Finding Buried Treasure

Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 01 May 1999 19:00

The Stories of Jesus

At the turn of the 18^th Century, Charles the 4^th, King of Spain, knew that Napoleon could not be stopped in his march across Europe. It was clear that Napoleon would claim the Spanish crown by force and with it all of the crown?s treasures. So Charles asked his most trusted advisor to hide the great treasures of the Spanish crown. This wise and trusted advisor and friend buried a priceless collection of antique clocks in a wall of the 365 room palace where the Spanish monarchy held forth. Then he hid the invaluable Spanish crown jewels in another wall of the mansion.

To insure that the jewels could be uncovered later, the advisor then cut off a very small piece of fabric from the draperies of the rooms in which the treasures were buried.

Napoleon did indeed take over Spain and established his brother Joseph on the throne as ruler. But in 1814, Joseph?s rule was cut off when Ferdinand 7^th, son of Charles, mustered enough support to reclaim the crown.

Joseph returned to the monarchy?s home, knowing the secret of the crown jewels and the antique clocks. Determined to find them, he brought the swaths of cloth which had been secretly held by his father?s trusted friend in order to use them as a road map to the treasures. Unfortunately, he discovered that Joseph Napoleon had been something of an amateur interior decorator. All of the paper and paints and draperies in all of the rooms had been changed. Ferdinand was faced with the choice of breaking down the walls in each of the 365 rooms, or letting the treasure lie buried until they were discovered. He chose to leave them alone.

Almost everyone thought this story was an old European legend until just a few decades ago. A plumber was working on the pipes in one of the rooms of the old Spanish mansion. Breaking through the wall in one of those rooms he unexpectedly stumbled into a large collection of antique clocks. The discovery was announced throughout Spain. It was like a great and unexpected national discovery. Now someday, somebody is going to stumble onto the only set of lost crown jewels in Europe. In a moment of blinding, exhilarating surprise they will discover a lost treasure, a treasure whose worth is beyond measure.

This is much like the plowman in Jesus? first parable. He makes a surprising discovery. It ends up changing his life forever.

• Jesus? favorite mode of teaching was telling stories. They are pictures that give us a deeper lesson in relating to God.
• In Jesus? stories, the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, equals God?s rule in our lives.
• This first parable is not the story of some great Jewish landowner. This is the story of a contract plowman. He works someone else?s land. His usual pay amounted to a denarius a day as well a small sampling of he crop that is the fruit of his labor.
• Tell the story
• The emphasis in the original text is on the phrase "in his joy." It was a small matter for the plowman to sell all that he had for he had very little and buy a field where priceless treasure was buried.
• The plowman was surprised by the discovery of a treasure that was beyond anything he expected or could have dreamed of really.

The great truth which Jesus? story illustrates is that God often surprises us. He meets us when and where we did not expect it. Romans 10:20 says, "I was found by those who did no seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me." God is in the business of throwing surprise parties. His reign in our lives sometimes catches us. We weren?t looking for it, but there it is.

When was the last time you were surprised by God? When was the last time his presence caught you off guard and changed your life? Has your heart become cynical to surprise? Have you lost a sense of expectancy? Or maybe you never had it? Your life can be radically altered by an encounter with Jesus Christ at any moment. In his person you can find buried treasure.

• The plowman in our story was not acting sneakily or illegally. Rabbis had a rule "finders keepers."
• They made this rule because finding buried treasure was not an unheard of occurrence in the Ancient Near East. When Jesus told this story, his hearers -would have perhaps known someone who had made just such a discovery. Or they would have heard of such a one. (William Thompson)
• And having discovered such a treasure, the plowman did what anyone in Jesus? audience would have done. He sold all that he had which was very little, to acquire the treasure which was very great!

This reminds us of the story of Harold Carter. Carter spent his life and energies studying ancient Egypt preparing and planning for the discovery of a completely undisturbed Pharaoh burial chamber. He finally found a sponsor in the wealthy British Lord Carnarvorin. Carter spent six fruitless digging seasons excavating in the Valley of the Kings, 300 miles up the river from Cairo. Six fruitless seasons looking for one unmolested tomb of an ancient Pharaoh.

Carnarvorin finally gave up and told Carter he was at the end of his available funds. But at the very end of the sixth season, Carter dug beneath the tomb of a major-league Pharaoh, finding the doorway to the tomb of a minor-league Pharaoh whose name was King Tutanamen. Better known to us as King Tut. When he cleared the doorway and broke through he found the unbroken seal to an undisturbed tomb. Carter called for Lord and Lady Carnarvorin, who made the long trip to the Valley of the Kings to see the unveiling of the most famous archeological discovery in the history of archeology.

The seal was broken, and a candle was inserted in the chamber to make sure it was not filled with toxic fumes. Carter bent inside to look at the contents. Lord Carnarvorin held him by the shirt sleeve and said, "What do you see?" Carter responded, "I see wonderful things."

Jesus is speaking today to someone who is like this plowman. You have been plowing for months, maybe years, laying down straight row after straight row in the same furrowed field. All you see before you and behind you are measured mounds molded by your plowmanship. In that you can find some sense of satisfaction, some sense of meaning and purpose. But every now and then you stop to wipe the sweat from your brow and you wonder, "Is there more?"

The message of Jesus is "Yes! There is more. There is treasure, priceless, invaluable treasure. Perhaps just ahead. There is a new ministry. There is relief from suffering. There is an encounter with God, a surprising intoxicating encounter worth trading all that you know for. Don?t loose the sense of expectancy. In another place Jesus tells us we must approach the Kingdom of God like little children. You know, surprise is one of the conditions of childhood.

According to Jesus, there are 2 ways of discovering the rule of God in our lives. There is the surprised finder of unexpected treasure and there is the intentional seeker who finds much more than she is looking for. God promises us in Jeremiah 29 that "You will seek me and find when you seek me with all your heart."

The pearl merchant from Jesus? second story was such a seeker.

• From a very different socioeconomic group than the plowman. This was not a laborer. This was an upper-middle to wealthy merchant who ran a lucrative import-export business. He dealt in pearls.
• In Jesus? day pearls were the most precious stone. Pliny, a contemporary of Jesus, tells us that Cleopatra had 2 pearls worth $4 million.
• Before Arab sheiks made their fortunes in gold, they made them in pearls dug up from the Persian Gulf.
• Our merchant would have frequently traveled to these sheikdoms to purchase pearls.
• On one such trip, he found a perfect, priceless pearl. It was the culmination of a lifetime of searching. He knew his business. He knew pearls. He knew its value as soon as he saw it. He had not really believed it existed, but there it was. And for it, he sold all of his considerable holdings to amass the capital to buy it outright.

Some things are simply too valuable to price. The Hope Diamond has been out of this country away from the Smithsonian only twice. Once to the Louvre and once to South Africa. On both trips it was insured for $1million. Certainly this would not replace the diamond. This was simply a symbolic insurance policy since no price could be put on the Hope Diamond.

Some of you today are seekers. You are seeking to fill an emptiness. Seeking someone?s approval. Seeking success. Seeking comfort. Some of you are seeking your pearls is work. But work has become a stern taskmaster. The more you work, the more you have to work. It requires more and more of you and seems to give less and less.

Or perhaps you are seeking a picture, a mental photograph. You have a picture of the perfect life and you want that picture. Maybe being religious is part of that picture, so you add religion. Let?s be sure that we are not like the couple in the famous Indian story?

But the message of God for you is that you can find something better than you?re seeking, not paste pearls, but perfect, priceless pearls. You can find something whose worth is invaluable in the person of Jesus Christ.

The pages of the New Testament are peopled with ones who made such discoveries. Anna, Simeon ? The disciples ? The great apostle Paul ?

• Do the characters in these 2 parables have anything in common?
• They sold everything they had to obtain the treasure. In a moment of crisis, in a moment of discovery whatever stands between you and the treasure is worth the trade.
• Jim Elliot, "He is not fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot loose."
• If a pearl merchant will sell all that he has to acquire a perfect pearl, how much more should you be willing to give all to acquire the rule of God in your life. If a plowman would give up all to have an earthly treasure, how much more should I be willing to put everything aside for the sake of knowing God.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 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."