "fine" in verse
45. It can also be translated "beautiful." As the merchant
seeks something "beautiful," which turns out to be the
kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven is seeking things beautiful,
which turn out to be the sons of the kingdom. They are beautiful
in that they see the kingdom as beautiful, in that they see the
King as beautiful.
We are, in fact, transformed into the image of Christ as we behold
the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). Valuing the King,
then, not only marks us off as one who belongs to him but also
transforms us into people who reflect his splendor. Thus they
will "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father"
(Matthew 13:43). Their true beauty will be brought forth.
What, then, characterizes the "bad" fish? Presumably,
the same things that characterized the tares. They are "stumbling
blocks and those who commit lawlessness." They hinder others'
attempts to find the kingdom and follow the king, and they don't
value the laws of the kingdom.
What is the end of the age? Jesus is a prophet. In a fashion typical
of a prophet, he excoriated the Israelite leadership and predicted
its dethronement. For Jesus, the end of the age would be 70 A.D.,
when God's wrath would be executed against the evil of Jerusalem,
which would be destroyed by Rome (Matthew 23:29-39).
At that time there would be a separation of the wicked from the
righteous, the bad fish from the good fish. Thus, Jesus warns
his followers to flee Judea when the time comes (Matthew 24:16).
The wicked will stay and fight for Jerusalem and its corrupt ways,
but Jesus wants his followers to have no part in a war that God
has ordained Israel to lose.
The good and bad fish are now seen to represent wicked and righteous
people. The wicked are those who oppose the king and his kingdom;
the righteous are those who love the king and his kingdom.
The separation of the wicked from the righteous means judgment
for the wicked. Fire is used as a metaphor for judgment, and the
experience of judgment is illustrated by "weeping and gnashing
of teeth." When pagan Israel is judged in 70 AD, there will
be the anguish of knowing that Jesus and his followers had been
vindicated. What he said would happen really happened. This is
not a fate that befalls the wicked, but one they choose. They
were invited to the kingdom feast, but they declined (Matthew
22:1-13).
The judgment upon Jerusalem is just a portend of a greater judgment
to come, a final separation of the wicked from the righteous,
of those who despise the kingdom from those who love it (2 Thessalonians
1:9, Revelation 20:11-15). For the wicked, there will be "weeping
and gnashing of teeth," which would no doubt include the
knowledge that Jesus and his followers have been vindicated as
the true people of God.
The separation of the wicked from the righteous is carried out
by angels. That means it's not up to us to separate. The sons
of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one often are indistinguishable
to the human eye. The bad fish look like good fish when they're
in the net. That means it's not up to us to decide who's in and
who's out. That's one less thing we have to worry about.
The parable is much more concerned with the fate of the wicked
than of the righteous. The parable of the tares included the destiny
of the righteous, but the parable of the dragnet does not. The
first two parables in this series demonstrated what the righteous
gain: joy. Thus, this parable serves to contrast the joy of the
righteous, as depicted in the first two parables, with the agony
of the wicked, as depicted in this one.
If the wicked only knew what they were missing out on, their weeping
and gnashing of teeth would no doubt be infinitely louder and
harder. Their ultimate tragedy is not the judgment they endure
but the joy they forfeit. The ultimate tragedy is that they will
be "away from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians
1:9). As seen in the first two parables, the presence of the Lord
means infinite joy, but these have no idea. They are spared the
crushing agony of understanding the joy they have forfeited. But
in the parables, we can see the crushing agony, which makes the
offer of joy all the more irresistible.
For the wicked, the Lord is an enemy, and they will be happiest,
if it's possible for them to be happy at all, if he keeps as far
away from them as possible. They'll be "happier" making
mud pies in a slum forever. George MacDonald said, "The one
principle of hell is, 'I am my own.'" And thus is one who
rejects God's offer of joy. God will mess with him no more.
Joy enough for a lifetime
But until then, thank God he messes with us. Thank God that one way or another, he shows us the kingdom and offers to take us away from our mud pies in a slum for a holiday at the sea. Some of us stumble upon it; some of us search for it. We all get a look at it. It's joy. It's the joy of knowing that the king takes joy in us. That's joy enough for a lifetime - and eternity. So, what are you waiting for? You've got a package!
- SCG, 3-8-98
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