SEVEN PARABLES of Matt. 13
VI
AFTER our Lord dismissed the multitudes, He went into the
house, and here, in answer to the request of His disciples, He expounded the
second parable. It was given to them, as it is given to us, to know the
mysteries of the Kingdom. We have looked at this divine interpretation before,
so we can at once proceed with the three parables which follow and which our
Lord speaks to His disciples in the house. Two of these, the parable of the
treasure hid in the field and the parable of the one pearl of great price,
being together. After these the Lord concludes His teaching on the mysteries
with the parable of the dragnet.
"The kingdom of the heavens is like a
treasure hid in a field, which a man having found, has hid, and for the joy of
it goes and sells all whatever he has, and buys that field. Again the kingdom
of the heavens is like a merchantman seeking beautiful pearls; and having found
one pearl of great value, he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it"
(verses 44-46). That these two parables are closely connected is seen by their
similarity. In both a man is mentioned, and he sells in either one all he has
to obtain what he esteems precious. In the first, he finds a treasure in the
field and hides it there, while he buys the field to possess the treasure. In
the second, he sells all to obtain one pearl of great value. There is, of
course, a difference, likewise. The treasure is in the field; it is deposited
there. The field is bought, and with it the treasure. The one pearl comes out
of the sea; its value is greater than treasure in the field, of which it is not
said that it has a great value. Again, a treasure may be increased or
decreased, there may be taken away from it or added to it; the one pearl,
however, is complete, its value and beauty are fixed. As we turn to the
interpretation of these parables, we are obliged to follow the same course
which we followed with the preceding parables. We have to set aside the
commonly accepted view. We have to show once more that the almost universal
exposition and application of the parables by evangelical Christendom is wrong,
unscriptural and conflicting with other parts of Gods Word. We shall have
to use the sharp knife again, to lay bare the errors of the teachings taken
from the treasure in the field and the one pearl. Only in this way can we get
at the root of the matter, and see the true meaning and understand the
mysteries of the kingdom.
Perhaps the best way to mention the erroneous
interpretation is to quote the father of Protestantism, Martin Luther. His
comment on these two parables is about the best expression of the accepted
theories, what our Lord meant with the treasure and the pearl. Luther said: The
parable of the treasure means, that we vainly seek the kingdom of God by our
works and exertion, or the works of the law. For we are not born of the blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. The Jews had the field,
but did not see the treasure in it. But the Gentiles bought the field with the
treasure; that is the law with Christ. The hidden treasure is the Gospel, which
gives us grace and righteousness without our merit. Therefore when one finds
it, it causes joy; that is a good, cheerful conscience, which cannot be secured
by any good works.
The parable of the pearl is almost of the same
import as the preceding one, except that the former speaks of the finding and
this of the seeking. Therefore he speaks here of a growing faith, and signifies
therewith that the pearl was not unknown, but that it had been heard of, as
being of great price. Here the merchantman is intent only, that he may possess
the one pearl. For this is also the nature of the Christian life, that he who
has begun it imagines he has nothing, but he reaches out for it, and constantly
presses onward, that he may obtain it.
This mode of interpretation has
been strictly followed by commentators. H. A. W. Meyer, a leading expositor of
the New Testament, declares "the kingdom, the most valuable possession, must be
taken hold of by a joyful sacrifice of all earthy things." Another one says:
"The treasure and the pearl are pictures of the great value of the kingdom of
the heavens. To possess them one has to sacrifice all his other goods" (Prof.
Holtzmann). P. Lange, so well known, declares: "True Christianity is like an
unexpected discovery, even in the ancient church. It is the best possession we
can find, a gift of free grace. Every sinner must find and discover
Christianity for himself. In order to secure possession, even of what we found
with no merit of our own, we must be willing to sacrifice all; for salvation,
though entirely of free grace, requires the fullest self-surrender." But enough
of this. It is the general way of interpreting these two parables by making the
man who sells all to obtain the treasure and the merchantman, the unsaved
sinner. The Gospel, salvation, the grace of God, or as some term it "religion,"
is, according to this, represented in the treasure and the one pearl of great
value. That such a theory is unreconcilably clashing with the very heart of the
gospel is but little considered.
Gospel sermons, so-called, are
preached, in which the sinner is exhorted to give up, to sell all, in order to
become a Christian, to surrender the world and himself and then to find the
pearl of great value. But is this the Gospel? We answer, No! The sinner has no
sacrifice to bring. All his trying to surrender himself or giving up the world
can never secure for him eternal life or the grace of God. "What must I do to
inherit eternal life" was spoken by a self-righteous Pharisee, the young ruler,
and the Lord answers him, who came to Him with the law and as under the law,
accordingly, and tells him to sell all he has and give it to the poor and
follow Him. But this is not the gospel, but the law, which says, "Do and live."
To preach the Gospel to sinners and tell them to do, to give up and to receive,
is fundamentally wrong. The Gospel of grace does not ask of the sinner to sell
all he has to receive the grace of God and eternal life, but the Gospel of
grace offers to every sinner eternal life as Gods gift, a free gift, in
Christ Jesus. The. Word of God, it is true, speaks of buying; but what kind of
buying is it? "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that
hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price" (Is. lv:i, 2). It is buying without money and without
price. The giving up, the surrender, follows when a person is saved and has
received the grace of God, but never before. We see that to teach, the man who
finds the treasure is the sinner, and the sinner is to sell all to obtain the
possession of Christ, or the merchantman, is the sinner who obtains a pearl,
eternal life, by giving up all, is wrong teaching. The Lord never meant in
these parables to describe the seeking and the finding of the sinner.
The difficulty which is so apparent in the first of these two parables is but
little dealt with by preachers who make the Gospel out of it. According to this
wrong application the sinner would have to buy the field to obtain the
treasure, the Gospel. What is the field? One of the above mentioned
commentators makes of it "the external, worldly ecclesiasticism." This is
simply a human opinion. We know what the field is. We need not to ask Dr.
Luther, Lange, or any other man, what means the field. The Lord has given us
the key. "The field is the world." This is the meaning of the word field in the
first two parables. Who would say that the word "field" means anything
different in the fifth parable? The field is the world. If the sinner is meant
by the man who buys the field, it would mean that the sinner has to buy the
world. There is no sense whatever in giving these two parables such an
application.
Again, in the two first parables a person is spoken of -
the sower, the man who sowed the good seed. This Man in the first two
parables is the Lord Himself. In the two parables before us the man and the
merchantman stand for the same person, and this person is identical with the
man in the first and second parables; in other words, the man who bought the
field and the treasure in it, and the merchantman, who sold all to obtain one
pearl of great value, is the Lord Himself. It is not the unsaved seeking
and finding salvation, but it is the Saviour seeking the sinner, purchasing the
field, buying the treasure in it, giving up all to possess one pearl of great
value. As we look upon it in this light we have indeed the blessed Gospel. He,
who was rich, became poor for our sakes, that by His poverty we might become
rich. He, who subsisted in the form of God, emptied Himself. He came down, He
gave up, He gave all and was obedient unto death, unto the death of the cross.
Both parables teach the same great truth, Christ, the Saviour, who came to seek
that which is lost and who has purchased the field and found in it a treasure,
which is His, and obtained one pearl of great value.
But the question
arises, if this is the case, why two parables? If the finding man and the
seeking merchantman is our Lord, why should His work in giving up and selling
all be mentioned twice? Why is the treasure mentioned first and then a pearl?
and why is the purchased treasure hid, while the one pearl of great value comes
evidently first into the possession of the merchantman?
The Lord
certainly speaks here of a twofold mystery in the kingdom of the heavens and of
two different objects, which He obtained by His work of redemption. When He
mentions the treasure hid in the field, which is His by purchase, He means His
earthly people, Israel. The one pearl of great value, taken out of the sea; the
one pearl, beautiful and complete, means the church, the one body. We have in
these two parables the mystery of Israel and the mystery of the church; of both
mysteries the Holy Spirit witnesses in the epistles by the Apostle of the
Gentiles, to whom these mysteries were made known. Israel is the treasure in
the field. "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure tinto me above all people; for all
the earth is mine" (Exod. xix :5). "For the Lord hath chosen Jacob for
himself and Israel for His peculiar treasure" (Psa. cxxxv 4). When He came from
heaven He found His people in the world. He bought the whole world and with it,
inclusive, the people who are His earthly treasure. "He died for that nation"
is spoken of His blessed work (John xi :ii). However, we do not read that He
got possession of the treasure; it is rather the thought which we get from it,
that the treasure found is hid still in the field which He bought by so great a
price, for the sake of owning that treasure. And in this we have the key, why
this is introduced in these parables of the mysteries of the kingdom of the
heavens. Israel is the Lords peculiar treasure. He has purchased His
earthly people. They shall yet be His peculiar treasure, displaying in the
earth, in the coming age, all the excellencies of Himself. They will be a
justified, a separated and Spirit-filled people.
In Balaams
prophecies the Spirit of God speaks of what Israelis in Gods eyes through
the redemption work of Jehovah. The Lord died for that nation, and still the
results of that death are not yet manifested. Israel is hid in the field, in
the world. The Lord will come again and return to the field, the world once
more. He comes tn claim His inheritance. Then He will lift the treasure, then
He will claim His people Israel and they will rejoice in His salvation. During
this age, the age of an absent Lord, Israel is kept hid in the field. This is
one of the mysteries in the kingdom of the heavens. It corresponds to Rom. xi
:25 : "For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that ye
be not wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel,
until the fullness of the nations be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved.
According as it is written : The Deliverer shall come out of Zion He
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Alas ! Christendom is wise in their
own conceits and has ignored, yes completely ignored this mystery. It declares
that "God hath cast away His people and there is no hope for Israel.
Christendom forgets that Israel is the treasure in the field, purchased by the
blood, the precious blood of the Son of God, and that He, who is like a man who
has gone to a far country, will come again to claim the earth and lift His
peculiar treasure Israel. Much more might be said on all this, but we turn now
to the meaning of the one pearl of great value.
This one pearl is the
Church. "He loved the Church and gave Himself for it" thus it is written, and
here in the parable He declares this precious truth himself. The pearl is taken
out of the sea. Way down on the dark bottom of the ocean is the shell, the
house of an animal, and in this animal, by its work, the beautiful pearl is
produced. A small grain of sand, we are told, imbeds itself between the animal
and the shell and creates by its presence a wound in the side of the animal.
Upon this miserable grain of sand the animal deposits a thin crust of a
brilliant material. How often this is repeated no one can tell, one deposit
after the other is made, till at last in the side of the animal there is found
a most beautiful pearl, a pearl of great price, a pearl in which the colours of
the rainbow of the heavens are wonderfully blended together. It is taken up and
becomes the well nigh priceless jewel in the crown of some mighty monarch. We
see at once why our Lord used the pearl as the type of the church which He
loved, and gave Himself for it. Like Eve was taken out of the open side of
Adam, so His blessed side was opened and out of that side is building His
church. Like the pearl, the church is one, though composed of many countless
members known to Him alone. This one pearl is still forming out of His side.
The one pearl is still in the dark waters of the sea. How many more members
will be added to this one pearl we do not know. How long it will be yet, before
the Lord takes her unto Himself into the air, to adorn Himself with that
precious pearl, none can tell. The church belongs to Him, and will be with Him
in the heavenlies. Of what great value must this one pearl be to Him, that He
gave all for it? What glories will He receive from the possession of that pearl
and what a beautiful object will be the pearl in the possession of the heavenly
and eternal merchantman?
When He comes to take possession of Israel,
the treasure, and of the world, His church will be with Him. And what else
might be said of this precious parable! May we meditate on it, and rejoice in
that love which gave up all to take us out of our ruin and loss untold, and
make us the objects of His marvellous grace.
VII.
One more parable remains, the seventh.
"Again the kingdom of the heavens is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and
which gathers together of every kind, which when it has been filled, having
drawn up on the shore and sat down, they gathered the good into vessels and
cast the worthless out. Thus shall it be in the completion of the age; the
angels shall go forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast
them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"
(verses 47-50).
This is not the Gospel net, as it is often called.
After the one pearl is taken up the end of the age begins. This parable falls
into the completion of the age. The dragnet is let into the sea, which, as we
have seen before, represents the nations. The parable refers to the preaching
of the everlasting Gospel as it will take place during the great tribulation
(Rev. xiv :6, 7). The separating of the good and the bad is done by angels. All
this cannot refer to the present time nor to the church, but to the time when
the kingdom is about to be set up. Then angels will be used, as it is so
clearly seen in the book of Revelation. The wicked will be cast into the
furnace of fire and the righteous will remain in the earth for tile millennial
kingdom. To follow all this in detail would take us into the history of the
seventieth week of Daniel. It is the same "end of the age" which is described
in Matthew xxiv.
We have learned from these seven parables the
mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, beginning with the apostolic age and
showing us the conditions which prevail up to its end. It is significant that
the last three parables - containing, as we have seen, the mystery of Israel,
the mystery of the church, and the mystery of the ending of the age - were
spoken in the house to the disciples. The great multitude did not hear them, as
they contain precious truths for His own, to whom alone it is given through the
Spirit of God to know the mysteries of the kingdom. And so we read:
"Jesus
says unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say to Him, Yea,
Lord. And He said to them, For this reason every scribe discipled to the
kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of
his treasure things new and old" (verses 51, 52). The things old are the things
revealed in the Old Testament and the new things those of the new dispensation,
which are given in these parables in a nut-shell.
Upon this declaration
there follows a symbolical action of our Lord. "And it came to pass when Jesus
had finished these parables, He withdrew thence." The revealer of the secrets
has given His revelation and now He disappears from the scene. It stands in
type for His bodily absence from the earth during this age. The end of the
chapter is in full accord with the beginning and the teaching of the entire
chapter. "And having come into His own country, He taught them in their
synagogues, so that they were astonished, and said, Whence has this man this
wisdom and these works of power? Is not this the son of a carpenter? Is not His
mother called Mary, and His brethren James and Joseph, and Simeon and Juda? And
His sisters, are they not all with us?
Whence then has this man all
these things? And they were offended in Him. And Jesus said to them, A prophet
is not without honour, unless in His country and in his house. And He did not
there many works of power, because of their unbelief" (verses 54-58). What else
is all this but evidence of His full rejection? His own knew Him not. They
speak of His earthly relations. For them He is "this man." His Father they knew
not. They call Him "the son of the carpenter." And thus He is rejected still by
His earthly people; and alas! many of those who call themselves by His name
during this age treat Him no better.
END OF THE BOOK