I love Jesus’ parable of the Merchant and the Pearl. The parable goes that there was a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found an extremely valuable pearl, he went and sold everything he owned so that he could purchase the pearl (Matthew 13:45-46).

It doesn’t say anything more, except that this is a way we can understand the Kingdom of Heaven.

Thinking about the different elements of this parable there are, of course, lots of things we could come to understand. But for me, what stands out is that the person in search of the pearls is a merchant. Not an enthusiast or collector, but a merchant. Someone who’s livelihood relies on his acquisition of fine pearls. No doubt, he would find many pearls all of which he would turnover in trade to go about living his life.

But, when he comes across this particular pearl, he finds it more valuable than everything his hard work has acquired for him and he sells it all so that he can have this one very special prize.

In this case, the pearl can be compared to Jesus, or the Gospel of Jesus. In all of our searching and working to find significance and worth in this life, absolutely none of it can compare to the value and worth we find in Christ. All of our idols and little deities we collect come to nothing when held against the Pearl.

And, like the merchant, the Church discovers that she cannot keep all her little treasures and capture the Pearl as well. We must surrender—in some form—all of these things we prize so that there is room in our hearts for the only real Treasure: Jesus Christ.

I was reading in Like today and Jesus was asked an interesting question by one of his listeners.

Luke 13:24

"Lord, will those who are saved be few?”

At first reading, I think this seems like a really reasonable question. But upon closer examination, the questioner’s motives become clearer. Jesus’ responds in the following verses:

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ “

The questioner wasn’t asking a hollow question. He was reading the back of the lottery card for his chances of winning. He was wondering whether devotion to Jesus would pay off.

Jesus is clear in his answer. He says that the time is now to believe. The question of whether or not many will be saved or few is irrelevant. The question is whether or not he will enter through the narrow gate while there is still time.

In 1 Corinthians 15:36-38, Paul writes this:

“…What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.”

Life is something like being a seed. We’ll spend it in a dark place, nestled close to many others waiting to be sown. We barely even perceive our potential. All will eventually be sown and all will eventually die.

But some will grow, out of their death, new bodies that glory over the old and constantly long for the light of the sun.

The church has a way of focusing on what people do, rather than who people are.

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

It’s as if we have a tendency to forget that before Jesus, we were not just filthy, but in a way, we were filth. What a person does is incidental to who they actually are.

The church needs to focus on spiritual transformation, and allow the superficial to follow.

In the opening chapters of The Prodigal God, by Tim Keller, he’s explaining the historical context surrounding the parable of the Prodigal Son. He gets to the part about putting the “best” robe on the retuning son and has this to say:

“The best robe in the house would have been the father’s own robe, the unmistakable sign of respored standing in the family. The father is saying, “I’m not going to wait until you’ve paid off your debt; I’m not going to wait until you’ve duly groveled. You are not going to earn your way back into the family, I am going to simply take you back. I will cover your nakedness, poverty and rags with the robes of my office and honor.“

Keller has effectively highlighted a subtle theme in Jesus’ parable. While the parable is as much about the older son as it is about the younger son, it’s hard for most not to first identify with the younger son. And, it doesn’t stop there.

Much like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, Jesus, at great cost to himself, covers our unrighteousness, nakedness and poverty with his own robe.

Thank you Tim Keller for bringing that reminder out of a familiar text. Our righteousness is not our own, it is the cloak of Christ’s blood that covers all our sins.

There is no room for boasting.

A Parable

Imagine that there were ten men in two groups, and they were all enslaved to a third group of men. There were five in one group and five in the other and five in the group that owned them. They were to do everything they were told and if at any time the owners were dissatisfied with the men, they could exercise their rights over their property and dispose of them.

One day, a man from among the slaves rose up with great charisma and a powerful argument. The owners were moved and convicted by this charismatic leader and they freed all five members of that man’s group. The group, now free and satisfied with their own freedom turned a cold cheek to the other five men still in bondage. And, to the charismatic leader’s dismay, in time, they themselves became slave-masters.

A Double Standard

I read in the newspaper today a commentary on Obama’s intentions to sign the Freedom of Choice Act and the strange irony that it presents.

Less than 150 years ago African-Americans were still being held as property. Less than 40 years ago, there was still legislated separation between blacks and white. Now, in just a few short (compared to the whole human timeline) decades, we have a officially elected a black president. This is a profound moment in American history. And, in many ways, and on many, it is a great grace from God, overcoming sin in a fallen world.

But, the president chosen, who has personally and directly benefitted from a fight against unjust laws of slavery, segregation and discrimination, stands passionately by another legislation that ensures millions of people continue to be treated as property.

Therein lies both a philosophical problem, a logical problem and a double standard.

Indeed, no person should have the right to enslave another. No white man should ever have the freedom to own a black man. Nor should a black man have the freedom to own a Hispanic man. Or a Hispanic man, a white man. Much less should they have the freedom to dispose of them as property who no longer desired. While we would affirm these things strongly, and our president probably even more strongly, yet he, and many, affirm the right to dispose of unwanted children.

If children indeed should be treated as property and their owners should have the freedom to dispose of them for convenience sake, then why is it so passionately affirmed that the African slave trade was an evil—or the modern sex trade, for that matter. After all, these things made many lives much easier.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Alveda King, said it like this:

“The battle for equal rights has reached a major milestone [with the election of Barack Obama], but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of full equality remains just a dream as long as unborn children continue to be treated no better than property…”

A Conclusion

I’m finding a more tender heart these days for the unborn; the helpless, those who truly cannot defend themselves. We should:

…Pray for President Barack Obama, that God would have mercy on him and his heart would be softened and changed. 
…Pray that God would stay the hand of our government from passing into law the Freedom of Choice Act.
…Pray that God would have mercy on the millions of unborn at stake.

…Pray that God would have mercy on our nation that loves comfort and convenience, literally, more than life itself.