Week 1: “Hidden”
Set the Space
Before reading this Devotional, take a moment to tune into the Spirit.
Get comfortable where you are sitting. Feel free to light a candle or close your eyes.
Take a few deep breaths and focus on the movement of the air gently expanding and contracting your lungs.
Be still and know that this is the Spirit rushing through you.
When you are ready, turn to Matthew 13:44-46 and read our passage for this week.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
When a man found it, he hid it again,
and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
When he found one of great value,
he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46)
Think About It
Imagine a valuable object. In both parables, there is something of value that is hidden and then discovered. It’s important to point out that the moment of the discovery of these treasures was not the same moment of their deposit in the earth. The treasures were always there, hidden and waiting to be discovered. Both parables follow the same pattern of awareness through encounter (discovery), hidden appraisal of the value (decision), and the action of obtaining the treasure (draw). This parable will be the main lens I want us to focus through this Advent.
My childhood was steeped in Christianity in all it's various cultural forms. That means Christian schools, Sunday schools, children’s choirs, and Bible competitions. Most of these things took place in faith traditions obsessed with evidences of the Holy Spirit. It’s a great tradition, but much of this presented me with the idea the Christianity was solely an outward thing or as Bernard of Clairvaux puts it “the love of God for self’s sake.” But it wasn’t until college that I discovered that external religion wasn’t my identity. Christ in me was a deeper and more mystical reality than I had ever imagined. The Christ in me was void of all the empty platitudes and dogma I felt I had to hold. It wasn’t concerned with appearances. When I underwent the shift from doing to being, I understood that this was something I was willing, not just to die for, but to die to.
It takes time for God to till the soil of your inner landscape. The dirty work of making mistakes, growth, and in the process uncovering the truth about yourself can feel discouraging. However, when Jesus tells us these parables, he alludes to the fact that there is more to you than just dirt. There is treasure under there. That thrift shop the merchant went into wasn’t just filled with outdated clothes and forgotten memories; there was something valuable in there. What has been given to us is of greater value than what is being asked of us. All we are being asked to do is dig.
Sometimes, I think Christians can forget that moment. That moment when you were first made aware of the treasure under the surface. That moment they were completely covered in dirt from digging and the light caught something in the mess and it shone brighter than the hold they found themselves in; that moment of hope. That moment that validated the entire digging experience. I think if Christ-followers remembered that moment more often, they would be filled with more compassion for those who don’t know what’s underneath the surface.
Now, I want to clarify something about what I am saying: contempt isn’t the same as Love. Feeling a sense of superiority towards others who haven’t started digging isn’t the point. Love isn’t judgmental. It is our job as Christians to recognize this treasure in people and disciple them into seeing it in themselves and others. We are called as Christians to be digging buddies. I think if we got that we would understand how sometimes even we can confuse something that has only relative value with something that is of absolute value. We could see why humans will never find long term transformation with surface level truisms or cosmetic fixes. Decorating the surface is only treating your shame like a gravesite. Get up outta that grave! You gotta dig!
Take With You
“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” (Matthew 1:18-19)
When Mary was found to be pregnant with the Savior, all that Joseph saw was a scandal. This is proven by the statement that Joseph didn’t want to publicly disgrace her because she was pregnant before marriage. But below what appeared to be a dirty situation was Christ. Christ was below the surface preparing to enter the world and live amongst us. In Matthew 1:20-23, an angel appears to Joseph to tell him what’s beneath the surface. Now that Joseph is made aware, he is presented with the decision to engage in what God is doing or ignore it. Not everyone chooses to engage with the treasure. We see this in the ways we can live “unconsciously” or on “auto pilot”. But every moment is is a treasure chest bursting with Christ. How can you engage more with what God is doing around me?
