17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask for what I should give you."
Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don't know how to go out or come in. Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can't be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?"
This request pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, Behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you.
The Lord is my portion. I promised to obey your words.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YODH
Please let your loving kindness be for my comfort, According to your word to your servant. Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For your law is my delight.
Therefore I love your commandments more than gold, Yes, more than pure gold. Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every way. PE
Your testimonies are wonderful, Therefore my soul keeps them. The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, Who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some fish of every kind, Which, when it was filled, fishermen drew up on the beach. They sat down and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be in the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked from among the righteous, And will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?"
They answered him, "Yes, Lord."
He said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things."
There's something almost reckless about all three of today's parables. A man finds buried treasure, reburies it, then liquidates everything he owns to buy a field. A merchant sells his entire inventory for a single pearl. These aren't careful, diversified investments. They're all-in bets. And Jesus holds them up as pictures of what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like.
Notice how Solomon does something similar. Given a blank check from God — anything at all — he doesn't hedge. He doesn't ask for a little wisdom and a little wealth, just to be safe. He goes all in on one thing: an understanding heart. And what's remarkable is that the request itself reveals he already possesses something of what he's asking for. Only a wise person knows that wisdom is worth everything else.
Paul's words in Romans anchor this. We who are called according to God's purpose are already caught up in a movement — foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. That chain isn't meant to feel fatalistic. It's meant to feel like the net in the parable, drawing us in, gathering us toward something we couldn't have orchestrated ourselves.
The practical question this raises for ordinary life is: what are we actually treating as the pearl? Not in theory, but in how we spend Tuesday evenings, or what we reach for when we're anxious, or what we protect most fiercely? The Kingdom has a way of revealing our real priorities by asking us to compare them to itself.
There's also that final image — the scribe who brings from the treasury things both new and old. Discipleship isn't about discarding what we've known. It's about letting new understanding illuminate everything we've already carried.
Something worth sitting with today:
What is the one thing you would ask for, if you believed God was genuinely offering?
Where in your life are you hedging rather than committing?
What old treasure might look different in the light of something new you've recently understood?