July 26, 2026 Text: Matthew 13:44-52
Dear Friends in Christ,
Some of you in this church like to bargain. I hate it. Just give me the price and I pay it or I don’t. For the last 15 years we have bought all of our vehicles from our friend in Effingham. I have done all my research; they give us a fair price and we move on. None of this “let me talk to my manager” ritualistic dance. Others of you like the game. Whether with a merchant in a foreign country or your local garage sale.
How about bargaining with God? Should it be done? Does He care? Are we disobedient if we question His motives? Our gospel has three parables. I have found preaching on all three just leaves congregants not getting any of them. We are just going to focus on one this morning – The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value. Only Matthew scribes these three parables and the one we will look at fits him perfectly because he was a tax man. He would have an interest in what something was worth. Let’s get to it.
“CAN YOU BARGAIN WITH GOD?”
Listen to the two verses of our text, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
This merchant must have thought he was getting a great bargain. It was his “blue light special.” Those of you of a certain vintage will remember the “blue light special” at Kmart. They had a little cart they would wheel to the area of the special, turn on the blue light and make a storewide announcement about the bargain. They really made you feel like you were getting a deal.
This merchant gets so distracted by the pearl, and the bargain he thinks he is getting, that he literally gives up everything for it. He had to have it. Imagine a Middle Eastern pearl dealer working the vendors in the jewelry market. He bargains, wheels and deals, looking for the best pearl at the best price. But then he finds the one, the pearl of pearls, the rarest and finest ever popped from an oyster. For the sheer joy of owning it, he literally sells everything he has.
We won’t get into every interpretation of this parable. Let me remind you of this verse: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” (Jn. 3:16). The kingdom of heaven is like the seeking love of God, who searches high and low for that one pearl of infinite value, the world He created and loves, and, finding it, gives everything He has, His only-begotten Son, in order to make it his treasured possession.
We think we can bargain with God. We go through the religious jewelry market and when we find Jesus, we give up everything to own Him. We want to be the hero of the parable. Put the cape away, my friend. The parable exposes us as counterfeit coins. Do you want to buy the farm to own the treasure? Do you really want to give up everything to follow Jesus?
Thankfully, this is not about our choices. It is about God’s choice to seek and save us. It is about the love of God in Christ Jesus that stops at nothing to rescue the world from sin and death. It is about God who works mysteriously, in, with, and under the things of this world to redeem the world. It is about your value to God. You are not a bargaining chip. You are a precious pearl to God for Jesus’ sake. You are worth His only Son, His shed blood, His innocent suffering and death. You are His and part of His kingdom.
One of the sacred texts of Mormonism – along with the Bible, the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants – is the brief volume known as Pearl of Great Price, named for the pearl in today’s text. In this book is the claim made by Joseph Smith that he unearthed gold plates, which he translated into the Book of Mormon.
Discovering a hidden truth would indeed be like finding a pearl of great value. Unfortunately, the Mormon text is anything but the pearl Jesus has in mind in the parable. The Mormon faith offers a false hope, one based on salvation “by obedience to the law and ordinances.” Anyone investing in this pearl will be eternally disappointed. So will we if we invest in these false pearls: wealth, the big corner office, even misplaced love or loyalty. We don’t bargain with God, He uses the Holy Spirit to bring about our obedience. We have it because Jesus considered us his precious pearl, worth His investing everything, even His life, to acquire.
Amen.