The Parables of the Hidden Treasure, of the Pearl of Great Value, of the Fishing Net, and of the Scribes Instructed in the Kingdom: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

If you find a hidden treasure in the field, what would you do?

Would you sell all your possessions and drain all your life’s savings to get enough money to purchase the whole field in order to legally make the treasure yours?

Or, would you look around to make sure nobody is watching, and then, take unearth the treasure from the field and take it away with you?

In Jesus’ parable of the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44), a person who finds the treasure hidden in the field sold all his possessions and purchased the entire field, after burying the treasure again, rather than taking it away to make it his possessions.

What is a lesson here?

Along with another parable, the parable of the pearl of great value (Matthew 13:45-46), the parable of the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44) is to teach us that the Kingdom of heaven is worth selling all our earthly possessions to attain it. In fact, this teaching is found in the lesson from the rich young man, who forfeited his chance to inherit eternal life because he could not sell all his possessions to follow Jesus for eternal life (Matthew 19:16-22).

Another lesson from the parable of the hidden treasure is that the Kingdom of heaven is not something we can attain by our shrewdness. The point of the person in this parable purchasing not only the hidden treasure but the entire field means that this person understands that the treasure cannot be taken away from the field. Then, in order to attain the treasure hidden in the field legitimately, he needs to legally purchase and own the whole field.

As the treasure hidden in the field cannot be taken away by the person who finds it, the Kingdom is not something we could steal it.

The status of the Kingdom now is like the hidden treasure on earth until it is established on earth as it is in heaven. While we are on earth, the Kingdom is not fully revealed and established yet. We need to work on the establishment and full revelation of the Kingdom on earth. And there is no short cut like unearthing the hidden treasure from the field and taking it away with you.

When the Kingdom is established and revealed completely on earth, it will be also when Christ returns and execute the final judgement, which is addressed in the parable of the fishing net (Matthew 13:47-50).

In this parable of the fishing net, both good fish and bad fish co-exist in the net until it is completely hauled to the shore to be sorted by the angels. This corresponds to the teaching of the parable of the tares in the wheat field (Matthew 13:24-30). In this parable, both the tares and the wheat grew together until harvest time.

So, what is a point of all these parables?

It is that only saints, being pure, totally free of sins, can enter the Kingdom. And those who are entering the Kingdom let go of all their earthly possessions. Some even sacrificed their earthly lives, earning the status of martyr. It is because, to them, the Kingdom is far more worth than all they have had on earth. Only they inherit eternal life that Jesus has promised to give.

In light of the First Reading (1 Kings:5, 7-12), as Solomon asked God to grant him wisdom rather than earthly power and riches, we shall ask God necessary grace to detach ourselves from all earthly possessions as we seek the Kingdom first, striving to attain the heavenly treasure rather than earthly ones (Matthew 6:19-21).

Paul in the Second Reading (Romans 8:28-30) addresses our purpose. It is to attain the Kingdom, according to Jesus, through these parables. So, we need to be justified by God’s grace to be the children of the Kingdom, being like the wheat grew out of the good seeds, being like good fish. And it is also our purpose to work on attaining the Kingdom as the man in the parable of the hidden treasure purchased not just the treasure but the entire field where the treasure is hidden and as the merchant in the parable of the pearl of great value bought this pearl by selling all of his possessions.

There is another small parable, the parable of the scribes instructed in the Kingdom (Matthew 13:52). This is specially for his twelve disciples. It means in today’s context, this parable is applied to clergies and others in pastoral leadership within the Church. And the parable speaks about their responsibility to bring forth the wisdom from both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the pastoral ministries, as instructed by Christ, in order to bring those whom they serve are like the wheat to be harvested or the good fish to be collected. And they will not cheat to privatize the Kingdom but do necessary works to attain the Kingdom and to let the hidden Kingdom revealed by the time of the final judgement. For this purpose, they willingly let go of all of their earthly possessions. As Solomon saw, wisdom is the greatest treasure, if it comes given by God, whether it is of the Old or it is of the New, and no earthly treasures can be compared to this.