Pursuing a Different Prize
These are different prizes, but we pursue them with passion and determination because in them we find a treasure.
The Venus Rosewater Dish was made of sterling silver in 1864 and looks like something you might find in your grandmother’s china cabinet. It has been awarded to the Wimbledon singles champ since 1886. While the original stays in the Wimbledon museum the winner receives an 8-inch replica.
Cross the finish line first at the Boston marathon and an olive wreath will be draped over your neck – its branches cut from the groves in Marathon, Greece where the original marathoner, named Pheidippides, ran to announce the Athenian victory in 490 BC. And then dropped dead.
It’s the kind of jacket your great uncle might wear, if he were playing cards in an Irish pub or he had just won he Masters golf tournament. The green jacket – an Irish green version of the blue blazer – is awarded each year to the Masters champion.
Okay, prize money is also involved in these victories but it’s the different kind of prize that you see on highlight clips. Think of the blood, sweat, and tears poured out by the athletes who win these unique prizes. There has to be a different inspiration for their passion, an inner determination that drives them regardless of the outcome.
In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about a man who found a treasure hidden in a field, “He hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” With single-minded focus the man was determined to acquire the field but for a deeper purpose. For the treasure it contained.
According to Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is like that treasure and like the pursuit of the Venus Rosewater Dish, the olive wreath, and the green jacket. People don’t see the kingdom of heaven as our passion, and even we ourselves often lose focus of the kingdom of heaven as the point of our determination – because we pursue a different prize.
We set our alarm clocks early and urge our weary bodies out of bed to spend time in the Scriptures each morning instead of sleeping in. We push our busy schedule and priority project to the side because somebody needs our help today. We say no to the most pleasurable sin we’ve discovered and our sinful flesh whines all day, distracting us from accomplishing anything worthwhile. We spend less on discretionary needs so that we can still afford to be generous to God’s work at church. These are different prizes, but we pursue them with passion and determination because in them we find a treasure. The kingdom of heaven.
Jesus made it clear that we don’t obtain the kingdom of heaven by our determined effort – he constantly argued with the Pharisees about that. So he’s not saying that if we perform like winners then we’ll be in heaven. He’s saying that the kingdom of heaven is not always recognized as a motivator for our passion and determination. If we focus on it as our valuable possession, it will help us be more focused and faithful.
PRAYER: Nothing holds greater value than the kingdom of heaven, Jesus, and I thank you for making it mine. Give me the determination and focus to prioritize my faith so that it encompasses and enriches every decision and activity, and testifies to others about the greatest treasure. Amen.