The Parable of the treasure in the field compared to the advice to the Rich Young man

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure...

Notice the similarities between these two Gospel passages.

Gospel MT 13:44-46

Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”


The Rich Young Man.
Matt 19:16  Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”*
17He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.* If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness;
19honor your father and your mother’; and ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
20 The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

See if you follow what I'm saying.

A rich man is walking in a field.  He must be rich because he later returns and purchases the entire field.  We'll come back to that.  While walking in this field, he finds a treasure.  That treasure, in my opinion, is love.  Love is the coin of the realm, so to speak.

When he finds it, he hides it.  Why?  To safeguard it?  To protect it?

No.  If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor

To prepare himself.  He wishes to be perfect.  He realizes his imperfection.  He realizes that he is not worthy of the treasure.

In order to be perfect, he must divest himself of self.  He must live according to the demands of love.

Therefore Jesus said to him:

sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

So, he did.  He sold all he had and purchased the field in order that he might have the treasure.

Then, Jesus says,

come, follow me.

Do you recognize these words?

Matthew 16:24New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,[a] take up his cross, and follow me.

Sell all you have and give to the poor = deny yourself and take up your cross

Folks, Jesus emptied Himself to become man and to save mankind.

We must do the same.  He is our  example and model.  We can end this lesson with the words of St. Paul:

Philippians 3:8New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

8 More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ