Fri 13 Oct 2006
This was an Easter letter I wrote this year about the cost of the Kingdom (for those that don’t think it costs you anything, read on):
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With every holiday there is a certain feel, or theme. With Thanksgiving it’s the theme of appreciation and family. With Christmas it’s about joy, peace, and happiness. I think the underlying theme for Easter is seeking. For little children it may be seeking Easter eggs for candy or toys, but I believe the true seeking is in our God seeking us, and us seeking our God. However, all three have something in common, we all look foolish in our pursuits. With the children, they look silly hunting hard-boiled eggs in their nice new pristine Easter outfits. With God it is Jesus claiming to be the Saviour of the world while hanging on a cross. Beaten and bruised He’s claiming to be Lord and authority of all, but what is a Saviour that can’t save himself? Then there’s us, Christian’s believe that this beaten and bruised man is in fact Lord, and that not only did He die on the cross, He rose from the dead and is still alive today…but you can’t see Him.
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Jesus used this parable to describe the pursuit of man towards the Kingdom of God: Matt 13:44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field—and to get the treasure, too!” Think about how foolish this man must’ve looked to his neighbors. He’s probably worked all of his life, 40 hours a week, day in day out. He’s built a nice little family. Has the white picket fence house, and 2 new cars in the driveway. All of the sudden he comes back from a weekend drive and his neighbors see him selling absolutely everything he owns. His neighbor comes up to him while he’s packing his boxes, ”Now, exactly what are you doing?” And the man proceeds to tell him that he’s selling absolutely everything he owns to buy this empty field he found. I wonder what his neighbors thought. Some of the questions were probably similar to, “Where are you going to live? What are you going to do? What about your kids? How are you going to feed your family? What’s so special about this field?” Jesus used this parable to illustrate what we look like when we pursue His Kingdom, but I believe He was speaking from experience. He looked just as foolish! The religious leaders of the day asked Him questions about His pursuit of us, “Why do you eat and hang out with the sinners? Why do you allow a prostitute to wash your feet? Why don’t you follow the traditions?” You see, Jesus looked at us like the man in the parable looked at that empty field. He knew that even though to outside observers we weren’t worth anything based solely on our appearance, the treasure buried deep in the soil would be worth the pursuit and the price.
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People look at Christians with the same confused look on their faces. They wonder what we’re looking at when we gaze into that empty field. They don’t see anything, they only see the weeds and it’s stark emptiness. They don’t know about the treasure hidden in the dirt. These concepts are pretty well understood and maintained in our daily Christian walk. We know the outside observers think we’re weird for believing in Jesus. We’ve grown comfortable that most people don’t understand why we are looking at an empty field as if a palace of gold sat on it’s hill. However, I think we’ve been standing at the field’s edge for far too long. We keep telling people over and over, “You don’t understand, there’s treasure in that field!” I’m sure our neighbors are growing tired of us going on and on about the so called “treasure in the field”. And to be honest, I’m tired of us talking about it too.
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As Christian’s I feel as if we’ve only partially completed the transaction that’s described in the parable. I think we’ve found the treasure, and we’ve hid it. You don’t think the man was just going to go buy the field and sit on the treasure he found do you? What good is treasure if it doesn’t have value you can use? You may have a check written to you for a million dollars but a check for a million dollars won’t buy you anything, you have to cash the check first. I think it’s time people see why we keep looking at the field. Let’s finish the transaction and show them! The core of Jesus’ message was “Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Think of repentance as you would trading one thing for another. For example, in the “real” world we trade our time and fortune to acquire things such as houses, cars, and toys. As it relates to the parable, we’ve found the treasure, and we’ve hid it, but I don’t think we’ve actually made the purchase yet. This field does cost something, it isn’t free, it requires a trade. But, we are in good company. Jesus had to trade something in order to buy the field He was after. Jesus purchased us with His blood. He traded His heavenly rule to become a servant of His own creation. He traded His seat of judgment to become judged Himself. He traded His riches to become poor. He traded His life for death. Isn’t it beautiful? He saw the hidden treasure in our empty fields long before we even noticed the one in His. Think of it like this. Everything Jesus traded He set aside and layed it in a box in an unassuming field. When He took our guilt, He put His innocence in the box. When He took our death, He put His life in the box. Now, when it comes to our turn, we trade our guilt for His innocence, and our death for His life. This is salvation, this is Easter. Are we willing to make the trade? Are you willing to purchase the field? Do we trust that what God has to give us freely is better than what we can obtain by our own means?
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Let’s sell all we have and go buy the field and reveal it’s treasure to the world! We all saw what happened last year with Katrina. The things we acquire with our hands can easily be taken away in an instant. Why do we hold on to them so tightly? Jesus said He would trade us His eternal things for our temporal things! What a bargain! You may not have the ability to make the payment in full right now, but when has that stopped us in our pursuit of worldly things? We make down payments for things we can’t afford all the time. Why not make a down payment for that field today? What has God put in your heart to give Him as a payment this Easter? Is it your time, your desires, your full devotion? Just ask Him. Let’s finish the transaction and buy that field, “Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
