You Are The Pearl

"Again, the kingdom of heaven

is like a merchant

seeking beautiful pearls,

who, when he had found

one pearl of great price,

went and sold all that he had

and bought it."

--Jesus

Matthew 13:45-46, NKJV

I love the parables of Jesus, those simple stories that illustrate such profound truth.  Most of them we have heard again and again, and it's easy to become so familiar with them that we don't really notice the details anymore.  Skimming through Matthew 13, it's like, yeah, yeah, a sower went out to sow some seed, and only some of it produced any fruit, and an enemy planted weeds among the wheat, but the weeds get burned, the tiny mustard seed grew a great big tree and the yeast leavened the lump, and a man found treasure in a field, and also found a pearl of great price, and caught a whole bunch of fish, and...  Maybe that's not you, but I know that has been me at times.

Then the last time through Matthew's gospel something caught my attention, and today the thought just wouldn't leave me alone.  The details in each parable or exact and put in for a purpose.  All my life I thought the parable of the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44) and the parable of the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46) were the same.  I've even preached them the same way--that when we find the hidden treasure (Jesus) or the pearl of great price (Jesus), we will sell everything we have to buy it.

Except that the way Jesus told the parable, he is not the pearl of great price.  We are.

Think about it.  The key to each parable is in the phrase, the kingdom of heaven is like...  And then the parable goes on to explain some wonderful facet of God and his plan for the universe, his plan for us.  The parable tells us about the nature of God and his work in the earth and in our lives.  The parable instructs us as to what the kingdom does.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not the pearl in this story, the Kingdom of Heaven is the merchant.  The merchant goes out into the world for something worth having, and when he finds it he gives his all to have it.

Did not Jesus say, "I came to seek and to save that which was lost"?

Did not Jesus say, "You did not choose me, but I have chosen you"?

Did not Jesus say, "I came to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many."

Peter calls us God's own special possession.  Malachi declared that we are God's jewels.  Paul says we are not our own, we have been bought with a price.  And in this we know love, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!  We were wretched and lost, but Jesus found us and saw in us something worth dying for.  In the natural, we might be willing to put our lives on the line for the innocent or the good.  In the Spiritual, Jesus laid his all on the cross for the wicked and the worthless.  But he saw in us something he wanted, something he wanted to save.

Inside the not-so-attractive oyster, beneath that hard, barnacle-encrusted exterior, pry open the shell and you just might find...a pearl of great price.