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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning is the parables that Jesus spoke, and the Old Testament and the Epistle give them great illumination. You may be seated.
Some of you may have four, maybe even five generations of Texans in your family. You may be the fifth, but there is nobody in this church who has 20 or 30 generations of being a Texan. Can you imagine that many? And yet, in the ancient city of Nineveh, we call Mosul, Iraq, 20 and 30 generations of Christians who have lived in that city for 20 or 30 generations have been driven from their homes. As they flee to the north to the Kurds for protection, they see in the background flames and smoke of their historical sites and of their churches that are being burned.
There’s very rarely a Texan who would say, I would give up my great state and be driven from it and my church. And yet there are our brothers and sisters in Christ who have had families live in that region of northern Iraq for 20 and 30 generations and now sleep in a bed that’s not their own. They dwell in a home that’s not the one they grew up in and are surrounded by people that aren’t the same ones that they surrounded themselves with before. And that’s a major change in their life.
Then along come these texts. Surely you have to ask yourself this question: How could those people, as they trek their way northward to a land that’s not their own, to homes that aren’t their own, to places to sleep that aren’t their beds, say, “Are you serious, God? You’ve chosen me to be a treasured possession out of all the people on the face of the earth?” How can that be true? In their lives, what they are feeling, what they are experiencing, what they’re seeing cries out something other than being God’s treasured possession, being God’s chosen people, being God’s redeemed people. Everything smacks of, no, this is not true. And yet God’s word says that.
So you have to scratch your head and think, you know, in the gospel reading when Jesus says, “Have you understood all these things?” and the people say, “Yes.” You know, that wasn’t their flesh that said yes. That wasn’t their mind that said yes. That wasn’t their emotions that said yes. It was their faith that said yes.
So we look at the Old Testament reading. Remember, it was spoken by Moses, and it wasn’t spoken by Moses after they had arrived in the promised land. No, this was spoken by Moses as they were wandering through the wilderness on their way to the promised land. This was not spoken to them in their homes that they grew up in; this was spoken to them as they lived in tents. This was not spoken to them as they had a beautiful feast of food prepared; this was spoken to them as they ate quail and manna every day.
Do you not think, just like I could not imagine experiencing this and having Moses tell me I’m God’s treasured possession? I couldn’t imagine having had all this transpire before my very eyes that God tells me I’m a chosen people. He set my love on me, his love on me. How could that be true? My flesh does not agree with it. My mind rebels against such truth, and my emotions rage within me, but my faith says, “Yes, Lord, it is true.”
So when Paul wrote this letter to the Romans and he wrote, “We know that for those who God loves, all things work together for good,” within a few years after he wrote that and they read that, they watched as the Romans took them into the Colosseum and fed them to lions, dipped their bodies in pitch, and set them ablaze. They watched while their homes were ravaged and their women and men ravaged. And yet, Paul says, “for those who love God and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good.”
You know, receiving love from someone when they give us what we want takes no faith, does it? Receiving love from someone when nothing negative is affiliated with that love, everybody can do it. Animals do it. But to receive love from God in the midst of persecution and suffering, in the midst of our lives being turned upside down, that requires faith, not intellect. That requires God’s promise, not positive thinking. Amen.
So when the people of Rome watched as God allowed these things to transpire, everything else within them cried out, “Foul!” And their faith cried out, “Yes, Lord, you are right. All things do work together for good.”
Now that brings us to our parables. The last three weeks, we’ve looked at God’s parables through Christ Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. There are some interesting things in God’s parables this morning. There are three parables spoken. The first one is about the hidden treasure. The second one is about that pearl of great price. And the third one is about this dragnet that’s thrown out and all these fish are gathered in, and then the separation occurs.
Now the first two really go together, and the third one is the icing on the cake. Let’s talk about that for a moment. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. A man finds it, covers it up, and in his joy, he goes and sells everything that he has and buys it. Is this parable about what you’re supposed to do? It’s not. If it is, you and I will woefully find ourselves always unfulfilling this promise. None of us sells everything that we have. None of us gets rid of and completely demarcates ourselves from everything. Because there’s still one thing we prize highly above all things, and that’s what beats in this chest of ours: ourself. We will never let go of ourself. We always cling to it tenaciously. Why else did that rich young ruler go away sad when Jesus said, “Sell everything that you have and follow me?” Because he knew he couldn’t do it.
So then, what is the hidden treasure? And what is the pearl of great price? And who’s the man? The man who, with joy, finds the hidden treasure and sells everything he has is Christ Jesus himself. The man who finds the pearl of great price and sells everything he has for that pearl is Jesus. He’s the only one who can pay everything he has, and he did on that accursed tree when he died for you. That’s everything, including himself. The very thing we won’t want to get rid of, which clings to us sometimes tighter than we wish it would. It’s what causes us to scowl and become angry at God and cry out to Him, “Foul! Unfair!” But not Him. He saw you because you’re the pearl of great price. And He saw you; you’re the hidden treasure. Yes, you and the rest of y’all. He saw us as his holy bride and died for us, sold everything he had to win us.
And do you know what it’s called to be purchased? It’s the same word as redeem, which is exactly what God said in the Old Testament reading. He has redeemed you. And as we say in the second article to the Apostles’ Creed in the meaning, these parables, brothers and sisters, are being said to the twelve apostles. They’re explained to them, and they’re about to watch their whole world cave in.
It has been only a few years after Christ’s ascension into heaven that they themselves find themselves being martyred for the faith. And the church is going, “Our apostles are being killed. Who’s going to lead us?” Because all of the apostles were martyred except for John. And God told this parable to comfort them in the midst of things that they cannot understand, in the change that overwhelms them in their lives.
Now you can look in your life, and you know the things that have caused you to question and wonder, whether it’s been recently or whether it’s been in your past. But isn’t it interesting, even if it’s been in your past, how Satan loves to get that back out there and throw it in your face and cause you to wonder and question again, “Why, oh Lord, why?” And even if we don’t want to admit that we question it, why do we allow it to even enter our minds? Because we are sinful, and we can’t even stop it from coming into our minds, right?
These parables were told to give us comfort, assurance that he loves you. He gave everything he had to purchase you and me with all of our doubts and fears, and with all of our failings and foibles.
Well, what about that third parable? This is similar to the previous two weeks of parables, and that is this. The parable of the dragnet says God did not allow all of the apostles to be martyred, except for John, simply to let his kingdom flounder, but used it to extend his kingdom. You and I pray every single day, or every Sunday for sure, “Thy kingdom come.” And God’s kingdom comes without our prayer. And God’s kingdom will come in spite of us.
This last parable is saying to us, whether we are a part of this or not, whether we’re frozen in fear or vigorously activated, God’s kingdom will continue because he chose you, the pearl of great price, and because he sold everything for you, his hidden treasure. Just like last week’s parable of the weed and the wheat, where they’re separated at Judgment Day, the dragnet of fish that God has brought in will be separated as well, and you know where you’re going to go. You’re the pearl of great price. You’re the hidden treasure for which he sacrificed all to make you his.
In spite of all those times in our life, and there’ll be many more to come, just as our brothers and sisters in Iraq, as they trekked northward, their flesh cried out, “Not good, unfair, unjust.” Their emotions raged within them, hatred and vengeance. But their faith said, “Yes, Lord, you are good and gracious to me because I’m your pearl and I’m your treasure. You’ve shown it to me there, and you feed it to me there, and you plant it in my ears here.”
We say amen. And remember what Luther said about amen? Amen means “yes, yes.” It shall be so, even if all we can muster is, “Yes, yes, it shall be so.” God be praised for his goodness and mercy. You are his pearl and hidden treasure. Amen.
