What Is The Treasure In The Field, Or The Pearl of Great Price, Mt. 13: 44-46

Telling a story is often the most effective way to explain a difficult idea. Jesus is the master storyteller through his use of parables. Parables are little, instructive tales with a central metaphorical image that represents or reveals a deeper truth. We encounter a couple of examples of these images in the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. The images used are a buried treasure found in a field and a magnificent pearl. What is it that they may reveal?

The passage reads: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it” (Mt. 13: 44-46). What, we are right to ask, is the ‘treasure’ that the person finds buried in a field? What is this pearl? It is not just any pearl, but a pearl so magnificent that it is spoken of as being of ‘great price;’ a price so great that the merchant had to go and “sell everything he had” to be able to purchase it.

Like any good story or parable, there is more than one level of meaning in these parables. For example, on the surface, these parables have a material level of meaning. They both have to do with a tangible value, a commercial value; a hidden treasure discovered by accident in an unused field, that is buried again. There is an element of a secret here and of the old idea of ‘Finders keepers, losers weepers.’ Then the finder, to keep the treasure, goes and sells all that he has to buy that field and make the treasure his own. The same is true for the merchant who finds a pearl of exceptional value, and to have it, sells all that he has, so that he can purchase that pearl for himself. To a culture based on material wealth and commercial value, these two people might be considered very clever in their endeavors to possess material things of great value.

But there is a deeper level of meaning in these parables. It is revealed in the actions that these two individuals take to possess just one valuable thing. What is meant by the idea of “selling everything they have?” Christians believe and profess in the Nicene Creed that we are all created ‘through Christ’: “Through him all things were made.” We believe, too, that we are made in the image and likeness of God: “God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:27). Bishop Robert Barron proposes that what is found or discovered by the person who is diligently and faithfully seeking to know and to love God with his or her whole being, is that image and likeness of God dwelling within us. That is the buried treasure, the pearl of great price, waiting secretly, patiently for us to find him in the ‘field of our hearts.’ To find this treasure so intimately present within us is to discover our meaning and purpose in God’s plan. When I find this treasure, this priceless pearl, what must I do to possess it?

Here is the deeper meaning of these parables. There is no greater treasure in the world than the love of God that has been given so freely to us in Christ Jesus. There is no greater wisdom, no greater truth in all the world. How do we respond to the discovery of this truth, this wisdom, then? To find this true and immeasurable treasure of God’s love within us, we must look at whatever in our lives is in the way of our possessing this priceless treasure and do whatever we can to ‘sell’ those things, to let go of them. In doing so, we pay the hard price that is required to be able to ‘own’ that buried treasure, that pearl of great price. When we free ourselves of the false possessions we cling to, we will come to know the true depths of our God-given meaning and purpose in life, that is, to love God above all else, and by loving and serving him faithfully through our loving attentiveness and service to all others.

God’s loving, life-giving, and healing presence is the buried treasure, the pearl of great price that waits in the fallow fields of every one of our hearts. To discover that is to discover our own, individual, and sacred meaning and purpose in this life. Jesus is telling us in these parables to sell everything and you will come to know the true value of a life lived in Christ, who did that very thing for all of us.