Jesus knows how we think

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080217.cfm
Exodus 34:29-35
Matthew 13:44-46

Two strange analogies of the Kingdom of Heaven that we read in Matthew chapter 13 reveal the crass nature of human beings. The parables of the hidden treasure and the rare pearl point out our inability to understand the divine opportunity of an eternal afterlife unless we can place heaven in the context of our current debased state. By debased, I mean that we can best see the value of the Kingdom through clandestine activities. It's the way of our world. 

We can relate to the concept of digging up treasure and then hiding it from everyone else’s greedy eyes. We grasp the necessity for an aggressive all-in competition to win the most precious object.

Those almost nefarious and certainly clandestine pursuits do not sound like highly spiritual activities. These parables, however, represent the methodology of Jesus Christ in getting our attention. Jesus is the one who used these analogies of pursuit for treasure. That’s how he knows we will understand the great gift of heaven. These analogies get at our very nature — folks on the prowl with rivalry in our hearts and combative means at our disposal.

Citing both secrecy and competition, Jesus explains that the Kingdom of Heaven has such a high value that we can probably best understand the importance of the Kingdom using a tale of trespassing with a shovel and vying for a rare purchase by assuring that we’re the highest bidder.

Jesus does not claim that’s how we actually take ownership of the treasure and finery of the Kingdom. The opposite is actually true. The Kingdom is a gift. The parables explain, however, that due to the way our minds work, it’s more appropriate to use human affinities. We employ secrecy and competition to find treasure. They pattern the eventual discovery of heaven.

We believe that the means to great wealth, incredulous as it sounds, is the way that Jesus must describe our desire for eternal life. Wealth consumes almost everyone. From our youngest days to the days of our old age we believe that treasures are buried in foreign lands, and that the largest nuggets of gold and the most precious gems come our way just once in a lifetime. We are taught to dedicate ourselves and gather the financial means to purchase our way into wealth through obsessive saving or obsessive work, mixed with incredible luck.

This isn’t the way to the Kingdom, but the Kingdom of Heaven is “like” a treasure buried in a field. It is “like” a merchant searching for fine pearls.

In our experience we have found that gaining great wealth comes along just once in a lifetime, and at great risk. Jesus knows how our lives are formed.

We’ve all heard the stories, and even have our own to tell, of the opportunity to buy a house or a rare vehicle or a famous work of art, but we didn’t have the gumption to buy it. We would have had to sell other stuff, or use our life savings, but we balked. We chickened out. To balk is to speak like a chicken. Balk, balk. balk. It’s not just money that we must give up in these stories, but everything associated with dedication and cleverness. Jesus doesn't want us to balk at the discovery of heaven. 

Every year a new film hits the theaters where the protagonist discovers a huge opportunity that will fulfill their dreams, but there’s a catch involved. A superhero must give up love. A politician can win high office, but he must forgo his family. A scientist can discover a cure that will make him famous, or a musician can gain top billing, or an athlete can become the greatest of all time, but each one must abandon every other facet of a normal life and focus all aspects of their lives toward that one goal. Success is dog-eat-dog, antagonistic, and requires streetwise cunning.

Jesus knows how our minds work. We live in a material world.

Opportunity for great wealth and treasure can be all-consuming. Weekly, many of us find ourselves going through the same review on how we’ll spend the $260 million that we might win buying a lottery ticket. We even strategize about how many tickets to buy; whether making up a number or using the randomly generated number matters; and even where we buy the ticket.

Garage sale aficionados, and now Craigslist hunters, spend entire days scrounging through piles of junk, scanning through pages and pages of websites, studying up on hidden finds in the oddest of places.

Jesus knows that is the way we think. That’s how our broken lives operate in a world that doesn’t realize the loveliness of God. We imagine that the greatest things in the world are hidden treasures and hard to find jewelry.

Wealth goals don’t just belong to the poor and middle class. Even the very wealthy scan the globe for gems and paintings that lie hidden from the astute eye of the savvy merchant. The penchant for pearls is in our DNA.

The newly rich appear to be easily drawn into further money-making schemes. They finally have their pot at the end of the rainbow, but they still want more. Both celebrities and sports millionaires reveal how all of us can be duped by the most obvious scams that soak up our thousands and millions of dollars, and leave us looking like fools.

The children of the devil, as Jesus explains in the parable of the seeds, taunt and tempt us at all times. No arena remains sacred from the nefarious who prey upon treasure hunters and profit-seeking merchants. Our search for treasures requires great cunning and cutthroat calculations, because we live in a world of competitive drives.

Jesus knows our hearts and understands our desire for treasure and pearls. He uses that to entice us with the fantastic gift of the Kingdom.

The reading today follows the verse stating the very reason why Jesus speaks in parables. “I will open my mouth in parables. I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.”

He tells us that what the parable of the weeds in the field means. The good seeds come from the Son of Man, and they are the children of the kingdom. The enemy sows his own seeds. 

If we are the children of the kingdom, then what we desire in our search for wealth will align to an eternal life with God. It is that simple, and that complex. Our search for treasure can be likened to the search for heaven. The difference is the discovery. Do we discover heaven? Have we found our way? Have we realized that Jesus knows what he is talking about, or do imagine that heaven is unattainable — a random find of treasure in a field we cannot afford, a precious gem that someone else will steal from us?

Our discovery of heaven reveals our need to cash in all our chips of this life, and all our gathered up wealth. If the treasure of heaven is really at our fingertips, why would we hesitate? Why would we hold on to other things when the treasure has been revealed to us?