“Falling in Love with the Kingdom” - Matthew 13:44-46

You are going about your business as usual. Running errands, getting work done…you never really saw it coming. In the distance you see her for the first time. She’s walking with a bounce in her step. The sun is in her hair. Oh and that smile…a smile that could topple a mountain. Your heart skips a beat. Your lungs clinch and your breathing becomes shallow. Your palms are sweating. Time slows down, seemingly to a halt.

Suddenly everything has changed. Past priorities no longer matter. Previous plans and schedules seem inconsequential. Everything fades into the background. Even what you were on your way to do is forgotten. You don’t know how and you don’t know why—but you know that you need to talk to her, to be with her, to love her. Nothing will get in the way—she is too important, too valuable—everything will take a backseat to her.

If you have ever fallen in love in a sudden way, you can relate very closely to this scenario. In his first parable of our text Jesus shows us that the Kingdom of God is very similar to falling in love. Jesus describes a treasure found hidden in a field. When this treasure of unlimited value is found by a man, the man immediately sells everything he has in order to buy the field. This, Jesus tells us, is what our reaction should be when we are first captivated with God’s Kingdom. Like falling in love, all our priorities should drop for the sake of the beloved. All our plans should change in order to be with our beloved. Everything we have should be forsaken and used in order to obtain our beloved. God’s kingdom is too important, too valuable—everything else must take a back seat.

As a result we must ask: Are we giving the appropriate response to the Kingdom of God which has graciously given us all things? Do we, like the lover or like the man who finds the treasure, immediately drop everything in our life for the sake of the Kingdom of God?

Previously in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus had preached the Sermon on the Mount where he told his disciples not to store up treasures on earth that rust and can be stolen, but that they should store up treasures in heaven where there is no rust and no thieves. He concludes by telling them, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And later in the Gospel he tells them: “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” In these words Jesus is telling us that our treasure is everything—what matters is where we put our trust. If we treasure the Kingdom of God, then good will naturally flow from this good treasure of infinite worth. But if our treasure is the evil treasures of this world then evil will naturally flow from us, because we have put our hearts in the wrong place.

To the rich young man Jesus had some very hard words about putting the Kingdom of God first, that we like to ignore, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Jesus tells this rich young man that if he wants treasure in heaven then he must stop putting his heart into his earthly possessions and start seeking God’s Kingdom. The problem wasn’t the young man’s possessions, the problem was that the young man was seeking these earthly treasures over and above the Kingdom of God which was calling him to help the poor and cling to Jesus.

So now the question is simple: What is your treasure? What is it in your life that you seek above all things? What is the one thing for which you will drop all else?

Back when I was in California I fell in love with a girl who became the center of my world. Though at the time I would have claimed to be seeking first the Kingdom of God, I can see, looking back on the situation, how false that was. There were moments when my frustrations would escalate because she had forgotten to call or because she broke a small promise. In those moments my whole world would come crashing down—my mood would plummet and my emotions would drop into the gutter—frustrated I would yell into the cushions of my couch. I could focus on nothing else; it felt as if my life were falling apart. And I would do absolutely anything to make it right. And all this was because I was seeking her first, above all things. Instead of seeking the Kingdom of God and thereby loving her freely as someone whom I couldn’t control, I sought to control the relationship and make it what I always desired, by putting her on the top of my world.

Whether it is the woman you love or something else, the question remains: What is the one thing for which you will give up everything? Is it your job? Is it your football, your golf? Is it your beauty? Is it your reputation? Is it your children? Is it your wife or husband? Is it having control and getting your own way? Is it your very own life?

In the face of the Kingdom of God, all these treasures which we seek, pale in comparison. Why then do we refuse to put the Kingdom first in our life? It is because the treasures of this life glow with a promise and a pleasure we can’t resist—they offer short term benefits which we can touch and feel and thereby they blind us to their long term emptiness. The excitement of watching our team win the big game. The satisfaction of a promotion after a job well done. The delight of being told we are beautiful. The joy of seeing our child grow through the years. The loving embrace of our lifelong companion. These things we physically experience and they bring us immediate gratification. The Kingdom of God on the other hand is the path of giving up everything for a God who sometimes seems distant and intangible—a God who must be grasped in faith—and therefore we are blinded to its value.

Having raised these hard questions about the Kingdom of God with his parable of the hidden treasure, Jesus then continues and tells us a second parable which many think simply reiterates the first. However, there is something very different about this parable—Jesus isn’t simply saying the same thing over again.

Jesus begins by telling us that the Kingdom of God is like a merchant. In the parable of the treasure Jesus equates the Kingdom to the treasure in the field, but this time it is the merchant. This merchant is out seeking fine pearls and when he finds a pearl of great value he gives up everything in order to buy it.

So, what is Jesus telling us about the merchant that is different than the treasure in the field? Jesus is giving us the other side of the coin. Not only is the Kingdom of God an invaluable treasure for which we should be ready to give up all that we have, the Kingdom of God is a merchant seeking out invaluable pearls of its own.

Once again, it is like falling in love—only this time it is God who is falling in love. God, in Jesus Christ, has chosen for himself a people, a church, and will do anything to bring them to himself. The Apostle Paul wrote of this extraordinary love: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Jesus Christ is the merchant in the parable, and he is seeking out pearls to bring into his church. And yet these pearls are not special in and of themselves, in fact they are hurting and broken—they are oppressed by sickness, death, meaninglessness, and are without a family or identity. These helpless people—these very ones who have up to this point ignored his Kingdom—are seen and loved by Jesus and are thereby transformed by that love into pearls of great value. Because Jesus willingly gives up everything in order to purchase them for himself, they are shown to be of infinite worth—his love makes them valuable. And therefore you—yes you—are a pearl for which Jesus comes. Jesus Christ wants to make you his own and nothing will get in the way. Despite your failure to put his Kingdom first, despite your blemishes and failures, you are too important, too valuable; you have been chosen and therefore everything will take a back seat to you—including Jesus’ own life. Jesus went to the cross and gave up everything there in order to snatch you from the grips of the world that weighs you down and blinds you to the Kingdom of God. Your baptism, your washing in water with the word, is the moment that God officially buys you back and brings you into his family—and in that baptism, that tangible event in your life, you are promised the resurrection of the body as the fruit of being bought and made Jesus’ own.

Therefore Jesus’ two parables are challenging us to see two things. The first is that the Kingdom of God is the most valuable thing in our life and should be sought above all else. The second is that Jesus Christ has given up everything on the cross in order to bring the Kingdom of God into our lives through our baptism. The Kingdom of God has sought us out and has claimed us for its own so that we may seek it above all else.

So when all is said and done we are left with Jesus’ simple directive: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

But, “How do we do this?” you might ask. Jesus tells us that seeking first his Kingdom involves loving no thing and no person more than him, taking up our cross and following him, and losing our life for his sake. In short, this will look a lot like falling in love—and not a Hollywood, romanticized version of falling in love—a real falling in love which sacrifices the self for the sake of the beloved. This is the very same love which God first had for you by bringing you into his Kingdom. This is the very same love that Jesus Christ had for you as he hung bloodied on the cross in order to buy you back for God our Father. As the Apostle John said so eloquently, “We love because he first loved us.” And yet our love and seeking of the Kingdom is not manifested simply in some intangible love directed toward God, it is manifested as we look to our fellow man beside us. The Apostle John clearly proclaimed, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

Therefore, if we seek the Kingdom of God first, we will seek to do the Kingdom’s work in our life. This involves loving one another as Jesus Christ loved us—this involves laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters. We are called to fall in love with our fellow man in the same way that God fell in love with us. The extreme sacrifice of giving up ourselves for our brothers is what we are called to in God’s Kingdom. By God’s grace and by his falling in love with us, this becomes possible as we boldly step out into the world, loving all people for Jesus’ sake. Amen.