Scripture: Matthew 13:44; John 3:16-17; Luke 19:10
Theme: Dirt Sayings
Title: Treasure Hunting – Jesus Style
This sermon focuses on the greatest treasure that has ever be found – Humanity. Jesus found us, paid the price for us and now in Him we can enjoy the Abundant Life here on this earth and on the New Earth to come.
INTRO:
Good morning and grace to you from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!
Our passage this morning centers on the subject of dirt. It seems like the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY really loves to deal with dirt. After all, as we have looked at before, the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY used dirt in our creation.
You and I started off as some dirt in the land of Eden. The Lord God took some dirt, formed Adam and then breathed life into him. That simple dirt became a human being that was able to reflect God’s glory and honor. That simple dirt became a human being that was made just a little lower than the angels in Heaven. That simple dirt creation was given the ability to be One with God, with others, with themselves and with all of the rest of creation.
Now, that in and of itself is a powerful message. But let’s get back to our passage this morning.
Verse 44 is just a simple little verse. While it only contains a few words those words pack quite a bit of substance:
+They are centered on the Kingdom of Heaven
+They share a story about a person who discovers a treasure in another person’s field
+The discoverer takes the treasure and hides in another location in the same field
+They then go and buy the field from the person who actually owned it
+Now, both the field and the treasure are theirs to enjoy and relish
As with all of Jesus’ little pithy sayings there is more than one message that we can glean from this single little verse. We see that because over the years, different messages, sermons and teaching lessons have come from this little verse.
It reminds me of the many times that Jesus ended his messages with “He who has ears let him hear.” In other words, Jesus is telling us to open our hearts and minds to all that the Holy Spirit wants to share with us. If we will do that then we will find ourselves understanding more and more of the Bible and thus enabling us to deepen our relationship with the LORD.
There are some things that almost everyone agrees about this little verse:
1. The extreme value of the treasure that has been discovered in the field.
2. The cost that it took to buy the field that contains the treasure – everything.
3. The joy that comes from now owning both the land and the treasure.
Now, for us that have lived under capitalism, one of the first things that may cause us to wonder is what in the world was the treasure?
Was it a bag of golden coins?
Was it a bag of diamonds or other jewels?
Was it a chest full of property deeds that would then lead to the person owning a great many more properties?
We just don’t know, but I think we perhaps might know an answer if we go back to the beginning of the verse – “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like”
When we put everything into context of what is being said, I believe it opens up for us the opportunity to understand Our Lord and Savior Jesus a little more. I think that the treasure that has “been hidden” is none other than all of humanity and in fact all of creation and Jesus is the One who was willing to pay the price for rescuing and redeeming that treasure.
Now, let’s take some time to flesh this out.
When we read Genesis chapters 1-3, we discover a story that is filled with creation, amazement, beauty and everlasting life. Adam and Eve (the first humans) are enjoying life to its fullest in the Garden of Eden. They have been given permission to eat of nearly all the trees in the Garden including the Tree of Life. They have been given dominion and power over all of creation. Everything has been entrusted to them and they have been commissioned to go and make the rest of the Earth look like, feel like, smell like and be like the Garden of Eden.
The more you reflect on Genesis 1-2 the more you are aware of just what an amazing place it was and what an opportunity had been handed to Adam and Eve. Even though once again, they had started from dirt all the treasures of the world were theirs to own and command. That included all the trees, plants and animals, fish of the sea and minerals and jewels on the earth.
All of that was at their disposal and having been made by God in His Image and having been given life by His Holy Spirit we have to understand that they were in fact the greatest human beings to have ever existed. When God tells you that you can create the whole earth to look like one of the greatest places outside of Heaven then you have not only been given a great task but have also been given the wisdom, knowledge and abilities to actually do it.
Earliest man was not something that needed to evolve. Earliest man – Adam and Eve were already at the height of what human beings could be – made by God, made in His Image and having the breath of God in them.
But then we come to Genesis chapter three we see all of that being lost. The Devil who is a Thief, Liar and Murder came into the Garden of Eden and with the help of Adam and Eve created a world of doubt, chaos and disaster.
Genesis chapter three explains how Adam and Eve traded their innocence and purity for rebellion. It explains how they traded their holiness for pride and arrogance. It explains how they traded everything good that God had given them and gifted them for a life full of alienation, suffering, pain, heartache and death.
What was once theirs was now given away. What dreams and goals they had been given were now trashed. Instead of populating the world with human after human living lives to the glory of God they would now be populating the world with broken and damaged humans. Instead of turning the world into a Garden of Eden there would be more places that looked like Hell than Heaven.
But in the midst of all of this, God saw humanity as a treasure. Humanity was a treasure that needed to be rescued and redeemed. Humanity was a treasure that was lost (buried in sin) but a treasure that could be recovered.
You could say that after Adam and Eve’s sin humanity was in fact hidden in sin. You could say that they were hidden in the Devil’s territory; in the Devil’s land under his control and the control of evil.
The only way humanity could be rescued and redeemed would come at a tremendous cost. Just like the person in the story that cost involved everything. That cost was everything that the person owned.
Now, think of the life of Jesus. Think of the things that He told us:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” – John 3:16
“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10
Jesus told us that He came to save us. Saving us meant that He would have to surrender His life for us. And that is the story we read about over and over again in the Bible. The story of how God in Flesh, the Son of God, Jesus Christ came to give his life a ransom, a payment for all of us.
Just as the person who found the treasure paid everything to redeem the treasure and the field so too has Jesus done the same to rescue and redeem all of us.
Humanity could not redeem itself. It was broken, full of sin and alienated from God. There was no way humanity could help itself. It was under both the penalty and curse of sin and evil. It was in effect buried in the devil’s field.
The only way for humanity to be redeemed was for a willing sacrifice to be made in its place. The Apostle Paul puts it this way:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.” – Romans 6:23
Do I fully understand how Jesus did all of this?
Oh, you could spend forever looking at this theory of the Atonement and that theory of the Atonement but in the end it much of it is beyond our complete understanding.
What is a fact, is that Jesus the Anointed One, the Messiah gave Himself for everyone. He paid the price of sin for all of us. He died in our place. He made a way for us to be rescued and redeemed. He made a way for us to be restored back into God’s image.
This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. It is like Jesus. It is Jesus coming to earth to be with God’s greatest creation; humanity. It’s like Jesus coming to earth to be one of us and then doing whatever was necessary to rescue, redeem and restore us. This is exactly what Jesus did and has done for us.
We see foretaste glimpses of Jesus doing this throughout His ministry. He takes the time to share with us story after story of rescuing this treasure and that treasure out of the dirt and the grime of the Devil’s grasp.
Let’s look very quickly at three examples that reveal Jesus’ ability to find treasure, rescue it and redeem it.
I. The Woman at the Well – John 4:1-42
This unnamed Samaritan woman is one of the best know personalities in the New Testament. There have been millions of words written and spoken about her over the last 2,000 years.
We don’t know her full story but what we know is enough. We know that she is a marginalized woman. We know that she is a social outcast. We know that she is a victim of how cruel life and humanity can be for a person.
But in the midst of all of that sin, that brokenness and despair the LORD JESUS sees an amazing treasure. Jesus sees a treasure that needs rescuing and redeeming and He set towards that mission.
As we read the story we quickly understand that Jesus planned their whole encounter. He planned to be at the well at the very time that this woman was coming to the well. He planned to have a conversation with her. He planned on sharing with her the message of everlasting life. He planned on experiencing life changing transformation.
The Apostle John shares the story. Jesus begins to talk to her and as you follow their conversation you see that she is an extraordinary woman. She is highly intelligent. She is calculating and clever in the words she uses; she is no one’s fool.
She is hungry for the truth; spiritual truth. She is hungry for God and right in front of her she discovers God in Flesh; Jesus Christ.
While others have cast her aside the beauty of this story is that Jesus is willing to pay the price for her rescue and redemption. She is not beyond His love, mercy and grace. She is not beyond His reach.
The Samaritan woman’s story is an amazing story. It is amazing in the way it shows just how much God loves us and the way that He enables us to be able to repent and lean into Him and receive His saving and sanctifying grace.
II. The Healing of the Demonic Man – Luke 8:26-39
If the story of the Samaritan woman is about the redemption of a social outcast then I don’t exactly know what we would call the Gerasene Demoniac. This was a man who literally scared the Hell out of everyone that came near him.
St. Luke paints for us this horrific picture of a man who has lost his mind. In fact, he has lost everything; his clothes, his family, his income, his friends and even his house. His new home address is the local grave yard.
We don’t even know how he got food to eat. Apparently a friend or a family member who still loved him did what they could to make sure that he was at least eating. It was either that or the man ate whatever he could find or kill around the graveyard.
Luke tells us that time and time again the town officials had tried to curtail his movements. More than once he had been captured and placed in chains with the hope that someone may find a way to bring him back to some level of normalcy. But as Luke tells us each time ended up with the possessed man going into some type of fit, breaking the chains and escaping back to the graveyards.
It all looked hopeless. The best the town officials could do was to make sure that this possessed man was as far away from the general public as possible when a funeral was taking place. I am sure no one felt safe with him running around naked all over the area.
One can only wonder the terrors that his family were enduring. I mean how difficult would it be to be the parent, the spouse or even a child of such an individual. Even if it were not because of his own undoing the stigma that comes with having such an individual as a member of the family had to make regular life fairly unbearable.
Each time he hurt himself or someone else they were called in to see if they could help with the situation. Each time he frightened a bunch of children or interrupted a funeral proceeding they would be questioned. How many times had they done their best to understand what was going happening. I am sure that some thought it would easier for his family if he just suddenly died.
No one in town wanted anything to do with this man. As far as they were concerned he was more than a lost cause. That is everyone except Jesus.
Like the woman at the well, Jesus planned on coming to this man’s town to rescue and redeem him. He planned on coming to this town and offering him freedom, healing and wholeness. What others could not see or could not do Jesus both saw and did.
This is the treasure in the field; this possessed man. No one could see his purity, the image of God in his life or his ability to be a witness but Jesus did. Jesus knew that like humanity, evil had broken him and had captured him. Here was a man who knew what it meant to be completely overcomed with evil.
Jesus looked at the situation and said; “I will pay the price for his healing and his salvation”. And Jesus went on that mission.
Where the world sees a problem, Jesus sees a solution and a promise. Jesus does not give up on us. We are his treasure. He died for us so that we could repent and be set free.
I like the way this story ends. Luke tells us early in the story that the man lost his house. Luke ends the story with sharing that Jesus sends the man back to his home; back to his family. Only this time the man is free. Only this time the man has received the gift of the incarnation of Jesus. Only this time the man not only is free but is a shining example of what it means to be a masterpiece of God.
Jesus sure does rescue and redeem some strange types of treasures doesn’t he?
III. The little girl who died – Matthew 9:18-26
Of all the stories of Jesus this is one of the most unusual. It is not unusual in the sense that Jesus knew what to do but it is unusual in that a man asked Jesus to resituate his dead daughter and it was done.
When we read the story of the Samaritan woman at the well we can understand it and absorb what happened. The more we know about Jesus the more we can understand how Jesus could see her as a possible treasure that needed to be rescued and redeemed.
We might even be able to squint our eyes enough to see the same with the demon possessed man. I mean after all he does have a home and that probably meant that he had a wife and a family. Perhaps he would not be on our top 1000 list of treasure people but knowing Jesus from the Gospels we might be able to see why Jesus did what He did for the man.
But what do you do about a girl who according to our story in Matthew chapter nine is already dead?
How do you rescue that? How do you rescue that?
How do you pay the price for one who has died?
I think the Holy Spirit had Matthew share this story for us to understand just how powerful Jesus is and just how wonderful salvation is for all of us. Here was a treasure that to human beings was beyond saving. All that could be done bury the poor girl, spend some time grieving and then go on with life the best way you can.
But the same Jesus that can heal lepers, bring blind people their sight, walk on water and feed thousands of people with just a few fish and some bread cakes can do the impossible.
After all, what is more impossible – to save humanity, to rescue and redeem humanity or raise a person from the dead?
When Jesus paid for our sins on the cross it wasn’t just for the people that were alive at the time. Nor was it only for those that would eventually follow Him. When Jesus paid the price for sin it was for all time and for everyone who would believe in Jesus and would receive salvation through His name.
You and I may never have given the Samaritan woman a moment of our time. After all, how many Samaritan women walk our streets, live in government housing or exist by themselves in some shack on the backside of nowhere?
You and I may have never given the demonic man a moment of our time. After all, how many do we find living on the streets, going in and out of rehab situations and being overwhelmed by disease, depression, drugs and despair? How many people who started well have ended up like this man losing his house, his livelihood and mind?
You and I may never face losing a child or crying out for a child to be brought back to us. We may never know what it means to have a child die in our arms. We may never know what it means to lose a child that has turned to drugs and crime.
But all of them and millions more like them from yesterday, today and tomorrow are not seen as outcasts, demoniacs or hopeless cases by Jesus. They are treasures in the dirt. They are people just like us made in the Image of God that need to hear the Good News and allow Jesus to rescue them and redeem them.
As much as it may upset us we all are in some ways the woman at the Well, the man in the graveyard and the young girl who is beyond human help. We all have been born into sin, committed sin and according to God’s Word are in need of salvation. Without Jesus, we are all eternally and everlastingly lost.
But just like the individual in the verse; Jesus paid the price of sin for all of us. Jesus sees us as treasures that can be redeem, renewed and restored. Jesus sees us as people who are more than worthy of His sacrifice. Jesus sees us.
And when we come to Him, He rejoices and fills us with His Holy Spirit. We become One with Him; filled with joy, peace and love. We become New Creations. We become who were meant to be from the very beginning of time.
Treasures in a field.
Worth the price.
That is what verse 44 shares with us.
I believe we can see this morning :
+We are God’s treasure – we are that hidden treasure in the wrong field – the field of sin, evil and that under the curse and penalty of sin. We are that treasure that the Devil wants to say is his but as the Bible shares:
+Jesus has come and paid that price for us to be rescued out of that field. Jesus has paid the price for us to be redeemed and restored into His Image. Jesus has paid the price for us to be a New Creation that will live forever with Him on the New Heaven and New Earth.
This morning, everyone here today salvation has been paid for by Jesus. It is a gift of grace if we will receive it. All we have to do is repent of our sins, accept Jesus’ gift of salvation, be filled with His Holy Spirit and live out a life led and guided by His Holy Spirit.
Closing – Open Altar/Invitation/Prayer/Blessing
