A Personal Devotional Journal

I invite you to journey with me. Sometimes we will look at short passages of Scripture and I will give my first thoughts and impressions. Other times, I will just share my thinking about spiritual issues. Always, you are welcome to comment and add your thoughts. Together, we could learn something.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Matthew 13:44 "The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like...(part three)

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."

Jesus spoke often about the Kingdom of God.  Matthew's Gospel, written for the Jews who were reluctant to ever say "God" for fear of breaking the commandment about taking His name in vain, calls it the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Kingdom of God/Kingdom of Heaven is not about Heaven after we die or sometime in the distant future at the end of time.  Jesus claimed that the Kingdom had arrived.  The Kingdom is wherever He (Jesus) is and wherever His people are, whenever they are doing His work.

Although it is difficult to describe exactly what the Kingdom is, Jesus told several parables to illustrate what the Kingdom is like.  Today we see that it is like when a man finds a treasure in a field, and goes and sells everything he owns in order to buy the field which contains the treasure.


The question we ask is "How is the Kingdom like this man finding the treasure in the field?"


I can look at this parable in two ways.  First, we are the man who finds the treasure -we find the Kingdom; we find Jesus.  It is worth our while to sell everything -to leave everything behind -to give up every plan, thought and hope we had before knowing Jesus, in order to pursue Jesus and His Kingdom.  To know Christ more is worth everything.


The second way I look at it is that God is the man, and I am the treasure.  He gave everything, including His Son, to purchase me, to own me, to possess me.  I am now His field.  He thinks I'm worth it.


Both of these views are correct.  Christ is worth leaving everything to pursue; and He left everything to pursue me.

1 comment:

  1. we can't comprehend what he gave up to redeem us. And the example of love represents His father - our father. Oh glorious Love. Praise Him.

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