Matthew 13.52 NLT




Then Jesus added, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.”
When I was nine or ten years old, one of the great delights of my life was to visit my grandmother’s house. She lived quite close to our home and I was allowed to go and see her whenever I liked. Her house was like an Aladdin’s cave for me. It was full of generations of treasures and, whenever I found something that appealed to me, I would take it to my grandmother and almost always she would ask me the right question which was, “Would you like to have it dear?” Many of the things she gave me, and particularly her postcard collection from before the First World War, lit up my interest in history and geography and gave me a much bigger appreciation of life. I thank God for her generosity.
In this parable Jesus speaks about the teacher of the law who had a great knowledge of the Old Testament teaching. His knowledge was like a house filled with treasure from which he could get hold of riches from the past and, because he had become a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven, he was also able to take hold of brand new gems. Jesus was always careful to say that he hadn’t come to scrap the Old Testament law but had come to help people to see it in a new way through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. In Christ everything had been renewed.


In every generation there are those who want to abandon the past. Anything which looks traditional is mocked and rejected. But that wasn’t Jesus’ way. He looked to the past with respect and encouraged people to see it with the eyes of the Spirit. God is constantly at work and we should be eager to grasp hold of the gems that he gives to us from the past, as well as the new insights which he reveals to us as we open our lives to his Spirit.




QUESTION: What are the gems that you have discovered recently?
PRAYER: Lord God, thank you for the treasures that you bring to us from the past, and for the ways in which you speak directly and clearly to us today. Amen

Released on 8 Dec 2021