I am again blessed to have been taught “the way of God more accurately.” Acts 18:26

In my essay on What is the Value of a Soul?, I made some errors in my understanding of the value of the Human Soul. The issue was brought to light by a friend who made the case that the bearer of each soul has been granted the freedom to determine his own soul’s worth, or lack thereof. I have considered his argument and searched the scriptures to determine if his contention is true. And, now I am conceding to his logic and scriptural contention that we do indeed choose our own value.

If you care to view the debate in its entirety, you may go to the link above and see the extended deliberations on the point, and final conclusion that I was in error with my exegesis of this passage, which I will give below.

There are times when I will disagree with conventional wisdom on a particular passage. My second essay posting on this blog was one such time. There, I wrote “A different interpretation of the Rich Young Ruler”, that exegesis was certainly at odds with most theologians and wide-ranging bible readers.
So, here too, I will attempt to show a different view of Jesus words.

• 45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl merchant on the lookout for choice pearls.
• 46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

Our ability to understand these parables of Christ pivots on correctly identifying the metaphorical players in the illustrations. Jesus gives the critical information in this passage, but for some reason, we struggle to avoid the stated meaning, even when we know what Jesus has said. I will give you some examples of “conventional wisdom”, as they relate to the parable under review.
The first example is from Wikipedia.

• The Parable of the Pearl or the Pearl of Great Price is a parable told by Jesus in explaining the value of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Matthew 13:45-46. Other uses of this title refer to this parable.
• In explaining the value of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus relates the story of a trader who discovered an extremely valuable pearl. The trader sold all that he had to raise money to purchase the pearl; with the final result that he was wealthier than before. The implied analogy was that the Kingdom of Heaven was of such worth that his disciples should gladly be willing to give up their wealth and comfort to obtain it.

The above-emphasized portion of Wikipedia’s analysis is not correct. There are not the stated “implications” in this passage. It should, more accurately, be called an ‘inference’. The people who read the passage have the power to “infer”, which may or may not, be what the speaker implied. The speaker has the power to “imply,” which is what the reader should always attempt to ascertain, if we hope to understand the meaning the speaker hoped to convey.

The second example is found in both the above quoted section from Wikipedia as well as from my copy of the New International Version bible, which attempts to “help” people to categorize and sectionalize bible passages into “Themes”.
However, this causes problems when the people who are “helping” our understanding of the passages, actually miss or ignore the semantics of the words that are used. My copy is not unique, there are many bibles that are less overtly in error and there are other bibles, which are just plain daft.

• The heading for the parables, beginning in Matthew 13:44 and ending at verse 46, is “The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl.” Emphasis added.

The passages are not the same; therefore linking them in this way carries a false inference. The second parable is not, principally, about the pearls, but rather about the merchant who is seeking the pearls. This too moves the objective focus from who is being portrayed as the seeker. The Kingdom of Heaven is the active central character.
But these two parables, while being similar are very different at the same time.
Verse 44 is correctly called the parable of the Hidden Treasure, because Jesus says clearly “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a hidden treasure.” This metaphor is of the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus makes the comparison of “a hidden treasure.”
However, verse 45 Jesus makes the Kingdom of Heaven to be the opposite of what it is from verse 44.
What I mean is this; Jesus initially states that the Kingdom of Heaven is like “a hidden treasure” and we are the treasure seekers, but in the verses 45-46 parable, the roles are reversed the other way round.
Am I missing something? Look again at verses 45 & 46.
Jesus says, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl merchant” seeking the hidden treasure, i.e God almighty who is seeking the pearls of great value.

We become the treasure to God. This creates a profound difference in our understanding. God (the merchant) actively seeks fine or valuable souls. He is on the treasure hunt for worthy hearts.

And what does the merchant do when He finds one such worthy soul, He went away and sold everything he owned and bought the one worthy heart (pearl).

This is not so hard to understand, especially in the light of Jesus death on the cross. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”Jn3:16 This matches Jesus parables to perfection. We are seeking God when we believe Jesus, and we will give up everything in the physical realm, in order to be found in the Father’s full grace, i.e. Jesus Christ.

It is a most glorious “Theology of Nuance” that is contained in these two parables.

God is the merchant on the treasure hunt for trusting, believing hearts. They are like valuable pearls to our God. When He finds a single worthy/faithful heart, He is willing to give up all He has, which is of value. He gives His only begotten Son.

And thereby, with this bargain, from God the Father and His eager and willing Son Jesus Christ, we (the valuable pearls) are purchased back from the prince of the air’s domain of death.

These matters are important to understand, because our Lord and creator has revealed something deep and intrinsic about our Father and about ourselves. We must choose to be a worthy pearl for the bargain to be complete. If I am not a believing and faithful heart (pearl of great value), then the Father’s giving all for me will not close the deal. I must take a decision here and now while I live and breathe.
Am I worth the merchant giving up His one and only Son? If so, then I must believe:

1. That He is willing to do this.
2. That His Son is valuable enough to meet the purchase price.
3. That I, myself, am valuable enough to be desired by the merchant.

This is humbling and awe inspiring.
I am going to shine for the Merchant. I am going to be a pearl of great price.

Thank you Lord for seeing in me, what I could not see in myself.

God Bless,
DSM

Sphere: Related Content

Related posts:

• Place related post plugin php here...