“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, …”    Matthew 13:45a ESV¹

Read Matthew 13:45-46

I am more of a realist than a romantic. I prefer to read non-fiction over fiction. I would rather watch action/adventure movies than dramas. But there is something about a classic love story that touches my heart. When a man of princely character slays a dragon of a problem to help a damsel in distress, I can’t help but be fascinated. When a man, worthy to be called noble, falls in love with a struggling woman and makes her his bride, thus, lifting her from her negative circumstances, I am inspired by selfless love. When true love breaks through all barriers to bring new life into a hopeless situation, I find myself overwhelmed with emotion.

Like the tales, to which so many are drawn, of brave men who overcome nearly impossible odds to rescue the women they love, Jesus’ parables are classic stories that are designed to touch the human heart at some level. This is especially true of His Kingdom of Heaven parables, each of which is intended to illustrate some aspect of Jesus’ relationship with humanity. Of the following parable, this is especially true.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46).

Jesus told some of His parables to the multitudes as He sat by the sea. (See Matthew 13:1-35). But this parable, its companion, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure, and two other Kingdom of Heaven parables, Jesus taught in private to His disciples. These parables were of a more intimate nature. Jesus was training His disciples in something of greater depth with these exclusive parables.

This parable is so similar to its companion, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure (see Matthew 13:44, below), that many commentators conclude that this parable means the exact same thing as the parable just one verse before:

“‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field’” (Matthew 13:44).

Everyone agrees that the Treasure to which this parable refers is Jesus and that sacrificing all to obtain The Treasure is the responsibility and desire of all true Believers. Jesus is most definitely a Treasure—One of great worth, One that cannot be taken from us, and One that should consume our affections (see Matthew 6:19-21). And Jesus is a Treasure worth putting everything else aside to make our own (see Matthew 10:38, 16:24 & Luke 14:26 &33).

But the relationship between Christ and the Church is the central focus here. Christians aren’t the only ones giving up all. Jesus also sacrificed a great deal for us.

“Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

I agree that The Parable of the Hidden Treasure is about followers of Jesus sacrificing their all to gain all of the Treasure of Jesus. But I believe the Parable of the Pearl of Great Value is referring to what Jesus gave to buy back humanity after they had fallen into the grasp of Satan and sin and death. Like a prince in a fairy tale, Jesus sacrificed to obtain His Bride. We surrender (or “sell”) all we have when we choose to follow (or “buy”) Jesus, but Jesus was the One who, by giving up His place in Heaven, coming here, and sacrificing Himself in our place, “sold all” to “buy” us with His blood.

If we conclude that Parable of the Pearl of Great Value is merely a repeat of The Parable of the Hidden Treasure, I feel we miss something very important. Please, let me explain:

First, if these two parables were part of a math word problem that we were trying to solve, it would be necessary for us to compare those things which are equivalent. In that case, treasure would be to merchant as man is to pearl. It has already been established and confirmed by multiple analyses that the treasure in the first parable refers to Jesus. If that is the case, considering its placement, the merchant would also be referring to Jesus. Therefore, both the man in the first parable and the pearl in the second parable would have to picture humanity.

Second, consider the difference in the positions of the merchant and the working man. The merchant was seeking something worth his sacrifice.

“‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save the Lost’” (Luke 19:10).

“‘The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him’” (2 Chronicles 16:9a).

On the other hand, the working man stumbled upon the treasure that was placed in front of him. Humans are unable to seek God without Him starting the process.

Jesus Himself said, “‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him’” (John 6:44).

“A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way” (Proverbs 20:24)?

“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Third, we can only give up our all for Jesus because Jesus gave up His all for us first.

“We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter1:3-4).

Fourth, God has placed many proofs in His Word that He considers humanity, which He created in His image, of great value.

“‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’” (John 3:16).

These are the very words of Jesus. He did not say, “God saw how messed up the world was so He forced His Son to come down from Heaven to Earth to heal and teach humans in hopes of knocking some sense into them and then to die a cruel death to pay their penalty to keep them from having to spend eternity in Hell and to give them a corner in some ‘less-than’ part of Heaven where they must live as slaves forever.” Though that in itself would have been more than we deserved, John 3:16 makes it very clear that it was love, not pity or duty, that motivated God’s sacrifice on behalf of humanity.

“God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5a).

It was God Himself who proclaimed to His Children,

“‘Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD your God is in your midst, a Mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing’” (Zephaniah 3:16b-17).

And The LORD, through Isaiah declared;

“You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you … For as a young man marries a young woman, … and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:3-5).

Further solidifying the concept of God’s seeking, sacrificial love, in the teaching and training of the congregations he established, the Apostle Paul referred to the Church as Jesus’ Bride.

“I betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2b).

“The husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church … Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, … so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor … In the same way, husbands should love their wives … just as Christ does the Church” (Ephesians 5:23-25, 27-29).

And the Apostle John wrote of that which was revealed to him concerning the time in the future when Jesus will be united as in marriage with His Church:

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready’” (Revelation 19:6-7).

If these powerful, picturesque declarations don’t speak to you of God’s gracious, benevolent, delight in those who belong to Him, if they don’t convince you of His love which is unmerited, gracious, and constantly seeking the benefit of the ones He loves, or if you simply want to grasp this concept at a deeper level, check out the Bible book of Song of Solomon. As you absorb this romantic, allegoric, poetic book, keep in mind that the sacrificial, passionate, caring love of the man and the responsive, respectful, adoring love of the woman are pictures of Christ and the Church.

I believe when “God created mankind in His own image, [when] in the image of God He created them; male and female” (Genesis 1:27), He created them for a special relationship different from that of the hosts in Heaven who worship and serve Him. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed, and humanity fell, and that rapport was tarnished, there was a perfect connection that God enjoyed with mankind. This closeness was so precious to God that it was worth redeeming even if it meant giving His all. There is a beautiful thing so full of overwhelming love that God so greatly desires to experience with humans that Jesus was more than willing to make the required sacrifice to buy back His Bride.

In the Garden, Satan tricked humans and won their hearts. But he didn’t pursue humans out of love for us; he did it out of hatred for God. Because he didn’t value us, he underestimated our preciousness to God, just as the previous owner of the jewel in The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value didn’t know the worth of what he possessed and sold it. After attempting to destroy humanity, Satan turned his attention to killing the Son of God. What he didn’t realize, in his bloodthirst, was that Jesus wasn’t going to stay dead. The shedding of Jesus’ innocent blood wasn’t the end of God’s Son; instead, it was the beginning of many becoming Children of God. Christ’s blood was the very thing that was of such worth it could purchase humanity out of Satan’s grasp.

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a).

The Prince of Peace, Jesus, rendered powerless the Mighty Dragon, Satan, and rescued His Bride from sin and death. For the ones whom He loved, Jesus condescended far more than any other son of a king ever did to raise to his level the peasant girl of his dreams. And Jesus’ true love displayed on the Cross was all about bringing life out of death and desperation.

“Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy [of obtaining His Bride] that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

Because God loved the humans, whom He created in His image, and because Jesus sacrificed His all to purchase His Bride, we can know that we are of great value to God. Though we may not be able to brag about our love for Christ, we can praise Him for His love for us. And we can go a step further and seek to experience that love for ourselves.

Words cannot adequately describe God’s love.* I may not be able to sufficiently explain it, but I have experienced the delight of my Heavenly Husband in the inexplicable joy of being in His presence while I pray and I have sensed it radiating from Him as I have walked with Him through my daily life. I have tasted enough of God’s amazing love that I want more of it.

Experiencing God’s love is not only possible, it is His desire! Jesus wants to take pleasure in you and He wants you to enjoy Him. Your Heavenly Prince Charming is waiting for you; won’t you run into His arms?

 

 

¹ Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.

*That may be why this attribute of God has been distorted in a way that makes it appear like a license for sin or reduces God to the equivalent of a Giant Santa Claus who is required to give us all we please.