“Is it worth it?”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Matthew 13:44-52 (Forward, p. 9) CEV p. 1000
Here, in these four little pericopes, small fragments of text from Matthew’s Gospel, we find a rather intriguing theme in common to all of them. It is the theme of whether something is really worth all the time and effort and expense.
In the first piece it concerns a hidden treasure, a treasure that is hidden out in someone else’s field. (Now why the ‘finder’ was even out in that other person’s field, trespassing basically, is never mentioned, much less addressed). And, it seems apparent that the owner of the particular field either does know that the treasure is there, or else is not convinced of its worth. Anyway, the ‘finder’ is convinced of its worth and sells everything he has just in order to buy that field. In modern terms, one might well ask, ‘why doesn’t he just buy the rights to mine the treasure, or extract it, or ‘harvest it’, or whatever is necessary? But that is not how property rights worked in ancient times. To gain even a small part of a field or property, one had to buy the whole parcel, as Abraham found when he wanted to buy the cave on Ephron’s land in order to bury Sarah there (see Genesis 23). Anyway, in today’s portion of Scripture, the ‘finder’ is convinced of its surpassing worth, so much so that he surrenders all else in order to attain it. To him, it must have been a pretty good ‘find’ if he was willing to go to those lengths! This, Jesus says, is how much the kingdom is worth.
In our second story there is a shop keeper who is on the lookout for fine pearls. He finds an extremely valuable specimen, and like our first person, is willing to sell all his possessions in order to purchase it for himself. This, to us, may seem extremely unwise, even fool-hearty, for what could be worth that much, but to him, it is worth it. Once again, the kingdom of God is in mind: it is worth that much.
Our third story concerns a fisherman going about his task of sorting out his daily catch of fish. Once again, there are some that are of value, worth keeping, and some that aren’t and so the poorer quality fish are thrown away and good ones kept. Once again, there is a discerning of value, only here we later learn that the ‘sorting’ is really about people. Some people, by virtue of the lives they have lived, are seen as ‘poorer quality fish’ (to
use the image of this parable) and so consign themselves to being excluded from the kingdom.
Our final pericope has to do with a wise and understanding scribe, a discerning student of the Scriptures, who once again, is able to do some ‘sorting’, some discerning of what is worth keeping, worth extracting from his storehouse and sharing. And here it is of interest that these things may be both old and new. (To me, this is an apt description of what Matthew the evangelist has done in the gospel that commonly bears his name.)
In all this, the central question remains: whatever it is, is it worth it? This brings to mind something that happened on one of our family rock-hunting trips. On a backroad in central BC we came across a solid wall of basalt, on the face of which was an incredibly lovely geode. (A geode, for the uninformed, is a hollow and often spherical pocket of rock that has been filled with some mineral or precious stone or crystal.) While they often can be found detached from its parent body of rock, this one was lodged in an otherwise solid piece of rock. This geode was probably four feet in height and was filled with the loveliest, deepest shade of purple amethyst crystals. On the open market, it probably would have been worth several thousand dollars, but after several hours of trying to chisel away the surrounding rock, we gain up on it as ‘not being worth it.’
This, then, raises a question for me—and for all of us. What are the things that we give up on as ‘not being worth it’? And are some of them—by God’s estimation at least—actually extremely worthwhile, things like the hidden treasure or the pearl of great price of our parables? Maybe things like holiness or growth in faith and wisdom or getting to know Jesus better or becoming more and more like Christ. And what if some of the things that we consign to not being ‘worth it’, things like godly and exemplary in our habits or behaviours, actually lead us, in their absence, to being grouped with the worthless fish, and thus losing out entirely? I have to say that these parables, these little pericopes of thought, really leave me thinking about what is truly worthwhile, and what is not.
Forward notes: “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant” (verse 45a).
“The parables of the treasure in the field and of the pearl of great price are placed in such a way that a careless or inattentive reader might assume the pearl, like the treasure, refers to the Reign of God. But look again: ‘the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls’ (emphasis
added.) What, then, does the spectacular pearl signify? In a word: us. In the previous parable, the man is enriched by finding the kingdom. In the second, the kingdom is enriched by finding us. We are the pearl of great value. It is for us that God gives everything.”
Moving Forward: “Have you thought of yourself as the pearl God seeks? How does imagining yourself as the treasure in the field shape your relationship with God?
A concluding note: So, according to our Forward Day by Day meditation, the ‘finder’ and the merchant, the shop keeper, are none other than God Himself, who seeks all, gives all, expends all, sacrifices all, in order to gain us or win us. And He did all of this ‘while we were still weak and helpless and unable to help ourselves’. And, in the story of the fish, it is indeed God that is involved, only here the fish bear some responsibility. They are bad or good, presumably by the choices they have made in life.