Vince Lombardi & the Pearl of Great Price
Last week a news story broke as I was listening to a local sports talk radio show here in Atlanta. Sean & Rikki McEvoy, a couple from Tennessee who buy & sell vintage clothing for a living, had found a West Point sweater in a Goodwill store in North Carolina. Rikki thought it was “really cool” & so she bought it for 58 cents. A few months go by & one night Sean is watching a documentary on HBO. On the screen is a man wearing a West Point sweater similar to the one they had purchased from Goodwill. Sean tells his wife Rikki about it & she asks who the man was who was wearing the sweater. He thinks it’s a guy by the name of Vince Lombardi. And Rikki says she thinks that’s who’s name is written in the tag! Of course, Vince Lombardi was a former coach of the Green Bay Packers who won five national championships & two Super Bowls!
Long story short, turns out this West Point sweater the McEvoy’s bought for 58 cents is at auction & could sell for more than $20,000! If you’re interested, you can read the full story here.
Jesus told a couple of stories similar to this one in an attempt to teach us a little more about what His kingdom is like.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!
Matthew 13:44-46
In the first story, a man isn’t searching for a treasure. He’s just going about his normal work. Probably plowing the field or something when he discovers the treasure. He finds it by accident. You might say that it finds him instead of him finding it. Maybe this is how you came to know about Jesus. It wasn’t like you were living some evil life then you saw the light, had a massive turnaround story & became a Jesus freak. No, for you, maybe it was more like Jesus found you. You were raised in a godly home. You didn’t have to hunt for him, discover him, or find out about Jesus on your own. You were going about your normal life when Jesus found you. When you realized how valuable this relationship with Him would be – who Jesus was & how much he really loved you – you’ll never forget that day.
But in the second story, the merchant is actively seeking the treasure. A choice pearl. He’s after it. He know’s it’s out there & he wants to find it. And when He does, he abandons everything to get it. This could be your story too. Or the story of someone you know. You were searching for something. You were willing to give everything for it. And then it happened. Somehow, some way, some where you discovered Jesus. You finally found what you were looking for. And since that day you’ve never been the same.
The kingdom of God can come to a person either way.
I think the question for us today is, “Are we still seeking the treasure?” “Are we still after the pearl of great price?”
I believe you can find something & still have more to discover. You can know something but still have more to know. I knew my wife pretty well on the day we got married but for the past 15+ years we’ve spent every day getting to know each other more. And it’s a lifelong pursuit. But I fear too many “find Jesus,” “accept Him into their lives,” and then move on with life as usual. Funny the Bible never talks about you accepting Jesus into your life. But there does seem to be multiple invitations for us to join Jesus in His life & what He is doing in the world.
A.W. Tower once said,
“To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual.”
I don’t know about you, but I really want to know Christ. I want to come to know him more & have a deep & abiding relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. I believe it’s possible. And I believe in this pursuit there will be days that I stumble upon this treasure and won’t believe what I’ve found. And there will be other days in earnest pursuit I’ll come upon that pearl of great price. And as cool as it would be to own a Vince Lombardi West Point sweater, I’m after a treasure worth exponentially more.
I do wonder, how many people came in & out of that Goodwill store & never saw that sweater? How many picked it up & considered buying it only to throw it back on the pile? How many years had it sat in that store? How many times had it been purchased & donated again? How many people completely missed the tremendous value right in front of them? On the one hand it kind of makes me want to stop by Goodwill today & see what treasure I can find. But on the other, I don’t want to miss out on the greatest treasure right before me.
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. – Philippians 3:10-12 (AMP)
