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. Matt 13:45-46 (ESV)
Kingdom of Heaven Moment – Part 2
Go to PART 1
Forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but parables are not fairytales, they’re not allegories or metaphors. The word parable comes from “para” which means “to come alongside or compare” and “ballo” which means “to throw” or “see” with. A parable is a story you throw out alongside someone’s life to provoke a different perspective or way of seeing from the hearer. It actually IS like an onion, with layer upon layer of truth, getting more provocative the more you peel into it. Both personal and transcendent. They are designed to be felt and experienced.
“Parables more often tease us into recognizing what we’ve already always known, and they do so by reframing our vision. The point is less that they reveal something new than that they tap into our memories, our values, and our deepest longings, and so they resurrect what is very old, and very wise, and very precious. And often, very unsettling.” Amy-Jill Levine, “Short Stories by Jesus.“
This seemingly harmless, two verse parable about a lovely merchant who buys an exquisite pearl, is so much more than just that. It becomes problematic in the first sentence. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”
We often assign roles to the characters in this parable. Sometimes, the Kingdom of Heaven is God, the merchant is Jesus and we are the pearl. OR, on the flip side, the Kingdom of Heaven is God, the merchant is us, the pearl is the Gospel/Jesus/Salvation. I mean, it works. It’ll preach (somewhat). But those ideas are problematic for a few key points in this short parable.
The Kingdom of Heaven is not God, or the merchant, or the pearl, or the two together. The Kingdom of Heaven is LIKE the whole story; the summations of the transactions within it. The Kingdom of Heaven is not something that can be bought into, it’s not a commodity that can be traded. I know we sometimes use language around salvation such as, “We’ve been bought with a price…” but even that language takes away the meaning from the free gift of love and the invitation that is extended to us through Jesus. It’s not something we buy and put on the shelf, or we pay a cover charge to enter.
What's the Kingdom of Heaven like? Well, it's like a merchant who went in search of pearls but found something altogether ‘more’ than what he initially went in search for. And upon buying it, his identity changed. A merchant he was no longer.
Do you ache for a transformation like that? Sometimes I do. To become someone else, someone new; someone more like who I know I can be, but am not. A return to my original; a reframing of my values. It’s like, sometimes, I live in shadows. I have an idea about what my life could look like but am never really willing to risk the comfort of my current identity and accumulations to obtain something I don’t yet possess… and am not sure even exists. So I flit about from desire to desire, living partially satiated, but never fulfilled. Discontent.
Know what I mean?
And I want so much more than that for this year and beyond.
The merchant not only shows us that we can move beyond living in this cycle, but that we can step out of it altogether.
Go to Part 3 – Mysterious Treasure »
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