Proper 12
Year A
July 27, 2008
Matthew 13:3,45-51
Jesus told the crowd many things in parables saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angles will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all this?” The disciples answered, “Yes.”
The Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.Amen.
If you have been attending church for many years, you have, no doubt, heard several sermons on the pearl of great price.
So, if I asked you the same question Jesus asked his disciples, “Have you understood this?” you might be inclined to answer as they did with one great big proud, “Yes!”
For the most part, we have all been taught that the merchant is a sinner who was looking for a better life.
Something is missing, something is wrong, and he knows it and he wants to remedy the situation.
So he goes out to search for this better life.
That’s what the fine pearls represent: a better life.
But, while he is searching for it, low and behold, he discovers something even better than that.
He discovers the Gospel which tells him about the kingdom of heaven.
This is where eternal life is to be found - a life filled with riches beyond his wildest dreams.
This, of course, is the pearl of great price and value.
The discovery is so fantastic that he goes and sells everything that he has so that he can purchase this incredible pearl.
And this makes good sense, doesn’t it?
For who would want a mediocre life if he can have a good life, and who would want a good life if he can have one that lasts forever?
Only a fool would not sell all that he had in order to purchase such a pearl, right?
Now, if this is the correct interpretation of this parable, . . .
. . . then we would have to conclude that Jesus told it to encourage us to be like the merchant.
We must repent and give up our old life with all of its sin and rebellion against God . . .
. . . and then we must be as good as we can possibly be . . .
. . . so that we can acquire the life that lasts forever – the pearl of great price.
This is our selling and this is our buying.
This is how we acquire the pearl of great price and our place in the kingdom of heaven.
That is the most common interpretation of this parable?
And on one level, it does make perfect sense.
For truly there is nothing more valuable than the Gospel.
And there could be nothing more precious than eternal life.
And the Gospel of Jesus Christ does call us to repent, to believe, and to live a life that is in accord with the will of God.
But I have always thought that there was something fundamentally wrong with this interpretation.
Perhaps you have, too.
And here is the flaw: . . .
. . . This way of interpreting the parable of the pearl of great price says that a person, a sinner, can purchase the kingdom of heaven and his place in it.
It says that salvation can be bought with a price – a price that we pay.
But listen to what Jesus says in Luke 12:32, “Do not be afraid, for it is the Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
And listen to what God says through the pen of St. Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9.
“You have been saved by grace through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God . . .”
You do see the Good News here, don’t you?
The kingdom of heaven is given to us as a gift.
It is not something we purchase in any way, shape or form.
And this is good news.
For if the kingdom of heaven was the pearl of great price, and we had to purchase it, that would be bad news, because we would never have enough to do it.
So, . . . if the common interpretation is wrong, what is the correct one?
What is Jesus really telling us here?
What is the correct interpretation of this parable?
Here it is: Jesus is the merchant – not the person looking for a better life.
And the pearl of great price is none other than all the poor sinners of the world lumped up all together in one great big beautiful pearl.
That, of course, includes you and me and everybody else.
As unbelievable as this sounds, . . .
. . . when you hear it for the first time, . . .
. . . it makes perfect sense when you think about it.
You and I, sinners all, we are the pearl of great value and Jesus is the merchant who wanted us so badly that he was willing to give up everything in order to purchase us!
That is what God is telling us through the pen of St. Paul when, in 1st Corinthians 6:20, he writes, . . .
. . . “You are not your own; for you have been purchased with a price.”
You may ask, “And with what were we purchased?”
St. Peter gives us God’s own answer in verse 18 and 19 of the first chapter of his first Epistle.
There he writes, “You were ransomed . . .not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but (you were purchased) with the precious blood of Christ.” (Amplified Bible)
So, according to the Word of God, clearly we are not doing the purchasing; rather we are the ones who have been purchased.
We are the pearl of great price.
You are the pearl of great price.
Now let’s look a little closer at this pearl.
A pearl, as you know, is not a gem stone like a diamond or ruby.
A living organism forms a pearl.
When a grain of sand gets into an oyster, it irritates it.
The oyster responds by sending out a secretion that counteracts the foreign matter.
As the fluid builds up and hardens around the piece of sand, a beautiful pearl is formed.
And Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like that!
Jesus came into the world as the merchant.
He knew what he was going to find.
He found sin.
He found outright rebellion against the Law of God.
He found a world where people did not love God or their neighbor.
And the Bible tells us that he took all of this sin into his own body.
Our sin, the sin of the entire world, became an intrusion upon him much like the piece of sand in the oyster.
How did Jesus respond?
In much the same way as the oyster did.
He covered us in his righteousness.
He covered us in his own perfect life and we became the pearl of great price.
And that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
And that is why this stuff is called Good News.
It is a gift to us because God loves us.
It is not something that we have to purchase.
Thanks be to God for that!
Now, since we are the pearl of great price, as Jesus teaches us in this parable, how should we then live?
In other words, how do we say “thank you” for this precious and eternal gift that God has given us through his Son?
Or, said another way, how should we treat one another as we live more and more into his kingdom?
Well, God gives us the answer in St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians where he writes:
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (NIV)
And that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
And it begins here and now.
It is not something we need to wait for.
It begins when we hear the Word of God proclaimed.
As we hear it, the Holy Spirit brings faith to birth within our spirit.
After that happens, then we know that the Gospel is true and trustworthy.
And the fundamental message of the Gospel is this:
We are sinners, and it was for us and for our salvation that Jesus came down from heaven and purchased us by taking our sin into himself as he died on the Cross.
He forgives us freely and now he offers us all the blessings of his kingdom for time and for eternity as gifts of grace.
But, someone may object, but what about the parable of the net?
What about the separation of the evil and righteous on judgment day?
Jesus said that some people will be thrown into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, did he not?
Are you saying that because we are all in the pearl of great price that there really isn’t going to be a day of judgment?
Are you saying that everyone is going to be saved including people like Hitler or Osama bin Laden?
No! I’m not saying that.
First of all, remember that the parable of the net is a different parable.
Before we were dealing with one pearl of great price, now we are dealing with a net filled with many fish.
One of the reasons that Jesus told so many parables is because the kingdom of heaven is a many splendored realm.
To see what it is like you have to come at it from many different angles.
Jesus did that by using parables.
Generally speaking, each parable makes only one point about the kingdom of heaven.
The point of the parable of the pearl of great price is that . . .
. . .God-in-the-flesh loves all sinners equally and that his love is so great that he has purchased us at the greatest possible cost to himself and clothed us in his own righteousness.
In other words, everybody, even the worst stinker on earth, is somebody for whom Jesus died.
The point Jesus is making in the parable of the net is that. . .
. . . not everyone is willing to receive the gift of righteousness that is offered to them through faith. They are the evil ones. The really stinky fish.
Someone once said that both heaven and hell are populated entirely and only by forgiven sinners, . . .
. . . and that hell is just a courtesy for those who insist they want no part of forgiveness.
I like that way of thinking about hell because it’s biblical.
The Bible tells us that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.
But it also tells us that no one is going to be forced to accept the redeeming love of God.
It is entirely possible for someone to thumb their nose at the gift of grace.
For those who do that, well, according to Jesus, they can just go to hell, and he ought to know.
Hell is for those who throw away the best gift that was ever given to them.
How utterly sad for them because it will be by their own choice that they are there.
It will not be because some angry mean old God with a gray beard cheated them out of their place in the kingdom and then cast them into hell.
And it’s a good thing, too!
Because if it was any other way, . . .
. . . if even the haters of God and humanity got in, . . .
. . . then eternal kingdom of heaven, . . .
. . . which begins at the end of time as we know it, . . .
. . . would be no different than it is now.
Terrorism would continue forever and there would be no peace or joy – ever.
Jesus tells us that both good and evil are mixed together in the kingdom of heaven, as it exists today.
But it will not be this way forever.
In the end, evil will be separated from the good.
And God’s eternal party will begin in earnest.
And what a party it will be!
He who has prepared you for this very thing is God.
I think the author of the hymn “Rock of ages” summed it all up very well when he wrote these words:
Should my tears for ever flow, should my zeal no languor know, all for sin could not atone: thou must save, and thou alone; in my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.
While I draw this fleeting breath, when mine eyelids close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown and behold thee on thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
Is this the prayer that the Spirit of God has placed on your heart?
If it is, then hear the Good News:
He has already answered your prayer by hiding you within the Pearl of Great Price.
And he will answer it yet again on the last day when you find that you have been thrown into the bucket of good fish.
And all of this is a gift to you.
It is not your doing.
It is all his.
Imagine that!
Thank God for it.
Because that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
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