Buried Treasure (Ros' Blog)

There’s a story which Jesus told, that is often used in an evangelistic context. It’s a very short story, and is found in Matthew 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.” (NLT)

I have often heard this story used to make an appeal to people to give their lives to Christ. Once you find Him, the priceless treasure, you will realise that it is worth surrendering your whole life in order to possess Christ and be possessed by Him. And this is true.

But suppose Jesus, as He was telling the story, had a very different perspective in mind? Suppose He was thinking of the field as the world He had come to, and the man who buys it as Himself? On that reading of the story, we are the treasure which He considered it worth giving up all He had to possess.

Sadly, we live in a society which makes disabled people feel that they are at worst a burden, and at least less productive than other citizens. This chips away at a person’s self-worth until someone with a disability can feel of less worth than someone who has no physical or intellectual impairments.

But once you see yourself as a priceless treasure for which God Himself was prepared to give up everything, suddenly your “net worth” is no longer measured by your economic productivity or your sporting prowess. And this is as it should be. If an item is worth whatever people will pay for it then knowing that God, incarnate in the person of Jesus, paid everything He owned for you, makes you someone of incalculable worth.

If the Queen were to hand over all her houses, lands and wealth in order to possess one object, think how valuable that object would be. So I would like to encourage you to see yourself as more valuable than anything else in the Universe, because Jesus Christ considered it worth giving up everything He had to be able to redeem you.

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8. 31-32, NLT)