Parable of the hidden treasure

Christians have heard the Parable of Hidden Treasure many times. The teaching is so simple, nobody bother to spend their time to re-evaluate their interpretation.

If we just focus on the parable and disregard the whole story behind it, we are like students come late to Jesus’s teaching session, pick up a fraction of His statement and immediately gives conclusion. Therefore i would rather spend my time in observing the whole story first before making my conclusion, here is what i found.

The teaching started from Matthew 13.

“On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.”.

Jesus started with the parables of the sower, wheat and tare, mustard seed and dough. in this occasion he also explained the meaning of the sower parable, which underline only a fraction of the seed grows to fruitful trees, because many obstacles it’s facing plus Jesus deliberately withhold the truth by uttering only parables instead of giving a plain clear teaching.

Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” from this point onward Jesus explained a series of parables, 4 of them, chaining together with the word “Again…”, means he repeating His message using other parables, I would like to highlight the pattern in these four parables.

• the farmer spread the good seed in order to harvest the wheat, the man dig to find the treasure, the merchant sail to foreign countries looking for fine pearls, the fisherman spread the net to catch good fishes.
• the farmer leave, the treasure hunter leave, the merchant went away, the fisherman leave the fishnet.
• the waiting time when the good seed, the treasure, the fine pearls and the fishes are left alone.
• the farmer come back to collect the wheat, the man come back to claim his treasure, the merchant come back for the pearl, and the fisherman come back to collect the good fishes.

can’t you see ? Most likely the man who is looking for the treasure in the field, is Jesus himself, He is looking for the true disciples in his kingdom, once he found them he left, the field in the world, that suppose to be pristine, but later on being polluted with the weeds, because the enemy spread false gospel in His kingdom.

Jesus prevent the angels to do the clean up, He indirectly let the enemy polluting His kingdom, this is why the hidden treasure parable described the man deliberately hide the treasure with the soil again.

He went away and leave the field for sometime, he purchased the whole field, with greater purpose to collect the wheat / treasure later, this is how Jesus purchased Christendom with His flesh and blood, but salvation is not belong to all Christians in His kingdom, because not every part of the field contain the treasure, but only to the chosen one (“Many invited, fews chosen”).

The treasures was kept hidden, because nobody knew which one is the true disciples of Christ (wheat) or false disciples (tare), only Jesus and His angels knew!, not even Peter the first disciple of Christ, otherwise there won’t be any chance for the weeds to grow. Both wheat and weeds are growing side by side, until He come back and instruct His angels to collect the wheat/treasure/fine pearls/good fish, At that time the true disciples revealed, gathered and receive the promise of eternal life.

Note: if we sticked to general interpretation, Christians finding God’s treasure truth/salvation, why they need to hide it, leave and then come back to claim God’s truth/salvation…. in contrary Jesus told us to be the light of the world, not to hide the light under the bowl but to herald it to city, this is the flaw of current interpretation that is widely accepted by churches.