Defend Your Faith Devotional for KidsSample

Day 3: Puzzling Parables

Jesus often taught in stories called parables. His parables were based on everyday events that people in the crowd could relate to. Although the people all recognized the real-life situations, not everyone understood the deeper meaning of Jesus’ teaching—like in the two short parables He shared in Matthew 13:44–46.

In the first parable, Jesus told of a man who found a treasure buried in a field. The man joyfully sold everything he had and bought the field to win the treasure. In the second parable, Jesus told a story of a merchant searching for pearls. Once the man found a priceless pearl, he sold all his possessions and bought it. 

After reading these stories, you probably picture yourself as the man or the merchant. That’s exactly what Jesus was hoping. He wants us to imagine that we’re the person who discovered the treasure or the pearl, because we can! The “treasures” Jesus talked about really represent eternal life in heaven. In the parables, the men sold all they had and bought the pearl or the field with the treasure because it was the most important thing they could ever do. 

Wait a sec, you might be thinking. Isn’t the Bible clear that we can’t buy our way into heaven? So what was Jesus’ real meaning behind these stories?

Jesus never contradicted the Bible with His words. As the ultimate author of every word in the Bible, He couldn’t say anything that contradicted the Word because He can’t contradict Himself. (Pause to think about that for a while.)

The point of these parables is that we must be willing to give up everything for God. Jesus makes that clear in what He said right after these parables. He compared the kingdom of heaven to a net that collected fish in the sea. Only the good ones were kept (see Matthew 13:47–50).

Defend Your Faith 

Nobody can buy his or her way into God’s kingdom. It’s a gift from God when we believe in Him and put our faith in the truth of His Word (Ephesians 2:8–9). The point of these parables is that the kingdom of heaven is worth sacrificing every worldly possession and advantage we have. The rich young ruler discovered this in Mark 10:17–22, but he wasn’t willing to give up his wealth and walked away from having eternal life.

God wants us to choose His unique and valuable treasure of salvation over anything the world offers. When we willingly give up everything for God, we become citizens of God’s kingdom and gain the ultimate prize.

Suddenly those parables aren’t so puzzling after all!