Treasures in the Field

Treasures in the Field

By Hans Thoma

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”

Matthew 13:44

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Notice who finds the treasure. It wasn’t a prospector, merchant or scholar, but a laborer, in a field he had crossed many times. Alexander Maclaren imagined him on his hundred-and-first pass, “at work there with his mattock or his homely plough,” when some stroke of the spade “went a little deeper than usual, and there flashed the gold.” The discovery came not from stopping the work, but from doing it one more time, a little deeper. Maclaren reminds us that this is often how conversion happens, “for you have to remember that though you are not seeking God, God is always seeking you, and so the great saying comes to be true, ‘I am found of them that sought Me not.’”

Matthew Henry leaves no doubt: “Jesus Christ is the true Treasure; in him there isan abundance of all that which is rich and useful,” promising that we will find “all fulness: treasures of wisdom and knowledge, of righteousness, grace, and peace; these are laid up for us in Christ; and, if we have an interest in him, it is all our own.” And the field is not fenced: “it is hid, not in a garden enclosed, or a spring shut up, but in a field, an open field; whoever will, let him come, and search the scriptures; let him dig in this field.”

Yet many walk the field for years and see nothing. Maclaren warned that familiarity can blind us: “You have gone over the field so often that you have made a path across it, and it seems incredible to you that there should be anything worth your picking up there.” The same chapter read a hundred times, the same church meetings attended, the same calling filled—and great treasure just six inches down. John Piper puts it plainly: “Conversion to Christ not only means believing the truth, but finding a treasure.”

The man sells everything—but notice the words that come before the sacrifice: “for joy thereof.” He does not give up all he has through gritted teeth. He gives it up gladly, because he knows that what he has found is worth more than everything he owns. Hebrews says the same of the Savior Himself, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). Joy is not the reward waiting at the end of endurance; it is the engine that drives it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this costly grace: “it is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.” Russell M. Nelson taught that “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” The man in the field had his focus fixed on the treasure, and selling all that he had became the happiest transaction of his life.

Enduring to the end is not gritting life out; it is finding ways to “plow in hope” (1 Cor. 9:10). As David A. Bednar put it, it is “the joyous quest of a lifetime.” Paul taught the Galatians “Be not weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9). The Lord echoed this in our day: “Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33). God’s promise is that, as we do this, treasures will surface in the work. Jeffrey R. Holland promised: “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

The risk is that we focus so much on the field, on the labor we’ve expended and the work still left to do, that we fail to seek the treasure so near. As Maclaren put it, “Dear brethren, the treasure is hid, but that is not because God did not wish you to see it; it is because you have made yourselves blind to its flashing brightness. I pray you, look through the forms, look beneath the words of Scripture, and try and clear your eyesight from the hallucinations of the dazzling present, and you will see the treasure that is hid in the field.”

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