Treasure Beneath the Surface – Sermon – Pastor Dave Page

That’s it. Three verses. Yet in those few sentences, Jesus reveals something that has the power to completely reorder a person’s life. Now, before we unpack these stories, let me tell you about something I’ve noticed with our granddaughters. Each of them has a favourite stuffed animal and, if you saw those little animals sitting on a shelf at a garage sale, you probably wouldn’t give them a second glance. They’re a little worn. The fur isn’t quite as soft as it used to be. One has been hugged so much it’s beginning to lose its shape. To most people they’re just ordinary stuffed animals. But not to our granddaughters! To them, they’re priceless.

If one of those little friends ever went missing, the whole family would stop what they were doing to help find it. Why? Because their value isn’t found in the fabric they’re made of. Their value is found in what they mean to the one holding them. And isn’t that true of so much in life? Value isn’t always determined by appearance. t’s determined by what something is worth to us. Once we recognize something as truly valuable, it changes the way we treat it. We protect it. We make room for it. We gladly rearrange our lives around it. That’s exactly what Jesus is inviting us to see.

Both of these stories are about value. Both are about discovery. Each story describing that life-changing moment when someone realizes, “I have found something worth more than everything else I own.” So, let’s look at the first story.

Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” Now, to us, that sounds a little unusual. But in Jesus’ day, burying valuables was actually common. There were no banks or safety deposit boxes. During uncertain times people often buried their wealth, intending to come back for it later. Sometimes they never did. Years passed or generations passed and the treasure remained exactly where it had always been – hidden and valuable. But unnoticed. Jesus says a man is simply going about his day when suddenly he discovers something beneath the surface that changes everything. I love that – Because that’s how many people encounter God.

Think about your own journey. Some of us weren’t searching. We weren’t looking for answers. We were just going on about our business, simply living our lives. Trying to make it through another week. And then somehow God interrupted our ordinary. Maybe it was through a conversation or a difficult season. Maybe someone invited you to church. Maybe you’d heard the Gospel dozens of times before, but one day something finally clicked. Suddenly you realized, “There’s more here than I ever understood.” That’s the picture Jesus paints in this passage.

But here’s the part that always challenges me – I don’t think this only happens before we come to faith. I think it can happen to those of us who’ve been in church for years. As we’ve said previously, sometimes familiarity hides value. We become so accustomed to words like grace, forgiveness, salvation, resurrection, that they lose their sense of wonder. We sing about amazing grace without being particularly amazed. We hear the story of the cross without stopping to marvel at what Christ has done for us.

Living here in Essex County, we know something about that. How many evenings have you driven past Lake Erie without even noticing the sunset? People travel from all over the world hoping to experience what many of us see every day. The beauty didn’t disappear. We’ve just become familiar with it. Well, the same thing can happen spiritually. The treasure can be right beneath our feet and we stop noticing its worth.

Which brings us to a question Jesus wants every one of us to answer this morning. Have I become so familiar with Jesus that I’ve forgotten just how priceless He really is? Joyful Surrender

Let’s go back to the story. Jesus says, “When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” I don’t want us to rush past those three little words: “In his joy.” Matthew records them in Greek as: ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς αὐτοῦ – apo tēs charas autou. Literally, it means, “Out of his joy.” Don’t miss what Jesus is saying here. The joy wasn’t the reward after he sold everything. The joy came before he sold everything. His actions flowed out of the joy of discovering the treasure. Now, that should change the entire way we read this parable. Because if we’re honest, many of us hear this story and immediately focus on what the man gave up, “He sold everything.” We hear sacrifice and loss and cost. But Jesus wants us to notice something else. The man wasn’t grieving. He wasn’t reluctantly letting go of things he loved. He wasn’t trying to convince himself it was worth it. Jesus says, “In his joy…” he sold everything. Why? Because he knew something nobody else knew. He knew what was buried in that field.

Can you picture the scene? His neighbours are watching him. “You’re selling your house?” “Yep.” “Your tools?” “Yep.” “Your furniture?” “Yep.” “Everything?” “Pretty much.” “Why?” “Because I’m buying that field.” And they look across the road. It’s just another field. Nothing remarkable. Certainly, no treasure chest sticking out of the ground. Just dirt.

They probably thought he had lost his mind. But he hadn’t lost his mind. He had found the treasure. Everyone else saw a field. He saw what was hidden beneath the surface. And once you’ve seen the treasure the field never looks ordinary again. I think that’s exactly what happens when someone truly encounters Jesus. The world may not look different to everyone else. Your circumstances may not immediately change. You still go to work on Monday, you still have bills to pay and all that but something has changed deep inside. You’ve discovered Someone whose worth changes the value of everything else. That’s why following Jesus isn’t primarily about what we lose, it’s about what we’ve found. Sometimes Christianity gets presented as a long list of things we’re supposed to give up. Don’t do this, stop doing that. Give this away, sacrifice that.

If that’s all people hear, following Jesus can sound like an endless series of losses but that’s not how Jesus describes it. He says the Kingdom is like discovering a treasure so valuable that everything else suddenly looks different. The treasure changes the calculation. It’s the difference between someone cleaning out their garage because they have to and someone clearing out the garage because they’ve finally bought the classic car they’ve dreamed about for years. The work is the same- the motivation is completely different. That’s the picture Jesus gives us.

It reminds me of Paul’s words in Philippians chapter 3. Paul had an impressive résumé. If anyone had reasons to be confident in what they had accomplished, it was Paul. Yet listen to what he says. “Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Did you hear that? Paul isn’t complaining about what he left behind. He’s saying, “Compared to Jesus everything else simply lost its value.” The treasure changed everything!

Church, that’s the invitation of this parable. Jesus isn’t asking us to trade something wonderful for something disappointing. He’s inviting us to discover something infinitely better. And I wonder if sometimes we’ve been asking the wrong question. We ask, “How much do I have to give up to follow Jesus?” Jesus asks, “Have you seen the treasure?” because once you’ve truly seen the treasure that question begins to disappear. The question becomes, “Why would I cling to lesser things when I’ve found something infinitely greater?” Only a heart that has been captivated by Jesus will gladly begin to reorder its priorities around Him. That’s why I don’t think this parable is really about money. It’s about affection. It’s about what occupies first place in our hearts, because whatever we treasure, that’s what we organize our lives around. Jesus is simply asking, “What occupies that place in your life?” Has the Kingdom become your greatest treasure? Or has it become one more good thing sitting alongside everything else?

THE PEARL, THE SEARCH, AND THE REORDERING OF EVERYTHING

So, Jesus tells us another story. And at first, it sounds almost identical to the first one. Someone discovers something valuable. They sell everything. They obtain the treasure. But there is an important difference. Listen again to verse 45-46: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Now, notice the difference between these two people. The first man wasn’t necessarily looking for treasure. As far as we know, he was simply going about his day. And then suddenly, clunk, his shovel hits something and he discovers treasure almost accidentally.

The second man is different. He is searching. Jesus calls him a merchant. This is someone who knows pearls. This is his business or area of expertise. He’s seen ordinary pearls, he’s seen good pearls. Maybe he’s even seen some extraordinary pearls. He knows the difference. And he is actively looking for something exceptional. Then one day he sees it, “One pearl of great value” and suddenly, the search is over.

Now this is an important point, because people come to faith in different ways. Some people are like the man in the field. They weren’t looking for God yet suddenly, they discovered treasure. But other people are more like the merchant. They’ve been searching for years. They’ve asked questions. They’ve read books. They’ve explored ideas, they’ve wondered: Why am I here? What is life actually about? Is there more than this? And they keep searching. Until eventually, they encounter Jesus and then something happens. The searching stops. Not because every question has suddenly disappeared but because they’ve found the One around whom everything else begins to make sense. They’ve found the pearl. And I love that Jesus tells both of these stories because there isn’t just one way people discover the Kingdom. Some stumble across it yes, some have dramatic conversion stories, some can’t remember a time when they didn’t know Jesus. While others discover him slowly, gradually, almost imperceptibly. They would say: “I don’t know exactly when it happened. I just know that somewhere along the journey, Jesus became real to me.” And that’s okay. Because the point isn’t how you found the treasure. The point is: Have you recognized its value?

Both stories end the same way. The man in the field sells everything. The merchant sells everything. Two different journies, same response. Why? Because once you’ve discovered something of incomparable value everything else has to be reconsidered. That’s where these parables start getting uncomfortable.

Listen to me now: Jesus isn’t asking to become one more important part of our lives. He’s not saying: “Just fit me in wherever you can.” Jesus is talking about a Kingdom that changes the way we see everything and maybe that’s where we need to ask ourselves the most difficult question today: Has Jesus become the centre around which my life is ordered or have I simply tried to fit Jesus into the life I’ve already chosen? Those aren’t the same thing. One says: “Jesus, here is my life. Bless my plans. Help me achieve my goals. Protect the things I value. Make things work out the way I hope.” The other says: “Jesus, my life belongs to you. My plans are yours. My future is yours. My gifts are yours. My relationships are yours. Show me how to live as a citizen of your Kingdom.” One tries to add Jesus to our priorities. The other allows Jesus to reorder them. That’s what the treasure does.

Church, the field may look ordinary. The day may feel ordinary. Your life may feel ordinary. But do not assume that nothing is happening beneath the surface. The Kingdom is closer than you think. Grace is closer than you think. God is at work in places you may not yet recognize.

So when you leave today, do not leave asking only: “What do I need to give up?” Leave asking: How can I live this week in the joy of what I have found? How can I seek the Kingdom first? How can I make room for the presence of God? How can I live more generously? How can I release control? And look, not every change is going to happen all at once but something can change. One priority. One habit. One decision. Maybe one honest prayer: “Jesus, you are the treasure. Teach me to live like it.” And as we continue this series, Jesus will keep inviting us to look beneath the surface. To recognize the Kingdom in places we might otherwise overlook.

Today, carry this truth with you: Many people spend their lives near treasure they never recognize. Do not miss the treasure. Do not settle for lesser pearls. Do not allow temporary things to take the place that belongs to Jesus. The Kingdom is here. The treasure has been found. And in that discovery is the joy of realizing that when we have Him we have found what matters most.