Back in the 80's a hands-on museum on the Oklahoma Christian College campus taught the principles of the Free Enterprise system to visitors. Lesson One at Enterprise Square, USA introduced the basic principle that two factors determine the value of something: utility and scarcity. If people need it or think they need it, they will pay for it. If what they need or want diminishes in supply, they will pay more to get it for themselves before someone else gets it. Recognizing the value of something motivates us to behave in ways, even extreme ways, that will accomplish our goal of owning that thing.
The desire to acquire a Tickle Me Elmo will make some people pay ten times retail for one. Famine will make people trade their land and its resources for temporary food sustenance.
These short parables teach us about the Kingdom from two distinct angles. The similarity of the Kingdom with a hidden treasure illustrates its often overlooked value as a potential possession. A person would trade everything they own for it. In the simile of the Kingdom as a merchant Jesus emphasizes the behavior of looking.Consider this paraphrase:
Are you looking for citizenship in a new kingdom?
Find one for which its citizens pledged their allegiance
by willingly giving up everything in their former lives.
In fact, the King counts your search to belong to his
kingdom as your first act of citizenship.
Lent began as time for new converts to give up their past lives to gain citizenship in the Kingdom. How would you describe your transfer of citizenship?
