This parable is taken from the gospel of Matthew 13:45
In the ancient world pearls had a very special place in men’s hearts. People desired to possess a lovely pearl, more for its beauty than any monetary value that it may hold. They found a pleasure in simply handling it and gazing at its beauty. There was a form of aesthetic joy simply in possessing and staring at a pearl. But behind all this there are certain truths hidden in this parable.
(i) The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a pearl. To the people of old, a pearl was the loveliest of all possessions; and in comparison, the Kingdom of Heaven is the loveliest thing in the world. Let us remember what the Kingdom is. To be in the Kingdom is to accept and to do the will of God. That is to say, to do the will of God is nothing boring or grim or grey on the other hand it is the most agonizing thing; it is a lovely thing. Much beyond the discipline, beyond the sacrifice, beyond the self-denial, beyond the cross, there lies a supreme loveliness which is nowhere else. There is only one way to bring peace to the heart, joy to the mind, beauty to the life, and that is to accept and to do the will of God.
(ii) Of course, there are other pearls in the world but only one pearl of great price. That is to say, there are many fine things in this world and many things in which a man can find loveliness. He can find loveliness in knowledge and in the reaches of the human mind, in art and music and literature and all the triumphs of the human spirit; he can find loveliness in serving his fellow-men, even if that service springs from humanitarian rather than from purely Christian motives; he can find loveliness in human relationships. These are all lovely, but they are all lesser loveliness. The supreme beauty lies in the acceptance of the will of God. Do not get me wrong, I do not want to belittle the other things; they too are pearls; but the supreme pearl is the absolute and willing obedience to the will of the Father.
(iii) We find in this parable the same point as in the parable of the Hidden Treasure but with a difference. The man who was digging the field was not searching for treasure; it came on him all unaware. But this man was searching for pearls was spending his life in the search. But no matter whether the discovery was the result of a moment or the result of a life-time’s search, the reaction was the same–everything had to be sold and sacrificed to gain the precious thing. Once again, we are left with the same truth–that, however a man discovers the will of God for himself, whether it be in the lightning flash of a moment’s illumination or at the end of a long and conscious search, it is worth anything unhesitatingly to accept it.
Today, the church, the body of Christ, is composed of believing Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11 ff). Unlike most other gems, the pearl is a unity—it cannot be carved like a diamond or emerald. The church is a unity (Eph. 4:4–6).
A pearl grows gradually, and the church grows gradually as the Spirit convicts and converts sinners. No one can see the making of the pearl, for it is hidden in the shell of the oyster under the waters. No one can see the growth of the church of Jesus in the world but one day it will be revealed in its all beauty.
So, in spite of Satan’s subtle working in this world, Christ is forming His church. He sold all that He had to purchase His church, and nothing Satan can do will cause Him to fail. There is but one church, a pearl of great price, though there are many local churches.
So what’s my take on this parable of Jesus, in spite of my differences with any church member/(s), I need to strive for unity as I need to remember it is Jesus’s pearl and He paid a great price for it. My personal differences does not auger well towards the unity of the church. To that extent I need to strive towards unity.
Any sacrifice I make for the Kingdom of God, I need to make it willingly. Anything that I need to give up for the Kingdom, I need to do it ungrudgingly.
