The Price of the Pearl

Crowds gathered at a lake to hear Jesus teach. He sat in a boat pulled up to the shore so that they could hear him without pressing in on him. He said to them, "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" (Matthew 13:45).

Let this story spring to life in your imagination. The pearl merchant has spent years, perhaps a lifetime, buying pearls. When he finds the pearl of great price, he knows that the only way he can own it is to sell all that he has. This does not mean simply his house or his animals or his clothes. This includes the precious stones that he has acquired through careful collection. He loves these pearls, but he must choose between them or the one perfect pearl. This pearl is so worthy that he is willing to sacrifice everything else that he prizes to possess it.

We are a society that values quantity, in which more is better. Few are willing to sacrifice quantity for the sake of quality. This desire to have it all extends beyond our lust for possessions and our endemic over-commitment into the realm of ideas. People acquire beliefs as if they are accessorizing, paying little mind to whether or not the beliefs they are accumulating can coexist. More is better, even when it comes to adopting multiple conflicting worldviews! The marketplace of ideas has become the arena of the "impulse buy."

But Jesus presents a different way; he suggests that there could be something so lovely, so worthy, so true, and so good that it would make you willing to sacrifice everything else to gain it. This pearl of great price is his kingdom. If we enter the kingdom, we get all the fullness that is found in Christ himself. But the kingdom is costly, and we cannot enter it if we are clutching pearls of lesser price.

Augustine famously wrote, "He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee which He loves not for Thy sake." There are many pearls in this world of compelling beauty. Whether it is the beauty of ideas, or relationships, or of creation, God created it all for us to enjoy. But it should always point us to that which is most beautiful, the costly Lamb of God. To possess his kingdom, we must be willing to forsake anything that rivals him who is all in all.

12/27/05The Price of the PearlBetsy Childs