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Matthew 13:44-52 Ninth Sunday After Pentecost Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, July 30, 2023 “The Kingdom of Heaven Is Your Greatest Treasure” Once upon a time…a man found a treasure. I know that’s not a lot to go on, but it could be an interesting story. In fact, it has been an interesting story in movies and books and in real life. What makes the story so interesting? People understand it. We know what a treasure is, even if we don’t generally find them. We know what it would mean to find a treasure and how excited we would be, wondering, hoping that we might be able to keep it. And that means that we can relate to the stories Jesus tells about finding treasures. A man buys a field not because he wants the field, but because he knows about the treasure buried in it. A pearl merchant buys the single most incredible pearl he has ever seen. That must be quite the pearl. That must be quite the treasure. But when Jesus tells these stories, do we really understand what those treasures are? Do we really understand what true treasure is? Do we behave in ways that are appropriate for seeking spiritual wealth? Do we place value on the kingdom of heaven, value that makes it the most valuable thing in our lives? Those are the questions with which Jesus confronts us as we hear him speak 3 short parables in today’s Gospel. And when we listen and take to heart what Jesus says, he leads us to conclude that the kingdom of heaven is our greatest treasure. The verses in front of us wrap up a section of Matthew chapter 13. They make up the last three of seven parables that Jesus teaches in this chapter alone. We have heard some of the others in the past few weeks if you have participated in our services. In all of these parables, Jesus is using stories, stories about familiar or relatable things to teach lessons about spiritual matters. Jesus teaches us a lot about various aspects of the kingdom of heaven. He allows us to see details that would otherwise remain hidden. And it’s not hard to get the point of the parables in front of us today. There are some obvious similarities between the first two, the finding of the treasure and the finding of the pearl. In both, something of incredible value is discovered. In both, the person who finds it sacrifices everything else to get that valuable treasure. Jesus is teaching us that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else. It is our greatest treasure. The action taken by both men in the stories Jesus tells makes sense if the treasure they find is truly valuable. Let’s just use some round numbers. If I find a treasure in a vacant lot and that treasure is worth a million dollars, it would be plenty sensible to sell my house to buy the lot with the treasure for $250,000. It may be a lot to spend, but I would end up with much more than what I gave up. And OK, that scenario seems a little unrealistic for today. When Jesus was sharing this parable, it would have been much more common for people to find buried treasures. People were known to bury part of their net worth in the ground for safekeeping, and they did not always have a chance to retrieve it later. The treasure in the story is so valuable that it is worth giving up everything else for the man who happened upon it. Now, Jesus is not telling us how we might be able to buy our way into heaven. He is not suggesting that it is a commodity to be purchased. He is telling us that it is worth giving up anything else in order to have it and to hold onto it. The kingdom of heaven may be something that seems to come to us by chance—not that we were specifically looking for it. Our parents bring us to the baptismal font and raise us up with Bible stories and church. Our neighbor invites us to come and see why she loves her church so much. A friend drops off a book that I read. Whatever the details, God works through his Word to show us not just our sins but also our Savior from sin in his dear Son Jesus Christ. And there we have it—the greatest treasure. God works in our hearts through the Word and through his sacraments and we become part of his kingdom. And it is worth anything that we might have to give up. What might we have to give up? Our selfish desires. Our misplaced priorities. Our focus on earthly things. We could find all sorts of examples. And truth be told, we can have a very hard time giving some of these things up. It is easy to claim to be a Christian but not to help someone in need when it is inconvenient. It is easy to claim that the kingdom of heaven is my greatest treasure and then to skip church when I just don’t