THE BLACK SWAN PROJECT was the name given by the Odyssey Marine Exploration Company to the discovery of a shipwreck that was announced on May 18, 2007. Within the ship were five hundred thousand gold and silver coins whose value was estimated to be about one thousand dollars per coin. After this find, the company refused to publish the exact location of the vessel, only saying that it was in the international waters of the North Atlantic. Likewise, the coins were moved to a safe and unknown location in the state of Florida in the United States, and valuable objects also found were moved to a warehouse in some hidden location in Gibraltar, Spain.
The similarity of this real event to what Jesus said in the parable of the hidden treasure is incredible. This parable, which is only recorded in the book of Matthew, has only one verse that says the following: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field» (Matthew 13:44). That is to say that the value of what was found was so great that one wants to be assured of it in every way possible so as not to lose it, so as not to have to give it to someone else who could legitimately claim it. In principle, the legal owner of the field was the legal owner of the treasure. Now the finder had to find a legal process by which to make himself the new owner (always legally) of such a find. The process was to buy the field.
This is what the kingdom of heaven—or what is the same, the salvation that Christ offers us—should be worth to us. It should be so valuable in our sight that we are willing to give the material goods we might have here for it. In comparison with money and material possessions, the kingdom of heaven is of an infinitely higher value. That is what Jesus tells us: do not spare any effort (legitimate, pure, clean, sincere) to get that which has more value than any other thing: eternal life with God.
«The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field» (Matthew 13:44).