Are You a Risk Taker? (Matt 13:44-46)
Are you a risk taker?
In the early history of the Church there exists
a group of people known as Parabolani – members of a brotherhood who risked
their Lives for others, such as taking care of the sick and burial of the dead,
knowing they could die as well in the process. They were motivated by something
higher than the value of their own lives. These were folks who took risks for
others while many others shunned such risks. Throughout history, there have
been many who would shoulder great risks in exchange of great adventure such as
in the South Pole expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914.
In the parables of the Treasure and the Pearl
as found in Matthew 13:44-46, we have somewhat similar accounts of a worker and
a tradesman who took great risks to secure something they think that is of the
highest value such that they are willing to sacrifice all they have for the
Treasure and the Pearl. This is how our Lord Jesus compared having the Kingdom
of Heaven with the Behaviour of the finders in the whole process of finding and
obtaining the most valuable things in their life. It is neither a sacrifice nor
an investment for the simple reason that they have obtained something much
better with absolute certainty! Why so you may ask?
Before answering this question, we first need
to understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is. The Kingdom of Heaven is the reign
of God in the lives and hearts of His people. It is a reign that has no obvious
physical geographical dimensions but does have temporal dimensions that
encompass past, present and future where God’s will is done by His people on
earth and heaven (Matt 6:10], albeit imperfectly on earth but perfectly in
heaven now and in the future. We also know that entering this Kingdom means
having eternal life and the entrance is not something humanly possible unless
God takes the initiative in granting the person a new birth as we learn from John
3:3. Jesus said in response to the learned Pharisee, Nicodemus, that “Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God”. This new birth,
just like the natural process of birth, is something beyond the person
concerned. In our case, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
So the answer to our earlier question is clear:
this parable depicts the behaviour of one who has been given the new birth. In
other words, because he is given a new birth, he has faith and therefore able
to recognise what is of the highest value in this life, namely, the Kingdom of
God, and would therefore give up anything he has to obtain it. It is certain
and he or she will do it, albeit imperfectly on this side of heaven, when he or
she is given the new birth. We see this in the life of the Apostle Paul, in his
famous dictum of “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). To live
is Christ means that Christ would reign supreme in Paul’s life in that Christ’s
will would be done in his life principally in fulfilling the Great Commission
to the Gentiles. The Apostle’s life echoes the word of our Saviour to his
disciples that they would deny themselves (i.e. let Christ reign in their life),
be willing to die if need be for the Gospel (i.e. Carrying the Cross) and persevere
to the end in following Christ (Matt 16:24).
If you are with me and thinking, you would naturally
retort that many professing Christians do not manifest such behaviour! Well,
you are probably right, as it seems that if they are not given to their family,
they would be given to work and, if they are not given to work, they would be
given to ease and holidays! Is this a fair assessment? I would think so. This
is perhaps reflected in an article in which I read about a certain 30+
Cambridge-educated Legal Hotshot who studied the Gospel of Mark; it then began
to dawn upon him that all his life as a “Christian”, it was one that he lived
for himself instead of for the Kingdom of God. Hear what he said in the
article, “I realised that I called myself a Christian but I was still living for
myself. It got me thinking about what it meant to follow God, and I realised
that I hadn’t understood discipleship at all”[1].
So perhaps, he had not been converted until he read the Gospel of Mark or there
about which led him to live for God instead of living for himself.
The crucial question now is, does your life
resonate with the person depicted in the parable of the Treasure or the tradesman
in the parable of the Pearl, that you would “focus entirely on what God is doing with the Kingdom” since it is
worth sacrificing anything to gain it? Or would you rather go on living for
yourself, though you may be in Church once a week on the Lord’s Day, just like
the legal hotshot who attended Church all his life before his conversion? Is
God and all that pertains to Him one item grudgingly in your OWN agenda
or are you availing yourself fully to God to fulfil HIS agenda instead?
This doesn’t necessary mean everyone who does so needs to be a Pastor but
rather the tenor of his or her life would be for God’s Kingdom.
This is an important question because it may be
that you are still dead in your sin because you are not willing to give up all
for the Kingdom of God, which is concomitant to entering God’s Kingdom and
receiving eternal life as the two parables would want us to understand! So,
deliberate and peruse the Word of God this Lord’s Day, will you, before it is
too late? In the final analysis, giving all for Christ does not incur any risk
at all, but on the contrary it would be a fruitful life for the Saviour (Jn
10:10) that resonates with the idea of treasure and, finally, when the time
comes to go to the other side of heaven it would be the happiest day for that
person for Jesus says, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt 16:25).
Amen.
FERC Pastoral Voice 12th March 2017
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