He Sold All His Pearls for One
by David Mathis
Jesus told a one-sentence parable about a man who “sold all that
he had.” He was a merchant who found something so precious that it
far surpassed even the sum of all the other treasures he held
dear.
The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,
who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that
he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:45–46)
One supremely precious pearl. One single pearl of exceedingly
great value. So great, in fact, so precious, that he sold
everything, including all his other fine pearls, to buy this one
surpassingly great pearl.
Jesus Taught in Twos
Jesus pairs this parable with another one-sentence lesson about
treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). Jesus often does this
in his teaching: pairing two illustrations, each with their
individual emphases, to make the same general point (Carson,
Matthew, 376).
Earlier in Matthew 13, it’s mustard seeds with leaven (Matthew
13:31–33), to show God’s surprising way of bringing to earth the
fullness of heaven’s kingdom. In Matthew 13:44–46, Jesus accents
the superlative worth of his kingdom. The pairing not only
reinforces the point, but fills out the picture, and introduces
new contours of meaning.
Treasure and Pearl
In the first parable (Matthew 13:44), the hidden treasure is found
“by chance,” it seems, without the man looking intentionally for
it. In the surprise of it all, the accent falls on his shocking
and happy response: from his joy he goes and sells all he has to
buy the field. Joy flooded his heart as he stumbled on such value.
In the second parable (Matthew 13:45–46), we have a merchant. He
is looking. He is searching high and low, near and far. Well does
he know the value of pearls. In the ancient world, pearls “were
regarded as very precious,” says George Knight, “in more demand
even than gold” (Pastoral Epistles, 135). And this merchant is not
just seeking pearls but “fine pearls” — beautiful pearls, precious
pearls. His palate is refined. He has a keen eye.
The merchant’s life has been bound up with pursuing the most
precious of earthly objects. Now, he comes across one singular
pearl of such beauty, of such great value, one pearl so precious,
he goes and sells all he has to have it. The emphasis is not on
his accidental find but on the over-the-top fulfillment of an
intentional search. Now the accent is not on the subjective
response of joy but on the exceedingly precious value of the
object.
Worth Every Sacrifice
Together the short parables contribute to one picture, seen in the
obvious repetition: the man sells all he has to obtain the
newfound treasure. However accidental or intentional the search,
the man has come upon something of such value that he is eager
(“from his joy”) to count all else loss in view of the surpassing
value of the treasure — of the exceeding preciousness of the
pearl.
Neither parable minimizes the cost. In fact, both draw attention
to it: literally, “all things, as much he has.” There is a cost —
a great cost — to this discipleship. But the Discipler, who is
himself the Treasure, so far outstrips the cost that we gladly
say, “Gain!” This one great pearl is so surpassingly precious that
many even say with the great army of missionaries and martyrs,
like David Livingstone, “I never made a sacrifice.”
What will it look like for Christ’s kingdom to come to us like
this? How do we receive Jesus as an infinitely valuable treasure,
or a singularly great pearl, that far surpasses all else? The
concept of superlative worth or supreme preciousness in Matthew 13
points us to at least two pictures elsewhere in the New Testament.
Exceedingly Precious
The first is the anointing at Bethany (John 12:3–8; also Mark
14:3–9). Martha served. Lazarus, freshly resurrected, reclined at
table. Their sister Mary “took a pound of expensive ointment made
from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet
with her hair” (John 12:3). Here, expensive is the same word used
for the one great pearl in Matthew 13 (Greek polutimos,
“exceedingly precious”). So manifestly, uncomfortably valuable was
the ointment that the disciples, and chiefly Judas, registered
their concerns. “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred
denarii and given to the poor?” (John 12:5).
A denarius was a laborer’s daily wage. This ointment represented a
whole year’s earnings for a six-days-a-week worker. Likely this
was Mary’s nest egg for the future. And yet, as precious as it
was, she saw Jesus as more precious. She saw him as surpassingly
valuable. She poured her future on his feet, and in doing so, she
demonstrated who was supremely precious to her.
Supremely Valuable
Paul takes up the same search, sacrifice, and joy in Philippians
3. Did he perhaps see himself in the merchant of Jesus’s parable?
If so, what were the “fine pearls” he amassed before encountering
the supreme preciousness of Christ? He provides a list:
“circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under
the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5–6).
As a leader among the strictest sect of his religion, he had an
unassailable pedigree (what he couldn’t control, by birth) and
performance (what he could, by effort). These were fine pearls
indeed. Until he stumbled upon a Treasure who confronted him,
knocked him off his horse, and opened his eyes. This was a
Treasure that had been hidden from Paul, and yet one he had long
been seeking. Now Paul saw Jesus as the one great Pearl of all-
surpassing preciousness, and he counted all to be loss — both
pedigree and performance — in view of “the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). Jesus became to
him both an infinitely priceless Treasure to gain and a supremely
precious Pearl to know.
God, in all his divine goodness, took on flesh in this one man
Jesus. “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily”
(Colossians 2:9). Finding him as your one Precious will not poison
and shrink your soul. He is the antidote to what ails us, the
catalyst to expand our small hearts, the surprising remedy we’ve
long been seeking.
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