Matthew 13:44-45

TREASURE AND MERCHANT-MAN

‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field … is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls.’

Matthew 13:44

The two parables should be taken together. Two views of one subject:—

I. Look at each separately.

(a) The husbandman and the treasure. Tales of treasure found; unreal to us, real to the Orientalists then and now. Treasure buried at the flight of a man, he never coming back. Found perhaps years after. This the picture here. Describe finding, joy, prudence (buying the field), possession.

(b) The value of pearls and the variety of worth. The merchant-man—his occupation, good fortune, immediate wise action, possession.

II. Look at them together.

(a) Points of difference.

(i) The husbandman found without, and the merchant-man after, seeking. Those now living the Christian life described in both parables, but there divided into two classes, the distinction having reference to the way in which they were led to the possession of Gospel treasure. Those whose search has not been treasure but low aims, earthly desires; and those who seeking for the valuable and nobler have found Christ.

(ii) Emotion spoken of in the one instance, but not in the other. The joy of the husbandman. The joy of the merchant-man. The one spoken of, the other not mentioned. Both real, but the one in some respects different from the other. Let us not harshly judge one another.

(b) Features of resemblance.

(i) Each man made what he found his own individually. The husbandman bought the field himself, not his employers. The merchant-man himself bought the pearl, not his fellow merchant-man. In no sense the act of others for them, in each the act of the man for himself. There must be personal contact through personal faith, before we possess.

(ii) Each man willing to give up all in order to possess. In each instance this was done, directly, readily, without effort. Why? Because of the incalculable gain. The Christian life is one of giving up to possess. What Christ calls us to give up—sin, occasions of sin; self; the Christian aim, ‘None of self and all of Thee.’

Illustration

‘One of the diamond-fields of South Africa was discovered on this wise. A traveller one day entered the valley and drew near to a settler’s door, at which a boy was amusing’ himself by throwing stones. One of the stones fell at the stranger’s feet, who picked it up and was in the act of laughingly returning it, when something flashed from it which stopped his hand and made his heart beat fast. It was a diamond. The child was playing with it as a common stone; the peasant’s foot had spurned it; the cart-wheel had crushed it; till the man who knew saw it and recognised its value.’