Matthew 13: 52: “ Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Jesus has just been teaching about the nature of the kingdom of heaven. He has recently compared the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed and to leaven. The kingdom of heaven is already in Israel in seed form. The kingdom of heaven is something that Israel ought to desire much, like buried treasure or a pearl without price. In these parables, Jesus suggests that Israel possesses the kingdom of heaven in a hidden form. But she does not recognize it’s true value. She may even be willing to sell it off to those who truly desire it. The kingdom of heaven is Israel’s birthright, her natural inheritance. Like the Old Testament Esau, she is willing to sell that birthright.
The reason they don’t understand the value of the kingdom of heaven is that they do not recognize Jesus.
Jesus ends this discussion of the kingdom of heaven with instruction to his disciples on how they are to understand the kingdom of heaven. They are to bring out of the treasure of the house what is new and what is old. If we’ve been listening, we know that that treasure has something to do with the kingdom of heaven.
This parable is a fascinating little vignette into Jesus’ teaching about how we are told to understand the Old Testament in the light of Jesus. We find a similar lesson in Matthew 5, “I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” Jesus’ words in Matthew 13 help narrow down what that means. Jesus is bringing in a new world into the old world of Judaism. He is bringing in a new administration of the covenant to replace the old administration. The scribes of this new world are going to pull out the treasure of scripture and find new treasure and old treasure.
The disciples of Jesus will be the first scribes of the kingdom of heaven. Through the Spirit, they will provide a foundation for the church to apply the works of the old dispensation to the new dispensation. We see this all over the gospels and all over the letters. The apostles are demonstrating explicitly and implicitly how we may fulfill the law in Christ.
Interestingly, Christ puts the new here first. To find the treasure of scripture, we need to begin with the fulfillment of scripture Jesus Christ. We begin with the new, with the new Adam, the new Israel, the new living and reigning King David. We use his words and acts to apply the old to our lives. As the Belgic confessions, Art. 25, says, the law of the Old Testament helps us to order our lives well before God. The Old Covenant presents a spiritual order that the scribes of the New Covenant apply to the people of the New Covenant.
The Jews could not know the treasure they had because they did not know Christ. It was only in accepting Christ that they could find the true value of the law. Even today, Christians and Jews might both recognize the Old Testament as the word of God, but only Christians can truly understand and apply the Old Testament.
And the old treasure follows the new. As we come into the new situation, the new kingdom, where the new Adam is seated at the right hand of God, the old treasures of scripture continue to form us. We find value in the case-law of the Old Testament. There are truths here about how we ought to live with one another. We see value in the stories of the Old Testament. In these God shows us how he works in forming his church both corporately and as individuals within that church. We find value in the instruction God gives us about temple, sacrifices, and the Jewish calendar. These last cultic or sacramental practices find an end in the cross of Christ. However, they continue to teach us about the holiness of God and the pattern in which he desires to be worshipped.
As Christians, we want to hear every word that comes from the mouth of God. Let us not give up on finding those new and old treasures in the Word of God. And so we will grow in faith, in knowledge, and good works.