Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.” Mt. 13:44
What’s your treasure?
What’s the “pearl of great price” that would cause you to “go and sell all you have“?
Jesuit priest, Anthony De Mello, tells a story about a gemstone called “The Diamond.” It goes like this:
A certain wise man had reached the outskirts of a village and settled down under a tree for the night. Suddenly a villager came running up to him and said: “The stone! The stone! Give me the precious stone!”
“What stone?” asked the wise man.
“Last night God appeared to me in a dream,” said the villager. “And God told me that if I went to the outskirts of the village at dusk I would find a wise man who would give me a precious stone that would make me rich forever.”
The wise man then began rummaging in his bag and finally pulled out a stone. “He probable meant this one,” he said, as he handed the stone over to the villager. “I found it on a forest path some days ago. You can certainly have it.”
The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was a diamond! Probably the largest diamond in the whole world! A diamond as large as a person’s head!
The man gazed at the diamond, utterly amazed at his beauty and its spectacular worth! Filled with joy at his newfound wealth, he took the diamond and rushed away.
All night long the man gazed at the diamond. He couldn’t believe his sudden wealth. He was so excited, he couldn’t sleep a wink.
Finally, he made a decision. At the crack of dawn, still filled with wonder and excitement, he ran to the see the wise man, woke him up, and said this to him:
“Give me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give this diamond away so easily.”
Again and again, the Gospels call us back to the basics, to what’s truly important, to what really counts in life.
In the Gospel of Luke, for example, Jesus makes it truly clear what the “pearl of great price” is for him:
A prophecy from Isaiah that Jesus proclaimed at the very beginning of his own ministry declared:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are bruised.”
This is the “treasure” for Jesus. This is the “pearl of great price” – to become an agent of God; to promote justice; to call for the development of a counter-culture; to develop a movement for the liberation of humanity; to transform people into a prophetic community.
More than anything else, Jesus wanted to put an end to the reality of people having to beg for the very necessities of life, and to create instead a community that didn’t have to endure acts of violence and injustice without being able to defend themselves.
But, as you’ll remember, this first sermon that Jesus delivered in which he clearly spelled out his declaration of what he “treasured” above all else, did not end well for him.
As the Gospel of Luke tells us, the hometown crowd who knew Jesus from the time he was a child: “were all filled with fury at his words. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill … to hurl him down headlong.”
This is how vehement people can become, people who believe the poor and the homeless, the prisoners and the disabled, are not worthy of being helped. To this very day the poor and the powerless are often seen by many as people who are without the willpower to take care of themselves. Instead, they’re often described as freeloaders, lazy moochers expecting the government to give them handouts. It’s a belief that is often inferred from the word “socialism.”
The resistance to Jesus’ dream of a new kind of society called the Kingdom of God was so strong and deeply entrenched in many at the time of his preaching that it ultimately led to his death on a cross. Sadly, it remains equally as unshakable in today’s world.
Presently, those opposed to what Jesus treasured as the “pearl of great price” are still actively involved in denying that dream in favor of developing a culture that embraces power and wealth, as well as personal searching for the great “diamond” that will supposedly satisfy all their needs.
All four Gospels, especially the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Judgement scene, and the parables, make it crystal clear what Jesus’ teachings and actions were all about: the creation of a world without poverty, without want, without oppression.
Jesus is consistently portrayed in the Gospels as a “New Moses”: a liberator, a freedom fighter who passionately describes how we are to treat the poor, the stranger, the prisoner, and the marginalized of all sorts.
The sole objective of Jesus’ ministry was to create a new way of living, a way he called the Kingdom or Reign of God.
The original communities of Christians were poor people themselves. The apostles were fishermen. St. Paul was a tentmaker. Jesus himself was a carpenter.
But among them were also prophetic leaders who stood up for justice and peace and love of neighbor, including the poorest of the poor.
Jesus’ message was not a condemnation of the rich, but rather a strong critique of how individual and systemic greed gets in the way of loving and honoring God. What Jesus was passionately opposed to was how wealth easily tempted people into once again worshiping the Golden Calf that Moses had condemned centuries earlier.
As one author puts it, “Throughout the New Testament, Jesus’ parables paint a picture of a world in which the poor and the marginalized are lifted up and their needs are met, rather than despised and ignored by those in control …. God’s followers are asked to model a community of mutuality and solidarity in which there is no room for oppressors and oppression.”
The Bible, in its entirety, is a book by, about and for poor and marginalized people. It says not only that God loves and blesses the poor, but also that the poor are God’s agents and leaders in rejecting and dismantling kingdoms built upon oppression and inequality.
What Jesus treasures above all else is the creation of a Reign of God, a kingdom without poverty, a kingdom free of oppression.
Which brings us to you and me.
What is our “treasure”?
What is our “pearl of great price”?
What is the “diamond” we believe will bring us the greatest sense of joy and peace?
And, hopefully, what is the “wealth” that would make it possible for you and me to give it all away so easily?
