NOTES for Mat 13:44-58

Is the Kingdom of Heaven worth everything we have? In the parable, for example, a man goes and joyfully sells everything he has and buys the field containing the treasure. It is obvious to him that treasure is buried in this utterly ordinary plot of land, and so he willingly makes the exchange: everything for everything. The trouble is that for us, as probably for many of Jesus’ listeners, the value of the Kingdom is not obvious. We would gladly sacrifice everything we have for a worthy cause—but what guarantee is there that it is worthy? Perhaps our task is also to find the treasure: to discover in practice that a treasure worth more than anything we could possess is buried in a wretched wasteland. In other words, to encounter through experience what is more beautiful than all the other meanings of our life—and that is not easy. In any case, to find such a treasure, one must search... or at least want to find it.