Gospel exegesis: What is the “Kingdom of Heaven” like? Jesus continues his teaching on the “Kingdom of Heaven” using little stories based on the experiences of rural Galileans. Like Jesus’ mini stories of the mustard seed and the leaven, those of the treasure and the pearl form a pair of His “Kingdom parables.” Jesus tells us that true wisdom involves recognizing a pearl of great price and being willing to sacrifice all to purchase it. The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is “a society on earth where God’s will is done as perfectly as it is in Heaven.”

By “Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus is referring to a triple reality: 

• a group of people sharing the Divine life of sanctifying grace and friendship with God by doing His will,
• participation in God’s life through the Eucharistic celebration in the Church and
• eternal bliss in Heaven. This triple reality is worth more than anything else in our lives.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus compares the “Kingdom of Heaven” to a treasure hidden in a field, to a pearl of great value and to a net thrown in the sea collecting all types of fish. The “Kingdom of Heaven,” synonymous in these parables with the “Kingdom of God,” is hidden, but it is of surpassing value. The parable of the pearl (vv 45-46) makes the point that the sacrifice of everything must be made for this one thing of immense value. Those who have not sacrificed everything for it will not have this treasure and will come to know how much they have lost.

The parable of the treasure hunter: The first two parables in today’s Gospel – the parables of the buried treasure and the pearl – are lessons in the total attachment to Christ and detachment from the things of the world demanded of the disciple in order to make the reign of God in himself, and in the world, a reality.  Frequent battles and foreign invasions encouraged the people of Palestine to bury their treasures like money and jewelry in their fields. For example, the great religious treasure – the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” discovered in the caves at Qumran in 1947 – was hidden there over 2,000 years ago. Sometimes unclaimed and forgotten, the hidden treasures await some lucky finder. Jesus tells the story of one such lucky treasure-finder who sold everything he had in order to buy the field in which the treasure was buried. According to the Palestinian laws of that time, the mere finding of buried treasure did not entitle the finder to possession unless he also owned the property in which it was found. In the parable of the treasure in the field and in the parable of the merchant who sought fine pearls, we see the image of one who recognizes the value of the kingdom of God and gives everything to possess it. Matthew, a tax-collector, might have experienced something like this when he discovered the eternal value of the Kingdom preached by Jesus of Nazareth.  When he discovered Jesus and his vision of life, everything else became secondary. Having a personal relationship with Christ, that is, making Christ’s view of life one’s own, is the most beautiful, the most precious thing in the world. But most of the time, we are chasing false treasures like money, social status and pleasure. Jesus our true treasure may come to our lives unexpectedly through some daily experience as he did with Mathew.

The parable of the pearl hunter:  A well-to-do merchant on the lookout for quality pearls finds a very precious pearl (“pearl of great price“), and he immediately “sells everything” to buy it. In our day, pearls have lost much of their value. Firms have learned to culture them in vast pearl beds and even to make them artificially. However, in Biblical times, the pearl was probably the costliest and most sought-after gem. Jesus wants us to know that the Kingdom of God is worth all we have.  He has come to offer us God’s Kingdom, a unique pearl of the greatest price. The genuine disciples are those who respond to this opportunity with joy and selfless commitment, eagerly giving top priority to life in the Kingdom by doing God’s will, whatever it may be. The “treasures” and “pearls” of lasting value are the things of God. They are the love of family and friends, the support of community, and the sense of fulfillment that rises from serving and giving for the sake of others.  In order to attain such treasure, we must “sell off” our own interests, ambitions, and agendas and thus free ourselves to embrace the lasting values of the compassion, love, and mercy of God Who reconciles us to Himself. This parable teaches us that, although we are baptized Christians, we still need to pursue the true and full meaning of the Gospel, which can escape us for many years.  We always need to understand more, to love more, and to serve more. The first and second parables also remind us that the most precious things in life are to know God and to live according to the Gospel. “Isn’t it possible that what we want most is something very selfish: possessions, security, power, pleasure, comfort? What would the world be like if, instead of these, our one really valuable pearl was something like world peace based on justice for all? or the development of a classless society based on respect for all and the priority of need over want? or the worship of God through prayer, service, and a preferential option for the poor? What would the world be like? Jesus says it would be like the Kingdom of God/Heaven. Buying the treasure and the pearl is the beginning of wisdom; living out the influences of these purchases is righteousness.” (Father Larry Gillick, SJ, Creighton University)

The parable of the fishing net: In Palestine, there were two main ways of fishing. The first was with the casting-net, which required a keen eye and great skill in throwing the net at the correct moment. The second was with a dragnet or seine, as it is sometimes called. Galilean seine-nets were tied to two boats and drawn through the water. The catch was sorted only afterwards, with edible or kosher fish going to market and the unacceptable fish being thrown away. Just as a dragnet collects good and bad fish indiscriminately, so the Church is a mixture of all kinds of people, good and bad, useful and useless, saints and sinners.  Like the wheat and weeds parable, this parable is a warning against premature judgment, but also a warning which tells us that Final Judgment will take place. This parable encourages the Church to adopt an open approach to evangelism, by accepting “the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame” (Lk 14:21) and by leading them to the treasure and the pearl of great price. It instructs us to be tolerant, compassionate, and understanding of those who seem, to us, to fall far below the requirements of the Gospel and the Kingdom. Through this parable of the dragnet, Jesus calls us to embrace the vision of God that seeks out the good in everyone, nurtures it, and looks for the right and just in all things, amid the “junk” of life. The parable also teaches that a time of separation will come when the good and the bad will be sent to their respective destinies. This parable pictures that separation as happening in the final judgment. This parable is thus a counterpart to the parable of the weeds and the wheat.

The teaching: The three parables illustrate the opportunity as well as the challenge of discipleship.  The first and the second parables speak of the total commitment and dedication which are the ideal of every follower of Christ.  What the parables really teach us is that, when one discovers Jesus and his vision of life, everything else becomes secondary.  That is what St. Paul meant when he said: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8), and again “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 2:21). To have a personal experience of Christ and personal relationship with Him – in other words, to have made Christ’s view of life one’s own – is the most precious thing in the world.  “Life under God’s righteous rule is to be sought about everything else” (HarperCollins Bible Commentary). “The parables are very alike, but it is interesting to note the differences: the treasure means abundance of gifts; the pearl indicates the beauty of the Kingdom. The treasure is something stumbled upon; the pearl, the result of a lengthy search—but in both instances, the finder is filled with joy. Faith, vocation, true wisdom, desire for heaven, are things that sometimes are discovered suddenly and unexpectedly, and sometimes after much searching … However, the man’s attitude is the same in both parables and is described in the same terms: ‘he goes and sells all that he has and buys it’: detachment and generosity are indispensable for obtaining the treasure” (The Navarre Bible: Gospels and Acts). “God’s presence and reign are often hidden below the surface of life, but we experience little epiphanies of it at surprising, unplanned moments” (The Lectionary Commentary, Vol. 3: The Gospels).

The concluding parable or simile. Jesus concludes his parables by advising the listeners to imitate wise scribes (Jewish scholars — the experts in the Law and/or Scriptures). Hence, a scholar need not give up his scholarship when he becomes a Christian; rather he should use it for Christ. A businessman need not give up his business; rather he should run it as a Christian would. Christians are also expected to be like scholars who know how to value both the old and the new. In this simile, Jesus refers to those, who like Matthew himself, now serve as scribes trained for the Kingdom of Heaven and serving their local Churches. Such a scribe, Jesus tells us, is one who brings forth from his storeroom both the old and the new. Already trained in the meanings of all the stories and wise sayings from the Old Testament, such scribes, when they teach the Gospel to new believers, are able to show that all Jesus’ teachings and deeds are truly the “fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.” Thus, they demonstrate that Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven does not destroy, but genuinely reinterprets, the Jewish tradition to show its full Truth for all ages. Jesus does not replace what we call the Old Testament with the New Testament. He is combining the best of the Hebrew Scriptures with the New Way, the Kingdom of God. The wise ones, the scribes of the Kingdom, therefore, know how to use what is old and what is new. The parable teaches  that the teacher in the Church should draw teachings out of the Hebrew Scriptures and the words of Jesus, thereby gaining new insights to transmit to others” (The Lectionary Commentary, Vol. 3: The Gospels). Hence, those of us who are the Church’s preachers and teachers have the responsibility to bring forth both the new and the old, to teach the Bible in a way that speaks to and about the present, and to read the present by the Bible’s light. (Beverly R. Gaventa, Online at The Christian Century).