The Pearl of Great Price

Matthew 13: 45-46

Kacy Madsen

 

Setting:

The Pearl of Great Price serves as a parable of the kingdom of God, speaking specifically to the kingdom as a joyful discovery (Scot 316).  This parable is unique to the Gospel of Matthew, although a version of the story occurs in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas.  The Pearl of Great Price is pre-Matthean in origin; it was perhaps an original composition by Jesus. According to Hultgren, “[the parable’s] teaching concerning discipleship and commitment to the kingdom coheres with other teachings of Jesus derived from diverse traditions with in the Gospel traditions as a whole” (420).

The Pearl of Great Price is often presented as a twin to The Treasure in the Field (Matt. 13:44) inasmuch as both relate the kingdom of God to a discovered treasure; however, the emphasis of the two differs.  Whereas the parable of the Treasure in the Field focuses on the joyous surprise of finding the kingdom, the parable of the Pearl of Great Price discusses a situation in which the kingdom is purposefully sought.  In this parable the merchant “anticipates the element of surprise” (Jeremias 199) in that he intently seeks out the pearl and the value held therein.

Exegetical Analysis:

 In the First Century Mediterranean world, pearls were highly prized and sought after in such far away seas as the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean (Jeremias 199).  The merchant in the story is portrayed as traveling around to such places in search of pearls. He / she seems to be treated as “a metaphorical model for the disciple of Jesus” (Hultgren 420).

In the parable, the pearl discussed symbolizes the kingdom of God.  This symbolism is well placed considering the value pearls held throughout antiquity.  In the first century Mediterranean world, pearls often symbolized the highest good (New Interpreters Bible 314).  Hultgren states that “according to Pliny the Elder (first century A.D.) pearls were considered the most valuable of goods, having ‘the first place’ and ‘topmost rank among all things of price’” (419).  And again, Scott refers to the pearl as “a metaphor for something of supreme value,” going on to say, “because of [the pearl’s] great value, in eschatological scenes it depicts the wealth of the new age” (316).  Therefore, at the time this parable was spoken people would have better appreciated the magnificence of the kingdom of God due to Jesus’ use of the imagery implicated in comparing the kingdom to a pearl of great value.

Message         

The emphasis of the Pearl of Great Price revolves around the supreme value of the pearl.  Through this parable Jesus utilized the people’s cultural understandings of the merchant and the pearl in order to make a statement about the kingdom of God.  To His followers, the merchant served to describe themselves as disciples, and the pearl so earnestly sought represented the kingdom.  Therefore, the parable operated to teach the people their relationship to the kingdom of God.

 In contrast to the Treasure in the Field, the Pearl of Great Price presents the kingdom as a treasure that is discovered as the “result of extended effort” (Scott 319).  According to the New Interpreter’s Bible, “the merchant [in the Pearl of Great Price] was actively seeking,” he/she “knew what he/[she] was looking for, and still found something beyond his/[her] expectations” (313).  And once the pearl, or the kingdom, was found, “the [merchant’s] only proper response was to relativize all else in possession for the sake of the greater worth of possessing the kingdom” (Hultgren 419).  Not only did the merchant earnestly seek a pearl of great value, but upon its discovery, the merchant, recognizing the pearl’s value, sold all he/she had in order to buy the pearl.  Therefore, “the kingdom is like a small, inconspicuous pearl but one of incalculable value that, once discovered, calls for unrestrained response in the form of absolute discipleship” (Hagner 313).

Through this parable, Jesus not only reveals the paramount worth of the kingdom of God, but also the idea that “a true disciple makes an immense commitment to the Kingdom” (Hultgren 422) in face of this worth.  Jeremias describes the discovery of and sacrifice for the kingdom in these words:

When that great joy, surpassing all measure, seizes a man, it carries him away, penetrates his inmost being, and subjugates his mind.  All else seems valueless compared with that surpassing worth.  No price is too great to pay …. Thus it is with the kingdom of God.  The effect of the joyful news is overpowering; it fills the heart with gladness; it makes life’s whole aim the consummation of the divine community and produces the most whole-hearted self-sacrifice (201).

Application

          The Pearl of Great Value is a powerful parable because it both recognizes the supreme worth of the kingdom of God and it also emphasizes that the kingdom is something for which one must search out and be willing to sacrifice all.  Often when people approach the idea of the kingdom of God, they don’t realize the price God requires in order for us to obtain the kingdom.

          Throughout the Bible and throughout the entirety of Christian history, Christ has never had a follower who was not called to make extreme sacrifices.  Men and women have died for the name of Christ; some have been abandoned by their family and culture.  But no matter how extreme, we are all called to “come out and be separate.”  The supreme worth of God’s rule calls for us to divorce ourselves from our natural, selfish inclinations. And this is a costly, difficult, and ongoing process.

          All too often the priceless value of the kingdom is muted because our lives are saturated with the colors of the world.  We can’t truly appreciate the beauty and value of the kingdom until it is all we have; and we will not comprehend its greatness until it is all we want – until we are willing to give everything in exchange for it. 

Thomas Merton once said, “our intention cannot be completely simple unless it is completely poor.  It seeks and desires nothing but the supreme poverty of having nothing but God.  True, anyone with a grain of faith realizes that to have God and nothing else besides is to have everything in Him.  But between the thought of such poverty and its actualization in our lives lies the desert of emptiness through which we must travel in order to find Him” (88). 

          The Christian walk is not idealistic.  Too often people are given the impression that once they accept Christ into their hearts, that life will become simple, free, and full of blessings.  While Christ does indeed afford blessings upon His people and freedom from sin, the reality is that walking with Christ requires us to daily pick up our cross and follow after Him.  We must be willing to make the extreme love-sacrifice that He made for us -- to be crucified unto ourselves -- so that we may truly understand what it means to rely on God alone and to find contentment in Him.  In so doing we will be like the merchant who went out in search of the pearl of great price; and who, upon discovering it, renounced everything in order to possess this incomparably valuable pearl.