Matthew 13: 44-52

Theme: Real Happiness

Series: Parables of the Kingdom

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE . . .

Ever since they added the food channel to cable TV, it has become one of two dominate channels in our home. The TV is on either the Home and Garden channel or the Food channel. It must be a sin to sit late at night and watch Emeril Lagasse cook things that make your mouth water. Have you ever seen him? When he spices up the food, he says that it is now happy. The chicken is begging for spices and when they get them, they are happy.

I think I understand his use of the word happy. It is not so much that the chicken is happy, for how can a dead chicken be happy, but that we are happy with the flavors that the spices impart to the food. And as you watch the faces of his audience, you can see the delight in their faces as they see and smell and anticipate the food they are about to eat.

This parable strikes us at this level of happiness and delight and anticipation. There are very few humans who are satisfied at the very core of their being. So many of our human pursuits are in the name of happiness. It is not a new quest but as old as Adam himself. I was watching an old black and white movie the other day with Cary Grant and Catherine Hepburn. In one of the scenes they are exploring each other attitudes and Hepburn said, with a smile, that she was the most unhappy person in the world. He is shocked! But when she questioned him, he admitted that he had yet to find happiness but was hopeful it was out there.

There is a hunger built into the human soul. Many of you have experienced it. It is what has driven you to Church. You may not have attended church in years, or never have gone to church. But now you find yourself attracted to church as the lions of the Serengeti Plains are drawn to water. Your thirst can only be described as an anticipation of something that will bring happiness and delight, something that will fill the empty void of your soul. And yet, the more you pursue happiness, the more it eludes you.

When we turn to scripture, we don't find much about happiness. The words happy and happiness occur a total of 18 times in the entire Bible and not once is happiness seen as something to be pursued.

Do you know someone who is truly happy? If you do, then you know someone who, heart and soul, is seeking something besides happiness. No one seeking happiness finds it, it is not something that can be found when sought for. Rather, happiness is the byproduct of some other search. In fact, the two men in these parables find happiness, it would seem, by accident!

Jesus told two parables about happy men. The first man was a gardener or a farmer. He was about his business of farming. It was in the midst of his work that he made a wonderful discovery. He found a great treasure buried in the dirt. There is a thrill finding buried treasure. People in Palestine had for centuries put their money in pots and buried it in the ground. Even today, some finds have yielded pots full of gold coins. This man found where some frightened soul hid his life's earnings from an advancing army. He was so filled with joy that he sold all that he had and bought the field so that the treasure might be his.

Jesus said that the kingdom of God is like that. The kingdom of God is so valuable that it is worth sacrificing everything to get it. It is like making the greatest discovery of wealth one could ever find and it somehow could become yours. It is a discovery that would make one forget about happiness, for the find is far beyond being happy.

Again the kingdom of God is like a merchant in search of the perfect pearl. They bought pearls from around the world to trade and resale. But, some men traded for pearls because of their beauty. This merchant found the perfect pearl. It was the kind of pearl that a lover of pearls searches for all of his life. It was the perfect shade of white. It had the softest sheen. It was the perfect size and the perfect shape. It was everything that a lover of pearls could ask for.

Whereas, the farmer took his little bit of investment and bought the field so that he might have the riches hidden in that field, the merchant sold all he had for the one great pearl. The farmer made a profit, the pearl merchant made no profit, if he sold his pearl he would only get what he spent, but he bought it anyway because of its beauty.

We go about our daily life, working, playing, loving and hating. We try this and that thinking "this might delight me, this might amuse me." Yet, it is not that overwhelming moment when life becomes as it should be. We may grow frustrated as we grow older. We may become cynical. But, something keeps driving us. It is as if we had a compass pointing toward the goal. That compass, that driving passion is none other than the Holy Spirit of God. It is his work to convict us of our sin and to bring us to faith in Christ. Isn’t it exciting to know that while we are still looking, hopelessly lost, God himself has been pursuing us? When we thought we heard our name whispered, it was! When we found an indescribable attraction drawing us, it was! It is God who is directing us to the greatest of discovers.

When we find the great treasure, the pearl of great price, we discover that the asking price is our faith. We place our trust in God who in turn, takes away our sin. In return, we gain the treasures of Heaven. We become citizens of that eternal kingdom. What we gain is of infinite value as compared to what we lose.

On the other hand, we lose everything. We lose our imagined freedom, our right to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. We lose our right to sin. We now have a Master, a Boss who commands us and demands of us. The cost of this pearl of great price is our soul. But, what we gain is a thing that is greater than beauty. It is greater than wealth. Our old lives, our quest for individualism, our rights, and our place in the world fade because what we find brings us so much more meaning. This treasure is so great, that we give up ourselves and fall before God and worship him. The great pearl is God’s gift to us, the kingdom of God. It is a new and better life. It is life to its fullest, life everlasting, life eternally in the presence of God.

There are those among us who pursue the kingdom of heaven with reckless abandon. They have discovered the Great Treasure found in Jesus Christ. Their lives have been changed, the old man with its selfishness and self centeredness is gone. For them, things, power, and position take second or third place, for nothing will interfere with their pursuit of God.

Many men and women, who pursue after God, have happiness, true happiness. These are ordinary people who pursue God in such ordinary ways and in ordinary circumstances. They are not super heros or special personalities. They are ordinary men and women who like Paul finally came to some conclusions about life and could say: PHI 3:8 " . . . I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ."

What are you pursuing? Are you looking for happiness and demand that all things be done so that you might be happy? Are you seeking money and wealth, health and status? Are you seeking all the things that the world has told you were of value? If you are, you will have a disappointing life. In the end you will despair of life itself for happiness will elude you. You may even reduce happiness to the brief stimulations that you get from food or drink or drugs or sex or violence or from the pursuit of hatred and revenge. But in the end, you will be empty, despairing of life itself.

But, if you seek first the kingdom of heaven, you will find peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. How else would you describe a happy person?

What is the kingdom of Heaven like? It is the perfect treasure, it is the pearl of pearls. It is a new life in Christ.