The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
July 27, 2014- Pastor Adam Moline
Deuteronomy 7:6-9 Romans
8:28-39 Matthew 13:44-52
Hymns LSB 765, 746, 554 Communion LSB 728
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. Our text today is from the Gospel
lesson just read, especially these words, He “went and sold all that he had
and bought it.” Thus far our text
for today.
Dear friends in
Christ. Three parables in our text for
today. The first says that the kingdom
of heaven is like a treasure, buried in a field. A man, upon finding that treasure, sells all
that he has so that he has money to buy that field, and keep it for himself. The second is the same scenario, only with a
pearl of great price. Again, upon
finding it, the man sells all that he has to keep the pearl for himself. Finally, a net full of fish, and men
collecting the good fish and throwing away the bad. Thus, in three one sentence parables, Jesus
reveals to us a great mystery about the kingdom of God.
But what is that
mystery? What does this mean? What kernel of theological value can we take
from these parables?
At first glance it
seems simple – Its up to us to find God’s kingdom, wherever it is that God has
hidden it. Its our job to find that
treasure, buried somewhere beneath our noses.
And when we find it, finally, we ought to give all we’ve got to it! We ought work, work, work, to please God. We need to obey whatever he says, we need to
throw out the bad things in our life, and leave only the good. Because if we don’t we’ve neglected the
kingdom, we’ve left it to the swine of this world, and we can’t have that! So we need to pray harder, sing louder, and
be more worthy of God than anyone else.
And when we believe
this to be our duty – to find and earn God’s kingdom, we have no choice but to
lie to ourselves, to tell ourselves that we are more deserving than others,
that we are a little bit holier than others.
To deny that there is as much sin in us as in our neighbor who hasn’t
found that treasure yet. Oh yes, we are
very pious and pray that they might find it soon, so that they might be as
worthy as we are, but we know that at this time, we’re atleast a little better
than those others.
Do you see the
problem with this interpretation of the text?
It makes this beautiful gospel lesson all law. “You must find God’s kingdom!” “You must be worthy!” “You must throw out the bad things in your
life, and only do good!” In other words,
the parable is all about you, you, you!
Dear friends, are
we really so egocentric as to think its our responsibility to find God’s
kingdom? Are we really so self-righteous
as to think we are even capable of living a good life, and pleasing God. Look at the reality of your life. If you cut away the excuses and the baloney
that you tell yourself, the truth is you are so terribly sinful that it is
impossible for you to please God.
Despite what we tell ourselves, God is not pleased with our excuses to
sin. He is not happy when we break his
law or throw out his word.
We will not by our
own ability find the treasure of the kingdom of God, or the pearl of Great
price. We even confess in the catechism
that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus or come to him. If its up to us, and our goodness to find
God, we will fail, and spend eternity in the punishment of hell where there is
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And thank
goodness, that’s really not what the parable is about.
In fact it is the
other way around completely. Dear
friend, you are the pearl of great price, and it is Jesus who finds you. He loves you, he cares for you, he wants to
be with you forever in the joys of heaven.
And so he gives up all that he has to purchase and win us.
It’s the same with
the treasure, you are God’s treasure, as it says in our Old Testament
lesson. “You are a people holy to
the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to
be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are
on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you
were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love
on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but
it is because the Lord loves you.”
And this is God’s
love for you, not to throw you out or forget about you because of your
sin. But rather to purchase and win you
through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Though you may be buried in the sin of this world, Jesus gives up all to
make you his. You are more precious than
any pearl, so precious that God is willing to spend his own life in Jesus to
make you his.
And it is
precisely because of that fact, dear friends, that you have the promise of
eternal life. It is because God loves
you so much that you have hope for tomorrow, and even for ever more. It is because Jesus suffered, bled and died
for you that you can be absolutely and completely certain that your sins are
forgiven. All of them, every last one of
them.
And because God’s
love for you is so great, because you are the great treasure and the pearl of
great price, because you are the good fish Jesus has caught in the net, there
is nothing in the world that will take you out of his hand. As it is written in our epistle lesson. We are “sure that neither death nor life, nor
angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” You are God’s prized possession.
In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
