The Parable of the Pearl
Dr. James Smith
Matthew 13:46-47
14 September 2003
Pearls are commonly classed together with gemstones but in reality they are not minerals at all.
Pearls are created in oysters or other kinds of mollusks when a small particle of foreign matter such as a fine grain of sand enters the soft tissues of the mollusk.
When an oyster cannot expel such an irritant, it produces a substance called nacre, also known as mother-of- pearl, which coats the foreign object, hardening into a smooth covering. Over the years, more layers are added forming a pearl.
Pearls can be found in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. And while most people commonly think of pearls as white, French Polynesia produces very highly prized, black pearls.
It wasn’t until 1920 when pearls began to be cultured by the Japanese. This is when beads of various sizes are intentionally placed inside an oyster and cultivated over the years to produce a natural, spherical pearl.
Such cultured pearls have made pearls affordable for millions of people around the world but prior to this modern industry, pearls were rare, very precious and highly prized items.
The most valuable varieties of natural occurring pearls still originate in the Persian Gulf, in the Near East.
And in the Ancient Near Eastern world of Jesus, such pearls were highly valued and were fished up by divers in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. They were used especially for necklaces.
Individual pearls could be worth the equivalent of millions of dollars.
For example, the famed Cleopatra was said to have owned a pearl worth a million dollars.
And her one-time lover, Julius Caesar once gave a gift of a pearl to the mother of his later murderer, Brutus, that was worth about $50,000.
Like the parable of the hidden treasure, Jesus’ parable of the pearl picked up on yet another favorite theme of ancient near eastern story telling.
Jesus’ listeners would have assumed that He was going to tell them that God rewarded the man with the precious pearl because he was devout and religious or perhaps he was to use it to ransom a fellow merchant who had fallen into the hands of thieves.
But once again, Jesus used a favorite story theme and added his own twist to emphasize something that they would not have expected.
Unlike the previous parable where the man found a hidden treasure, notice in the parable of the pearl, the man was a merchant in search of fine pearls.
It was not an accident that he found the precious pearl since he was actively looking for fine pearls.
If the pearl merchant was surprised at all, it was not because he had found a number of excellent pearls along the way, it was because he found one that so clearly surpassed all the others he had ever seen.
Perhaps it was like the precious pearl that Julius Caesar gave away or the million dollar pearl of Cleopatra.
In any case, Jesus tells us that he simply had to have it. This man felt so strongly about this newly found precious pearl that he sold every single thing that he owned in order to raise enough funds to purchase it.
Frankly, as wonderful as it may have been, the purchase of this pearl by the merchant doesn’t make good business sense to me.
After all, any MBA will tell you to diversify and not to “put all your eggs into one basket” or that it “takes money to make money.”
After this crazy guy bought the pearl, he had no more merchandise to sell and no capital to invest in new merchandise. All he owned was the most beautiful pearl he had ever seen.
This nut must have been a hopeless romantic because he sure wasn’t using his head.
And that is precisely Jesus’ point. Jesus and the kingdom of heaven are of such overwhelming value that everything else pales in comparison.
And this crazy merchant realized that he had found perfection and no longer needed to continue his search.
You see, for the merchant, it never really is about the money at all. After all, didn’t Jesus say earlier in Mt. 6:33, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you?”
And didn’t Jesus promise in Mt. 7:7 that those “who seek will find?”
What this is about is Jesus calling some, and reminding others, that He is the pearl of great price and when Christ truly dwells in our hearts and the kingdom of heaven becomes our passion, everything else fades into insignificance.
Then we are free from slavery to the world’s values and the idolatry that says physical things are of primary importance, not spiritual ones.
And only then, will we be willing to sell or give away everything and every possession in order to take hold of Jesus and be captivated by His kingdom values.
Everything else can be put aside in order to give Jesus our complete commitment.
The parable of the pearl requires each of us to examine our personal lives and ask some hard questions.
For example, at this point in your life, are you “recklessly” selling off everything you have in your life so that you can take hold of that one pearl of great price?
Or are you more interesting in diversifying? Are you placing your eggs in a variety of baskets for “safety” reasons?
Maybe you more interested in possessing a number of pearls of lesser quality instead of one of all surpassing quality?
If this is the case, then you and I will never be able to understand this astonishing one sentence parable of Jesus. We will not have eyes that see and ears that hear.
The moral of the story is simply this, Jesus says, its time for those who are His followers to “sell out” on this world, to “cash in” the things that we have considered precious and to entirely buy into His kingdom.
One of the greatest reasons why the church in America is so anemic today because it lacks people who passionately seek Jesus Christ and are willing drop or sell everything in the process.
The pearl merchant should be our model and example in this most radical and yet paradoxically basic call of Christ upon our lives.
Jesus is calling you this morning to carefully and prayerfully examine your own life in relation to Matthew 13:44. For some, this will be a very uncomfortable prospect but it is entirely necessary.
Jesus is not calling you to simply accumulate a lot of pretty pearls in this life. He’s calling you take hold of the pearl of great price . . . that is, Jesus Christ Himself.
And it’s high time, that we as His disciples start “cashing out” right now so that we, by His grace, can “afford” the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let’s Pray
