Kaleidoscope parables

Jesus spoke in kaleidoscopes; that is what his parables are like. You can peer into them all your life and you will always see new arrangements of truth. They are arrangements of his choosing, because he placed them there long ago. But it is only now that you see the one you are seeing.

This is one of those kaleidoscopes: “The kingdom of the heavens 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.”

The patterns in this one-sentence parable are mesmerizing.

The man is Jesus, someone said Friday night (and it was night outside; out our windows the woods were obscure in the glow of the lights in our living room).

So this is one arrangement of the pieces of this kaleidoscope. The man is Jesus, who left his heavenly place to sell all, even to dying the death of a criminal, to purchase his kingdom. Does it not say somewhere that he did it “for the joy set before him?” just like this man in the kaleidoscope sold all for joy?

But then someone else said that this arrangement makes us the treasure, and she had a hard time thinking of us as treasure. Doesn’t the hymn say that his amazing grace saved wretches like us? How can wretches be treasure too?

I said when I was a child I also saw Jesus as the man who found the treasure. But my heart is strangely comforted now, at age 55, in another way. What I see now in this kaleidoscope is that I am that man. And even though the treasure I have found – for all of my talking – remains still somewhat vague, I have a scent of joy in me that, in fact, I have come across something big.

And very few have found what I have found (for all of their talking). This is not to say that others have not found this treasure we call Christ. Many have found Christ. But … I have found him in the way that I have found him. And the treasure I have found, well, it is a rare thing. Others are seeing different patterns in this same kaleidoscope. But they do not see the kaleidoscope arrangement that I see. And for me, the patterns have fallen in unbelievably good places.

What I see is big, very big. I need to safeguard it in the quiet of this earth’s night, in the dark woods where things are hard to see. I’ll have to be careful what I do so as not to lose this scent of joy. Didn’t someone else say that he counted all things as loss for the sake of gaining Christ? He also saw patterns placed long ago in this kaleidoscope for him.

Ah, this is why the Lord said in the same conversation: "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." What I have found shines so new, because it is so very, very old.

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Matthew 13.44 The kingdom of heavens 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.

Hebrews 12.2 … Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Psalm 16.6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Philippians 3.8 ... I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord ...

Matthew 13.52 And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

Hymn: Amazing Grace: Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound / that saved a wretch like me / I once was lost, but now I’m found / was blind, but now I see.