Hidden Treasure

How Do You Know When It's Worth Everything You Have and More?

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
When a man found it, he hid it again,
and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Matthew 13:44

Have you ever found treasure? My pastor did, and he shared how he came upon it with our middle schoolers last Sunday.
When he began serving our church 30 years ago there was a large 800-lb safe stationed in the middle of the office floor. Why? No one knew, but it had become such a familiar fixture that staff would walk past it each day as if a safe sitting in the middle of the room weren’t a strange thing.

As time went on and our church grew, a larger office was needed. Strong men were called upon, as well as moving dollies and jacks in order to transfer the heavy safe to the new office. Strangely enough the safe was taken from one room and deposited in the new room right in the middle of the floor—same as before! And again, people went about their work each day walking past the safe now in its new home.

Eventually the idea dawned on my pastor to inquire as to the contents of the safe. “Does anyone know what’s inside?” he asked. And sure enough, no one did. How odd that people saw it day after day without ever stopping to consider what it held. “Does anyone know the combination?” he tried. And again, no one did. A mystery was afoot. They scoured the church files and finally, in a second-floor storage room, a manilla folder marked “S file” was discovered. A slip of paper holding six numbers was all it contained. The combination, perhaps?
He punched in the digits and, lo and behold, the safe unlocked!
Surrounded by curious staff, he withdrew from its depths a stack of U.S. savings bonds. He took the certificates to their bank and asked if they might be worth anything.

Eighty-eight thousand dollars was the final sum. Eighty-eight thousand dollars had been sitting in the middle of the office floor, and people unwittingly walked by it every day.

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Is it Real Treasure?

This story left my brain swimming about hidden treasure—particularly in relation to the parable Jesus taught in Matthew 13. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When I was a young girl, my dad could often be found in our back yard with his metal detector searching for hidden treasure. Back and forth, back and forth. Up and down, up and down. Slow, methodical work. Every now and then, he’d stop and stoop down and carefully dig a hole with the spade he carried.

Oftentimes, my siblings and I would join him eagerly looking on to see what prize he unearthed. None of us knew when the signal to dig would ring out which made it all the more exciting. The chance of discovery was alluring and thrilled us.
My father dug a lot of holes. But did he ever find treasure? —Real Treasure?

How do we know when the treasure we’ve found is the treasure? —the kind of treasure Jesus describes as worth more than all you possess combined.

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My Own Search

I’ve never owned a metal detector, but like my dad, I’ve dug a lot of holes looking for treasure. And what I have found varied in degrees of value—though most times what I took for treasure only yielded vapor. I looked in relationship holes, career holes, identity holes, status holes. Were any of these the treasure for which I sought?
They were not. I had become Johnny Lee ‘looking in all the wrong places.’

“I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places
Lookin’ for love in too many faces
Searchin’ their eyes and lookin’ for traces
Of what I’m dreamin’ of…”

None of those things stirred in me an irresistible desire to give up all I had for it. Deep within (though not sure why at the time) I knew I had not found the treasure and kept searching.

When I decide I no longer want something I once paid a good deal of money for, I’ll ask Rich to list it for sale on Facebook Marketplace. When I tell him what I’d like to sell it for, my pragmatic husband has to remind me that “something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.”

On earth, the degree to which something is esteemed by others is what gives the thing value. And I’ve learned a hard truth—not everything we esteem as having high value is viewed the same way by God. No, as the Sovereign Authority, God dictates value.

So, what is worth more than “all we possess combined?” There is only One thing.

“We have left everything to follow You,” Peter asserted. Indeed. And so had the Apostle Paul, though, through the Spirit, Paul was able to explain what Peter would eventually understand:

^“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.”
(Philippians 3:7-8 NLT)

Church history tells us that both these men—and so many others like them—did in fact “give all they had” for the sake of Christ. Both men were martyred for their faith—Peter by crucifixion, Paul by beheading. They esteemed Christ as the Supreme Treasure. A treasure of incomparable worth. Worth that surpassed their very lives.

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God’s Treasure

Thinking back to my church’s 800-lb safe, let’s consider, for a minute, how safes are made and why. First of all, safes are made to keep the valuables inside… well… ‘safe.’ They’re usually made from strong steel—like carbon and alloys to enhance security. They’re made fireproof with perlite and insulation. Some high security safes even incorporate reinforced concrete within the walls. And all safes include some type of locking mechanism to resist tampering by potential thieves.

Our safe kept thousands of dollars’ worth of bonds safely sealed away. But even eighty-eight thousand dollars isn’t the Greatest Treasure. That honor belongs solely to God.

Which causes me to wonder. Why, then, would God place something of upmost value—Himself and the priceless gift of salvation—inside ‘jars of clay’—namely, us—His children? Weak, fragile human beings who, day after day, are attacked by the evil one who comes “to steal, kill, and destroy.”

Paul tells us. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor 4:7) For God’s power “is made perfect in [our] weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9)

God isn’t worried He’ll lose the Treasure He’s placed within us. For it’s by His own strength and power it is protected.

Do you see the wonderful interplay happening? Christ is our Greatest Treasure, and we are His.¹ We are hidden in Christ; and His Spirit lives in us.

To redeem His lost treasure, Jesus gave His life and then sealed us with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13) through Whom we are eternally preserved and kept safe. “No one can snatch [us] from the Father’s hand.” (John 10:29)

Besiege us as he may, Satan will never capture the treasure of God.

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I doubt Johnny Lee was thinking of Jesus when he sang, “I spent a lifetime lookin’ for you” and that’s a shame because He’s the only One worth a lifetime of looking—infinite lifetimes and, once found, worth leaving all else behind—joyfully!—to have and keep as one’s very own Treasure.

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For another essay reflecting on the Incomparable Worth of Jesus, see:

At Whatever Cost

1. Consider these verses from the Old Testament which we then see echoed in the New.
“And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.” Deuteronomy 26:18

“and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exodus 19:6

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9