Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure found in a field and to a pearl of great price. Admittedly, such comparisons can be off-putting at first glance. It can feel as if Jesus is adopting a consumerist mindset. It might even feel that Jesus is actually devaluing the Kingdom by comparing it to such temporal and fleeting things. Yet upon closer inspection, we can see that Jesus is actually doing the opposite.
In Jesus’ examples how does one acquire the treasure and the pearl? They have to sell all they have. This is to say that the Kingdom is more valuable than all one’s possessions, that all our possessions are expendable compared to the Kingdom. Such drastic measures show that acquiring the Kingdom is worth recklessness by the world’s standards.
If the treasure or the pearl is monetarily worth more than all your possessions, then you don’t actually lose anything; you could still be provided for. So what does that mean about the Kingdom? Jesus is reiterating what he said in the Sermon on the Mount about not worrying about one’s worldly needs. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. God will not fail to provide for us what we need if we keep before us what we need most of all: the Kingdom.