Matthew 13:44-52 - Possession of the Kingdom Demands Going "All In" - August 9, 2020

This Sunday we conclude the section of Matthew’s gospel in which Jesus relates a series of seven parables about the kingdom of heaven. It can’t be emphasized often enough that the kingdom of heaven is not a visible nation; it doesn’t have borders and armies; it’s not a particular church or denomination. Rather, the kingdom of heaven refers to the invisible reign of Jesus (Luke 17:21) through Word and Sacraments (Romans 10:17). So these parables deal with things that are largely hidden from human sight – the operation of the Word in your heart. Today, we’re going to use an analogy from the world of poker to help us understand Jesus’ words. When you go “all in” in poker, you are pushing all your chips in. It’s a risky move, but one that is sometimes necessary. In these final three parables, Jesus teaches us that anyone who wants possession of the kingdom of heaven must be willing to go “all in.”

He says that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field – a treasure so valuable that you would sell everything you own to get the field that it’s in. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls – and that when you find one so perfect, so beautiful it’s worth selling everything you have to get it. And, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is worth understanding. As he stated in the parable of the Sower, the key is understanding (Matthew 13:19). So here, at the end of his teaching in parables he doesn’t ask his disciples if they like all these things; if they feel good about these things; not even if they believe all these things. No, he asks them do you understand all these things?

The kingdom of heaven demands that we go all in. Are you? Are you all in? Isn’t it true that while Jesus makes it clear that possession of his kingdom demands a full buy-in, we only buy bits and pieces? Who among us has sold all that we have for the kingdom? Oh, it’s worth an offering. It’s worth a percentage of our money. But is it worth everything we have saved up for a lifetime? Oh, we may give a portion of our time for the kingdom – teaching, ushering, counting, serving in countless other ways. But who of us – including myself – can claim that we have given all of our time for the kingdom? Sure, belonging to the kingdom, being and calling myself a Christian, might be a part of my identity. But who of us doesn’t spend more of our casual conversations talking about our pets, our hobbies, our children, our careers, our aspirations for the future – even sports, the weather and politics – than we do the kingdom of heaven? If the kingdom of heaven is a pearl – then you can’t have just a part, a percentage of it. You either have it all or you have nothing.

Jesus says that possession of the kingdom calls us to be all in – not part in, not some in, not most in – but all in. But who among us can really say that we care enough to understand exactly what this means for our lives – day in and day out? For many, even for many Lutherans, understanding the kingdom begins and ends with two years of formal confirmation instruction. What is intended to be an introduction to Christian doctrine often becomes the conclusion. Oh, they may grow in loving, believing, and even serving Jesus – but not in understanding. Jesus asks: [do] you understand all these things? And we’re content to answer: “well, no, but I know enough.” And all of those things reveal the sad truth: we really aren’t willing to go “all in” in order to possess the kingdom of heaven.

Not one of us can stand before Jesus and say “Yep, Jesus, I’m all in.” The evidence is indisputable, isn’t it? Whether you survey our time, our money, our identity as we reveal it to others, even our understanding of Christian doctrine – we’re not “all-in” in any sense. Not one of us has pushed all our chips in to obtain full possession of the kingdom of heaven. So, if you read these parables as instructions for getting the kingdom of heaven all you can conclude is that none of us have it or could ever get it. Not only is that a depressing interpretation, understood that way, it’s not even Biblical. When did Jesus ever present heaven, salvation, as something you can buy or earn? When are we ever told that we could have enough – enough time, money, effort, righteousness, anything – to exchange it for the kingdom of heaven? And, more importantly, who is the only person the Bible ever presents as going “all in”?

Isn’t the only answer God – and specifically, Jesus? When we read these parables in the light of the clear Scripture passages that tell us that God does everything for our salvation and we do nothing (Romans 9:16; Ephesians 2:8-9) – doesn’t it demand that we see the man and the merchant in these parables as Jesus, and not us? The Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son (John 3:16) and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)? Scripture makes it clear that Jesus is the one who went all in to purchase a kingdom for himself. And that’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, if it were me, I might have died for the good people, or maybe the ones I knew were going to come to faith. But Jesus? Jesus died to buy the whole filthy field of humanity even though the treasure was hidden and buried (1 John 2:2).

And where does the Bible ever say that we could ever have enough to sell to be able to buy the pearl of heaven? Isn’t Jesus the one who gave up the full use of his divine glory, honor, and power so that he might live in humility on this earth to save us (Philippians 2:6-7)? Jesus gave up his freedom, his authority, his power and God and put himself under every last obligation of the law (Galatians 4:4-5)! Jesus sold his glory to buy your debt. In the end, if you think that either these parables or Christianity as a whole is about you and your obedience and effort – then you have to answer this: then why did Jesus come to earth at all? Why did he give up his place in the kingdom to take one in a lowly manger, as a hated and harassed prophet, as a convicted and crucified criminal? If these parables are about us…then what is the cross all about?

It doesn’t make any sense, does it? It’s beyond our understanding. And now I’m no longer talking about the false teaching that Jesus needlessly came to earth to save people who were fully capable of saving themselves – I’m talking about the fact that what these parables are telling us is that we are the treasure, we are the valuable pearl, we are the ones who get bought back by Jesus. You’re the one for whom Jesus sold his position, his authority, his life to buy you back from sin, death, and the devil. Rather than thinking that God looks at you and sees you as the miserable, wretched, filthy sinner that you know you are, you are to believe that God sees you as a treasure, as a pearl – as worth even more than the life of his own beloved Son.

That’s what really doesn’t make sense, right? That’s what’s really beyond our understanding. Here’s the thing. Jesus couldn’t understand it either. Part of the price it cost to purchase our wretched souls was Jesus’ giving up of his perfect understanding of his Father’s gracious plan of salvation. Now, that might sound like blasphemy, so let me explain. The Bible says that Jesus did not consider equality with God as a prize to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). And Jesus displayed that servant-like ignorance at two memorable times during his life on earth. The first was in Gethsemane. Jesus fell on his face in that garden and prayed My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me (Matthew 26:39) – apparently not understanding why he had to swallow the suffering the sinful world deserved. But, then he concluded yet not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39). Or go to Calvary. Listen to the Son of God cry out as he suffers the hell of having his Father disown him: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46)? Jesus couldn’t understand that his Father would forsake him, but he endured it, so that his Father would never, ever forsake you. You are the treasure. You are the pearl. You are what Jesus gave up everything to buy and have and hold and treasure forever. Do you understand that?

There’s one more part of this text that can be easily misunderstood. In the third parable Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven catches all kinds of fish: good fish and bad fish, righteous fish and wicked fish (and I better stop there before I start sounding like Dr. Seuss!). In other words, the net that is the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God on earth in Word and Sacrament, doesn’t just gather in treasure and pearls. It gathers garbage. And Jesus makes it clear that we won’t know until the end of the world which are which – when the angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous who are among them. So the question often becomes: which one am I?

Jesus leads us to the answer when he closes: therefore every expert in the law who has been trained as a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure both new things and old things. So here the picture changes a bit, doesn’t it? Rather than Jesus treasuring us and giving up everything to have us in his kingdom – he’s saying that those who have been trained as disciples now also possess all of the treasures of the kingdom. So here’s the answer to the question of which kind of fish you are: are you a disciple? Remember, a disciple is first and foremost a learner, a receiver. So are you receiving the gifts Jesus gave up everything to win for you? You have once again today, right? The forgiveness of sins in the Absolution, the assurance that you are still God’s beloved, baptized child. The peace and comfort of knowing that you have been reconciled with God through Christ. Because these gifts are yours, all of the treasure of the kingdom are yours as well – both new and old.

What does that mean? While there is no real agreement among Bible scholars regarding this statement, since Jesus is concluding his teaching in parables here – and leaning on the theme that many things in Jesus’ kingdom are hidden from the world but revealed to disciples – I believe he is simply stating that his disciples not only have a grasp of the old things of Scripture – the basic, historical facts of what God has done in the past, but even the new, often hidden, things that God is still doing in our world through his Word today. Over the past three weeks Jesus has taught us that the seed of the gospel does not always succeed in penetrating human hearts and bearing fruit in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23); that in the visible church there will always be both wheat and weeds, both believers and unbelievers – and it won’t get sorted out until the Last Day (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43); that while the kingdom of heaven will one day be revealed as powerful and effective, it doesn’t look that way here and now – as in the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast (Matthew 13:31-35). In other words, Jesus’ disciples not only understand what he has done for us in the past, we can, to a certain extent, understand and see him actively working in our world today – the old and the new. And the common thread that runs throughout both these “old” and “new” treasures is that it doesn’t depend on us or our effort! Being a disciple is not about doing but receiving. And if you are receiving the all-in effort of your Savior to purchase and win you for heaven through Word and Sacrament – then you don’t have to spend any time wondering what kind of fish you are.

I don’t know about you, but over the past few weeks I’ve found that Jesus’ parables have a tendency to throw my normal understanding of things out the window and flip everything upside down. Today is no different. Whenever you’re tempted to ask “Am I ‘all in’ for Jesus? Have I done enough to find a place in his kingdom?” – don’t, and instead ask the right questions: “Is Jesus all in for me? Did he give up everything to buy me back from sin and death and the devil? Does he promise to provide me with everything I need for this life and the next?” There’s your answer: because Jesus, in his boundless love, appraised you to be worth more than his own priceless blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), you are in possession of the kingdom of heaven. Amen.