The thirteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel records a number of parables of Jesus about the nature of God's kingdom. One of them is in verse 44:
"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."
As Kyle Kettering explained in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on January 10, 2026, the parable is about someone who comes to see that submitting to God's reign is the highest priority in life, coming ahead of everything else. Following God opens up to us a world of freedom, including freedom from want and fear.
Kyle also mentioned that some have worried about possible ethical problems in the scenario presented in the parable. Is it such a great idea to search through someone else's field and bury the treasure that one finds there without telling the owner of the field? But with parables, we can miss the point if we get bogged down in the incidental details. Jesus wasn't proposing that we go looking for items worth lots of money on other people's property.
Symbolic readings of parables are another thing that can lead us astray. As an example, Kyle mentioned an interpretation of the parables in Matthew 13:44-46 given by popular dispensationalist teacher Warren Wiersbe (see Be Loyal, his commentary on Matthew). Wiersbe saw in the parable of the hidden treasure Jesus' work to save the people of Israel, God's treasured possession (Ex 19:5). He viewed the parable of the pearl of great price as representing Jesus' work on behalf of the church. This is an imaginative reading that carries some lessons, but probably isn't what Jesus was talking about.
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