From a crumpled paper bag
in a dilapidated house came a baseball-card find of a lifetime—seven of them
actually. Baseball card experts in Southern California said that they have
verified the legitimacy—and seven-figure total value—of seven identical mint
condition Ty Cobb cards from the printing period of 1909-1911. Before the recent
find, there were only about fifteen known to still exist. Cobb’s .366 career
batting average is the highest in major league history which is another reason
why this lot is so highly desired by collectors.
Joe Orlando, the president
of Professional Sports Authenticator in Newport Beach, California, who verified
the find, said it is “spectacular” and “miraculous” to have come across such a
cache. “I am not sure if any other baseball card find is more remarkable than
this new discovery,” Orlando said in a statement. The family who discovered the
cards in a neglected paper bag at the run-down house of a deceased
great-grandfather has asked to remain anonymous. “At first, they thought it was
trash,” Orlando said. “One of the family members said, ‘Let me sift through the
contents of this bag,’ and thankfully they did.”[1]
When I came across that
story I was reminded of a parable that Jesus told about a man who also found
something of incredible worth. In the midst of His discourse on the Kingdom of
God Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field,
which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he
has and buys that field” (Matt. 13:44).
Remember that a parable is
an “earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” It uses objects and scenarios from
the physical world to illustrate spiritual truth. So what was Jesus saying
here? Well, if you’re like me you
probably grew up hearing one interpretation like this: the man represents a
sinner, the field is the Bible and the treasure is the Gospel. Thus, a sinner
is looking through the Bible, finds the Gospel and then gives up all that he
has in order to be a Christian.
That sounds like a neat
fit, but its just wrong. As I began to grow in my spiritual insight and Bible
study I realized that I had totally missed the meaning behind this parable and
many others that Jesus taught in Matthew 13. In hermeneutics (the process of interpreting
the Bible) there is a basic principle called, “expositional constancy” which
simply means that idioms, symbols and themes of the Bible are used in a consistent
manner. So in Matthew 13 Jesus makes sure to use the symbols of those seven parables
consistently. In fact, He interprets the idioms for us when He explains the
parable of the weeds to the disciples, so there is no risk of misunderstanding
(13:36-43). Unless, of course you’re just, well—not the sharpest knife in the
drawer.
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Going back to Jesus’ own
explanation we can reinterpret this parable correctly. The man is not a sinner,
but the Lord Jesus (13:37). The field is not the Bible, but the world (13:38).
That being said, the treasure cannot be the Gospel or Christ. To begin with Jesus is not hidden, but perhaps
one of the most well-known people of history. Secondly, it’s the Savior that
finds the sinner not the other way around (Luke 19:10). And no man could ever purchase
salvation, because it’s a free gift (Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9).
So who or what is the treasure
in this parable? If we go back into the Old Testament we find that God uses the
symbol of treasure to represent the nation of Israel. Consider these scriptures:
Just prior to giving Moses
the Ten Commandments God said, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice
and keep my covenant, you shall be my
treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine . . .”
(Exodus 19:5).
The Psalmist wrote, “For
the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure” (Psalm 135:4).
Knowing that this parable
is really about Israel it changes everything. Jesus is saying that the nation
of Israel was placed in the world to bring glory to God and be a light to the
gentile nations (Is. 49:6), but Israel failed. It became entangled in idolatry
and oppressive legalism. Therefore, the nation became a hidden treasure and by the first century they were under the boot of Roman occupation.
Then when Christ came into
the world He uncovered the nation. That is the story of the Gospels. He
revealed for a brief flash of time the glory that was Israel. He declared it in
great messages like the Sermon on the Mount. And then He demonstrated it by
healing the multitudes, by driving the moneychangers out of the temple, by
feeding the thousands with bread and fish, and by rebuking death and evil
everywhere He went. In the short course of the three and a half years of our
Lord's ministry He uncovered the treasure of Israel. Finally, Christ came into
the world and gave all had, even His life’s blood, to purchase the whole world
so that He might save the nation (John 11:51; Is. 53:8).
However, because the
Jewish people rejected Jesus as their Messiah, the nation suffered judgment and
expulsion when the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD (Luke 19:41-44). Just
as the parable foretold, the nation would be covered up again. For 1900 years
Israel was utterly lost among the nations, dispersed. When our Lord covered the
treasure over it was hidden completely in the field of humanity again. But in
our own time we are facing an amazing wonder, one of the most remarkable things
that has ever taken place in the annals of men, and one of the most dramatic
demonstrations of the truth of the Word of God! God has gathered this nation
together again, brought in the people from the outlying countries of the world,
gathered his dispersed from the four corners of the earth, and brought them
back into the land.
Politically, Israel was
reborn when the modern state came into existence in 1948. But, the Lord is not
done with Abraham’s descendants. In the parable, the man bought the field to
redeem the treasure. And so it is with Christ. He has redeemed the nation by
His own blood and one day He is returning to reclaim what is rightfully His. During the Millennial Kingdom Christ will
establish her once again as glittering treasure. -DM
[1]
Andrew Dalton, “Baseball Card Bonanza: Family Scores with Rare Ty Cobb Find,” Associated Press, 3 March 2016
<http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:0e753aaa4dc947b28d71eb622e3c6361>
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