Two of the parables set before us today are traditionally understood as lessons in the cost of discipleship. The treasure buried in the field and the pearl of great price signify the Kingdom of God. (See Matthew 13:44-46) They are worth spending all we have to obtain. Though this interpretation is profoundly true, the great modern scholar and Scripture translator Monsignor Ronald Knox suggests another.
According to Knox, we can understand Christ Himself to be the man who finds a treasure in the field and the merchant who finds the pearl of great price. Fallen man is the treasure. We are the pearl of great price. Christ has found us and sells all He has to purchase us.
Now, this interpretation is not contrary to the traditional. But neither is it merely an alternative. Rather, it is prior. It precedes and enables our own discipleship, our own finding and buying. We cannot bear the cost of discipleship, we cannot sell all we have, until and unless we ourselves are purchased. We must be found before we find, bought before we can buy.
This is the structure of salvation. God takes the initiative; we respond. “In this is love. Not that
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