Holy selfishness

"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" (Matthew 13:44).

There is a lot in this one-verse parable for modern ears to object to. It rings with buzzwords that are anathema in our current political climate: hiddenness, cover-up, buying and selling---yikes, capitatalism!

Moreover, God so often emphasizes that our light is to shine among men, that we are to be cities on a hill and not lamps under a bushel basket---in other words, that we are to be desirous of seeing the gospel of our new life in Christ enfold more and more people. What then do we make of this man who finds the gospel and seems to selfishly hide and horde it?

Well, this is not hard: An intelligent reading of a parable is to understand that it may seek to make only one point. And the point of this particular parable regards the supreme value of the Kingdom of God: It is to be desired and sought and thought about and dreamed about and gone after above any other thing. Nothing else you have or want can come close to it, and everything else you have would be a poor trade for it and is well worth giving up or giving away or "selling" for it.

Still, I am edified even by the hint of selfishness in the parable, though this selfishness may not be the main teaching. (The fact that a parable generally has one main teaching is not an argument against the possibility of it having subsidiary or secondary teachings.) I believe the Spirit is telling us in this short vignette that we believers could do with a little "selfishness" or "greediness" of the sanctified variety!

I believe He even means to gently rebuke our lack of it. Should we commend ourselves because we are devoid of all emotion, passion, or possessiveness regarding the Kingdom of God and regarding the various operations of the Spirit? We had better not. This man of the parable is evidently animated by a holy selfishness---even (if I may put it this way) an enlightened self-centeredness. He wants the Kingdom of God for himself, and he receives God's tacit commendation for wanting it so badly. This man is prepared to sell or give up anything he has for the Kingdom, and nobody had better call him a fanatic.

Though the parable is a mere verse (and its companion parable that follows is also short), see how Jesus creates a sense of the passage of time. The man being described is not impulsive. He has not come across a carnival snake-oil salesman and lined up on the spot for two bottles. Notice the premeditation and thoroughness of planning in his seeking and securing all that God has to offer. Note his lack of distractedness or preoccupation with other pursuits.

If we want to chide this man for his "I've got mine" attitude, we have gone beyond the meaning of the story. The experience of zeal and joy, and what John Piper would call "Christian hedonism," is so important in God's eyes that the Lord isolates the quality for pedagogical purposes. In real life the man would be a more developed character. He would, as a member of the Kingdom, love his neighbor and reach out to him.

But for Jesus, here, it is enough, in a one-liner, to commend single-minded ravenous desire for God and to call us to question the normalcy of anything else.

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