Retold: The Hidden Treasure

This is the third in a series of "parables retold," stories of Jesus retold to fit how I see modern people practicing their religion.

The Hidden Treasure

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Matthew 13:44, KJV

Retold
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, to give himself time to think about the prudent course of action. He first thought, “Why shouldn’t I take it? I found it.” But then he felt like that wasn’t the “right” thing to do. After all, what was his duty to his fellow man, the current owner? This really bothered him, so he went to the local magistrate to inquire (as discretely as possible) about what was required for a finder to be a keeper. The law was in his favor—there was no obligation by any law of heaven or of earth to notify a seller of the intent of a purchase or to inform any owner of the value of any of his possessions, including hidden treasure. But the man still felt sore in his conscience—for some reason he thought the loving thing to do would be to tell the owner about his treasure. But now another fear came to his mind—what about the accusation of trespassing? Whether he told the owner or bought the land, would the owner press charges for his unpermitted access to his land? Perhaps he should just forget the whole thing. O what should he do? Filled with confusion, duty, and desire, he turned to a trusted town elder for advice. He danced around the scenario as if it were a friend of a friend’s dilemma, which was fine, because the elder hated to know details—he much preferred to think in terms of hypotheticals and sterile, faceless situations. In the end, the elder decided that his friend’s friend was authorized to make the purchase without telling the owner, but gave him this list of questions to consider before acting:

• What kind of an example would he be setting for his children and weaker brothers?
• Did he really “love” the current owner of the field if he didn’t go with full disclosure?
• How much treasure did he really need in excess of what he already had to be content?
• Why should he have so much treasure when others have so little?
• Would he be bitter if he found the treasure had been removed, or it wasn’t worth as much as he originally thought?
• What would God expect him to do with this treasure, seeing that he had not earned it, and there are so many in want all around?

The man took all of these questions under consideration, and decided to move ahead. He contacted his banker, his accountant, and his lawyer—individually—to find out how much he could afford to spend, and what the impact on his estate and his taxes would be if he decided to make a major purchase. Most of all, he wanted to get permission from his lawyer, and reassurance that he wouldn’t be sued, and that everything would be done by the book. Once all the figures were in, he thought about how much he would gain from the buried treasure and how much the land was worth besides, and he came up with an offer he thought was reasonable. He knew he could go much higher if the man demanded it, but he didn’t want to seem too eager. He went back to the field and found the owner to negotiate a price, but to his surprise, a settler to the area had already purchased it. So, the man decided that it wasn’t God’s will for him to have the field or its treasure, and therefore resolved to simply be at peace about it.

Brief Comment
I hate to comment, but… The kingdom of God operates by joy. Joy knows nothing of reason, duty, rationale, fairness, explanation, obligation, or should. That is not to say that joy knows nothing of cost—joy cost the man in Jesus’ parable everything he had—but that joy owes no dues to any of these: joy is a reason unto itself, a duty, a rationale, a fairness, an explanation, an obligation, and a should unto itself. A follower of Jesus Christ chooses things for the joy of them, endures things for the joy on the other side of them, recognizes enjoying and being enjoyed as the signature of Heaven on Earth, and justifies his choices with the simple statement, “I did it for the joy thereof.” Living thus for joy not only enriches his or her own life, but also powerfully speaks to watchers, believers or not, of a better way of life. Life to the full.

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Copyright © 2005 by Steve Coan
All rights reserved. Written permissions must be secured from the publisher to reproduce any part of this work, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.
(2nd revision)