Matthew 13: The Treasure That Puts Everything Else in Its Place

Introduction

A first guitar bought as a teenager, a group of friends from those years, and then a meeting that changes everything. Alfred Nygren starts from two very simple memories to open this message preached at Citykyrkan Stockholm, in a series on the parables of Jesus.

Parables, he explains, do not try to give exact answers to exact questions. They help us think differently, catch a glimpse of how the kingdom of God works, and look at our lives through the eyes of Jesus.

The text of the day is just three verses: the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-46). His conviction: when you come across something more precious, everything else naturally drops a notch. And the question he leaves with each of us is the one a man from his former church used to ask: "How are you doing with Jesus?"

Outline of the message

1. The value of a thing is not fixed

Alfred Nygren started playing guitar at twelve. About a year later, he bought his first steel-string guitar with a built-in pickup, for roughly 2,000 kronor. He was "proud as a peacock," convinced he had bought the best guitar in the world.
Since then he has bought and sold many, "probably more than is healthy." If he found his first guitar today, he would feel nostalgic, but he would not be impressed. "It has not gotten any worse over time. But I have changed."
As a teenager, he belonged to a group of boys from church: mopeds, then their parents' cars, and on Friday nights a cheeseburger after youth meeting. Friends he cared about deeply.
Then a young woman who had arrived from England a few years earlier joined the girls' group. The woman who would become his wife. His friends received less and less of his time and attention. "It is not that I loved them less. It is that I had met someone I loved more."
His point: something is precious to us in relation to everything else we know at that moment. When we find something more precious, our values and priorities change.

2. Two men who find something more precious than everything

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field." Then comes the merchant looking for fine pearls, who sells everything to obtain the pearl of great price.
What the two parables have in common: both men find something that makes them reassess everything they own, and both radically change their lives because of what they found.
These parables tell us how precious grace, salvation, and Jesus himself are. Jesus is not saying here, "I deserve everything, so sell everything if you want to follow me." He shows that the value of the kingdom, having Jesus as king, makes everything else drop a notch.
This is not the story of a man who goes from having everything to giving it all up, but of a man who understands that what is in front of him is worth more than everything else.

3. Jesus as an add-on, or a revelation that seizes you

There are two ways to approach Jesus. The first is cultural Christianity: Jesus becomes an addition, a package of values and traditions added to your lifestyle, without anything being deeply transformed.
The second is the one the parables paint: an encounter with Jesus that makes everything else lose first place.
If Jesus does not have first place in our lives, it is not necessarily a question of priorities, as if we were bad Christians. It may be a question of revelation: the Spirit needs to open our eyes again.
"If we truly understood who he is and what he offers us, the result every time would be that, filled with joy, we would reorganize our lives." Not because it is the right thing to do, but because being near him is worth everything.
"It is not something I take. It is not something I decide. It is something that seizes me." The man sees the treasure, his heart fills with joy, and the way he lives changes.
The starting point is not, "Now I am going to be really good at following Jesus." It is the heart discovering his beauty and watching everything else lose value by comparison.
The times of revival spoke of being "saved all the way through": an encounter with Jesus that does not merely add activities to the calendar, but touches the whole of life.
At the conference for Alpha leaders hosted in the church's building, the most beautiful thing was hearing people who, six months or a year earlier, knew Jesus only by name, say, "My whole life has been turned upside down." Nobody demanded it of them: it is the effect of having found someone more precious.

4. The pearl merchant: an invitation for those who have believed for a long time

The first man discovers what he had never seen: he is the picture of someone meeting Jesus for the first time. The second is a professional, doing what he always does, who one day comes across the pearl worth more than everything.
Perhaps you have known Jesus for most of your life. He is still an invitation to know him more deeply, and to discover that what he offers is worth even more than what you had understood.
The preacher had his moment of saying yes to Jesus, and it changed his life: from darkness to light, from death to life. Since then he has been invited into a continuing discovery of who Jesus is, and each time the picture widens, it transforms his life again.
"If Jesus is not more precious than everything else, it is because I have forgotten who he is and what he has done for me."

5. Do not forget any of his benefits

David puts it this way in Psalm 103: "Praise Yahweh, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name! Praise Yahweh, my soul, and don't forget all his benefits."
He is the one who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your desire with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
So it seems possible to forget the good the Lord does, and for the soul to lose its joy, its gratitude, and its reason to worship. David talks to himself: do not forget.
We have a responsibility to seek the pearl, to remind our soul of who he is and what he has done, so that our faith is renewed and our desires are satisfied with good things. Every human being is created with a deep longing for more, and only Jesus can fill it.

6. Paul: everything moves to the other column

Paul had devoted his life to the Lord with such zeal that he persecuted Christians. Then he meets Jesus and writes: "However, what things were gain to me, these I have counted as loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:7-10).
It is as if Paul drew up an Excel spreadsheet, a budget: everything that was in the gains column moved to another column. Not because those things became bad, but because they fade in comparison with him.
What distance this gives in success: "I have all this, but compared with Jesus, it is nothing." And what comfort in hardship: "I lack all this, but if I have Jesus, I have everything."
To the church in Ephesus, Jesus acknowledges their works, their labor, and their perseverance. "But I have this against you, that you left your first love" (Revelation 2:4). What really matters is living with an ongoing revelation of who Jesus is.

7. "How are you doing with Jesus?"

In his former church in Vargön, a man who had long been a missionary in Tanzania would come to shake hands before the service: "Peace, brother." Then: "How are you doing with Jesus?"
The parables of the treasure and the pearl are an invitation to remind our hearts, in every season, whom we belong to. It fills our lives with joy and keeps us in hardship as well as in success.
If other things seem to compete with Jesus, sin will try to make you run and hide from God, as since the garden of Eden. Sin fills us with shame, and shame pushes us to hide. But Jesus does not come to condemn you or reject you. He says, "Come to me."
Joy is not reserved for new believers. Those who have walked for a long time can come back to that place where you do not paste on a smile, where you do not sing out of duty, but where you get up in the morning knowing that, whatever the day brings, Jesus Christ is your friend and his gaze is turned toward you.

Key takeaways

The value of a thing depends on what we know. When we meet Jesus, everything else drops a notch, without becoming bad.
In the parable, the man sells everything "in his joy": it is not an effort of will, it is a revelation that seizes the heart.
If Jesus no longer has first place, it may be more a question of revelation than of discipline: the Spirit needs to open our eyes again.
The pearl merchant reminds those who have believed for a long time that there is always more to discover in Jesus.
Like David in Psalm 103, we need to tell our soul not to forget his benefits.

Personal application

How are you doing with Jesus today, honestly?
Is Jesus an add-on to your life, or the treasure that puts everything else back in its place?
What things in your life seem to compete with Jesus right now?
Which of the Lord's benefits do you need to remind your soul of this week?
If you have followed Jesus for a long time, what would you like to discover anew about him?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What do the parables of the treasure and the pearl mean?

According to Alfred Nygren, both men find something that makes them reassess everything they own. Jesus is not saying here: sell everything to follow me. He shows that the value of the kingdom of heaven, having Jesus as king, naturally makes everything else drop a notch.

Do I have to sell everything to follow Jesus?

That is not what the parable says, the preacher points out. The man sells everything in his joy, because he has understood that what is in front of him is worth more than everything else. It is not a decision made by sheer willpower, it is a revelation that seizes us.

What should I do if Jesus no longer has first place in my life?

It is not necessarily the sign of a bad Christian, but rather a question of revelation: the Spirit needs to open our eyes again. Like David in Psalm 103, it means telling your soul not to forget his benefits, and coming back to Jesus, who does not reject but says: come to me.