Religion gained at personal sacrifice.
A man is ploughing in a field which he only rented, or perhaps only worked in as a labourer. He comes casually on the sign of a buried treasure; but he dares not touch a thing. So he covers up the signs, and sets all his heart and effort on gaining possession of that field. He counts no sacrifice too great if it helps to realize his aim. This parable deals with the individual man and personal religion.
I. TRUE RELIGION IS A MATTER OF INDIVIDUAL CONCERN. Christ came to redeem the human race from sin; but he does it by redeeming them "one by one." Illustrate our Lord's dealing with individuals, as Nicodemus or woman of Samaria. It is easy to rest in a mere connection with Christianity; to belong to a Christian country, or a Christian family, or a Christian society. But the gospel singles the individual out, and says, "Thou art the man"—the sinner that needs Christ the Saviour.
II. TRUE RELIGION IS A MATTER OF DIRECT PERSONAL RELATIONS. This man may know of the hid treasure, but that does not satisfy him. He must have that treasure for his very own. We know of the great salvation, but that does not make it ours. Christ says, "Come unto me;" have personal dealings with me. The apostle says, "He that hath the Son," in the grip of his own personal trust and love, "hath life." Here so many fail. There must be personal appropriation. We must be able to say, "Who loved me, and gave himself for me."
III. TRUE RELIGION REQUIRES A MAN TO MAKE PERSONAL SACRIFICE. This man gave up all else to gain possession of this treasure. Everything that is worth possessing is hard to win. Illustrate by the friends seeking healing for the paralytic, and breaking up the roof in order to get to Jesus; also by the persistency of the Syro-Phoenician woman. The forms of effort and sacrifice demanded depend on the age and the disposition.
1. Intellectual pride may have to be lowered.
2. Ensnaring talents (artistic or scientific) may have to be put aside.
3. The common sneer at all who are in real earnest in spiritual religion may have to be borne.
4. All forms of self-confidence and self-reliance have to be broken down. So many entrench themselves behind their own moral goodness, and fail to get the hid treasure, because they cannot make full sacrifice of that moral goodness.—R.T.
Satisfied only with the best.
The general truth taught in this and in the preceding parable is that he who would be a follower of Christ must be prepared to sacrifice everything for the kingdom of God. The difference between the two parables is that in the one case the man found accidentally, but in the other case he sought deliberately. "The one parable illustrates the eagerness of a poor man, who lights upon the treasure apparently by accident; the other illustrates the eagerness of a rich man, whose finding of the pearl of price is the result of carefully studied and long sustained search" (Dods).
I. SOUL SEEKING. What does a soul seek? Man seeks the true and the beautiful. Souls seek the good; and this is but a way of saying they seek God. "Man feels that he was not made in vain, there must be a centre of peace for him, a good that will satisfy all the cravings of his soul, and he is determined not to rest until it is found."
II. UNSATISFIED SOUL SEEKING. No ordinary pearls content the man. The human seeker often fancies for a time that he has found rest in things—art, science, literature, or human love. The soul never deludes itself or permits any delusions. Short of God it never rests; it cannot. Illustrate by the hopeless wail of disappointment with which Solomon closes his life quest; or by the delusion of the mirage in the desert regions.
III. SATISFIED SOUL SEEKING. Only reached when the soul gets full possession of, and calls its very own, the "Pearl of great price." To the unsatisfied soul there presently comes the voice, "None is good save one, that is God." He is good. All good is but some ray from that sun. And then the soul says, "Can I find him, can I get him, can I possess him as my own?" He can. When he does, he may say as the poet, who uses another figure—
"Now I have found the ground wherein
Sure my soul's anchor may remain"
Can the soul find full satisfaction? It is not away in heaven, to be journeyed for. It is not in the deep, to be searched for. It is close nigh to every one of us. He who is the soul's satisfaction is nigh. It is Jesus of Nazareth. It is God manifest in the flesh, who can be appropriated and possessed by our trust and our love.—R.T.