NOTES for Мф 13:44-54
Today's Gospel reading brings together three parables about the Kingdom of Heaven from a whole series gathered by the evangelist Matthew in chapter 13. Two of them are very similar to each other; the third is noticeably different: they look at the Kingdom of Heaven from two different sides.
The parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl approach the Kingdom of Heaven as the greatest treasure a person can find. For the sake of this treasure, one can give up everything else: its value fully justifies that. For a person, this is the heart of the doubt: what if what I leave behind for the sake of this pearl turns out to be more costly and more valuable? Only Christ can know this with certainty, and therefore we have to trust Him. And the parable of the net tells us about the result of the choice. Once you trust that the Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest possible value, you receive the chance not to be thrown out when the catch is sorted.
And then, in Christ's words, there appears "a scribe instructed in the Kingdom." The point is that the parables of the treasure and the pearl have another important aspect. The treasure does not simply go to someone lucky, but to the one who persistently seeks it. That is why the Lord, and the evangelist after Him, does not limit Himself to the single parable of the treasure. If it stood alone, it could be understood as a parable about luck. But the merchant in the second parable purposefully seeks fine pearls, and nothing else interests him. He is the one like the scribe who does not simply wait for "manna from above," but spends his whole life seeking the Kingdom of Heaven.