Are you a treasure-seeker?

We're coming to the end of the parables in our New Testament studies, and the stories are coming closer to the end of the world. With fiery furnaces and freezing seas... exciting times perhaps, or just an image of the present day? Hopefully we'll find some fodder for modern-day parables as we read, and maybe even some analogies to describe the treasure we're seeking.

(32) How important is this “treasure”?

In Matthew Jesus tells these parables to crowds at the edge of the sea. In the other gospels, the location and timing may be different, but the parables are pretty much the same. Why?

This next parable has a very seashore feel to it. Read Matthew 13:47-52

1.       We mentioned the end-times last time. Which end-times parable has stuck most in your mind (maybe from childhood)? Why?

2.       What has a fiery furnace to do with a rather cold inland sea?

3.       Is it our job or the angels’ job to separate the good from the bad?

4.       And if that’s not our job, what is? Read verse 52 again: What are your new and old things?

Jesus preached about treasures in another parable too.

1.       Read Matthew 13:44 Refugees fleeing war and persecution often buried their property in their fields. Later a farmer, or his tenant, might uncover “hidden treasure.” So the parable would have felt very relevant to Jesus’ listeners. And the tenant, selling all he had, probably didn’t have much to sell.

a.       What treasure are we seeking?

b.      What would we give up to draw closer to it?

2.       Read Matthew 13:45-46 Pearls were believed to bring wealth, luck and protection. They symbolized purity, generosity, integrity and loyalty. They need no action from human beings to give them value.

a.       Why might pearls be a good simile for the kingdom of heaven?

b.       How has this parable been misused in relatively modern times?

Matthew is the only one to retell these three parables. Thinking of who he’s writing for, why might that be? Could this make the parables more or less significant to modern denominations, or our multicultural world? And how significant are they for you—are they a warning, a promise, an encouragement?

Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to wheat, harvest, treasure, bread… and light. Read Luke 11:33, Mark 4:21-22, Luke 8:16-17

1.       In Luke’s later telling (and in Matthew 6:22), Jesus goes on to teach about the eye being the lamp of the body, and the need for our body to be filled with light. (Read Luke 11:34-36) How does that compare with the earlier versions of the parable?

2.       Mark and Luke go on to remind us that whoever has will be given more, and whoever does not have will lose even what he seems to have. (Read Mark 4:24-25, Luke 8:18) Revisiting these verses after reading all these other parables, what encouragement do they give us? How might they be discouraging?

Matthew’s chronology is about to tell us how Jesus calms storms and casts out demons.  How might these actions offer a fitting sequel to a sequence of parables about the kingdom of heaven?

We’re not farmers or fishermen. We don’t dig for treasure or dive for pearls. And our lights are lit at the touch of an electric switch. Can you tell a parable, starting “The kingdom of heaven is like,” based on something in your own life?