{"id":29032,"date":"2026-07-20T03:47:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T03:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/?p=29032"},"modified":"2026-07-23T03:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:52:08","slug":"the-treasure-worth-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/?p=29032","title":{"rendered":"The Treasure Worth Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lectio Reflection – Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Matthew 13:44-52 (Year A 2026)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As we come to the end of this section of Matthew\u2019s Gospel devoted to the parables of the Kingdom, Jesus gives us several final images: treasure hidden in a field, a merchant searching for fine pearls, and a net cast into the sea. They are familiar images, and perhaps because they are familiar we can pass over them rather quickly. Yet together they raise a significant question for anyone seeking to live as a disciple: what value do I actually place upon the Kingdom of God?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first two parables are particularly striking because of the response of those who discover something of extraordinary value. The person who finds the treasure hidden in the field goes away \u201cin his joy\u201d, sells everything he possesses and buys the field. The merchant who finds the pearl of great price does much the same. Once they recognise what they have found, everything else is measured against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that is an important way of approaching the Christian life. We sometimes speak about discipleship principally in terms of what it asks us to surrender: what we must give up, what disciplines we must accept, what sacrifices might be required of us. Jesus approaches it differently here. The emphasis is first upon the extraordinary value of what has been discovered. The person sells everything not because possessions have suddenly become evil, but because something of vastly greater value has been found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That little phrase, \u201cin his joy\u201d, is therefore very important. The sacrifice makes sense because of the treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovering What Is Truly Valuable<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is an interesting difference between the first two parables. The person in the field seems to discover the treasure unexpectedly, whereas the merchant has been actively searching for fine pearls. I think there is something here that reflects the different ways people encounter God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people seem almost to stumble upon faith. An event occurs, they meet someone whose life affects them, or a passage of Scripture suddenly speaks to them in a way they had never experienced before. Others search for many years, asking questions and trying to understand what gives life its deepest meaning. Eventually they recognise in Jesus something for which they have been searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The circumstances are different, but the result in these parables is the same. Once the treasure has been recognised, a decision has to be made. Neither man simply admires what he has found and then continues as before. Discovery leads to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That causes me to ask something about my own faith. I can say that Jesus is important to me, that the Gospel matters and that the Kingdom of God is something I seek, but does the way I live actually reflect the value I claim to place upon these things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a difference between allowing Christ to have a place in my life and allowing Christ to become the centre around which my life is ordered. The treasure and the pearl suggest the latter. They ask us whether our relationship with God has become sufficiently valuable that other things can be placed in their proper perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cost of Discipleship<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is also something here about cost. If something is genuinely valuable, we should not necessarily expect it to be cheap. Grace is God’s gift to us and cannot be purchased or earned, but responding to grace can nevertheless be demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus repeatedly makes this clear throughout the Gospel. Following him involves decisions. It asks us to forgive when forgiveness is difficult, to love when love is costly, to remain faithful when another path might be easier, and sometimes to stand apart from attitudes within the culture around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is not whether we can somehow purchase the Kingdom through our efforts. We cannot. Rather, if we really recognise the Kingdom as the treasure Jesus says it is, then it should be capable of changing the priorities by which we live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is where the parables become quite personal. What am I reluctant to surrender? What occupies so much of my attention that there is little room left for God? Are there parts of my life that I am quite happy for Jesus to influence and other parts that I prefer to keep for myself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are not always comfortable questions, but perhaps they help us discover what we truly treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Net and Our Response<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The third image, the net cast into the sea, introduces another dimension. The net gathers fish \u201cof every kind\u201d. There is something wonderfully universal about that image. God’s invitation is not restricted to a select group; the Kingdom is offered to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet when the net is brought ashore, there is a separation. The good are gathered and the bad are thrown away. Matthew has already presented something similar in the parable of the wheat and the weeds, and later in his Gospel we will encounter the great scene of the sheep and the goats. Matthew does not allow us to forget that while God’s invitation is generous and universal, our response to that invitation matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judgement is not always something we find easy to speak about today, but it forms part of Matthew\u2019s understanding of discipleship. God gives us freedom, and therefore our choices have significance. We are not simply spectators in the story of salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I grow older, I think I become more conscious of this. Our lives do not continue indefinitely, and there comes a point when we must give an account of what we have done with what we have received. That need not produce fear. I think it should instead produce a certain seriousness about how we live now. If the Kingdom really is the treasure, then today is an opportunity to live according to its value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing Out the New and the Old<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The final verses of the Gospel can easily be overlooked. Jesus asks the disciples whether they have understood what he has been teaching, and when they answer yes, he speaks of the scribe who has become a disciple of the Kingdom and who brings out of his treasure \u201cwhat is new and what is old\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a particularly appropriate conclusion in Matthew\u2019s Gospel. Matthew is constantly drawing upon the Old Testament while showing how it reaches fulfilment in Jesus. Jesus has not come simply to discard what has gone before. Earlier he tells us that he has come not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disciple therefore treasures both the old and the new. We receive the great story of God’s relationship with his people, but we now read that story in the light of Christ. Something new has happened in Jesus, and yet that newness reveals more fully the purpose of what came before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also something that Lectio Divina can help us appreciate. We do not read Scripture merely to collect information about the past. We enter the Word so that, through it, we might encounter Jesus in the present. The ancient Word becomes something living within our own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Is My Treasure?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most useful question to carry from this Gospel into the coming week is simply: what do I really treasure?<\/strong> Jesus has already told us in Matthew that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can often discover the answer by looking quite practically at our lives. What receives my time and attention? What do I worry most about losing? What am I prepared to make sacrifices for? What occupies my thoughts when nothing else demands my attention? These things can reveal where our treasure lies more accurately than the things we say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prayer of this Sunday asks that we may \u201cuse the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that endure forever\u201d. I think that prayer captures the Gospel particularly well. Christianity does not require us to reject the good things of this world. Family, friendship, work, creation and the many things that give us joy can all be received as gifts from God. The danger comes when passing things are asked to provide what only the eternal can give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus places the treasure before us. He invites us to recognise its value and then to order our lives accordingly. The question is not simply whether I have discovered the treasure of the Kingdom, but whether that discovery is continuing to change the way I live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that is something worth sitting with this week: if the Kingdom of God really is the treasure worth everything, what difference should that make in my life today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Bishop David Walker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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