Jesus is the Pearl of Great Price

There was an Englishman who traveled frequently to India for business purposes. His main business took place in the city of Calcutta. It was there, while shopping in an Indian bazaar, that he purchased a necklace for his little girl.

He would often bring his eight-year-old daughter trinkets back from his travels. On this particular trip to India, he bought his daughter a pretty jade necklace at an expensive market bazaar. After she wore it a few days, the metal clasp broke, and this Englishman took it to a London jeweler to be repaired.

A few days later, the man returned to the jeweler to pick up the necklace for his little girl. The jeweler emerged from a back room with the necklace, with an excited look on his face. The jeweler asked, May I ask you, sir, how much you paid for this jade necklace? The man replied, I believe I paid twenty pounds for it, nothing more.

The jeweler smiled and said, Come here, look into this magnifying glass. See the letters carved on each piece of jade? It is French lettering. When you lay these seventy-eight pieces of jade side by side, they form a love letter written from Napoleon to Juliet.

This jade is worth a fortune, well over half a million pounds. Listen, friends, like that jade necklace that was worth a fortune, Jesus is the pearl of great price. He is of inestimable value.

In Matthew chapter thirteen and verses forty-five and forty-six we read, Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Jesus is the pearl of great price. He's worth selling all for and losing all for, so he may be gained.

To have a saving interest in Jesus, one must be willing to part with all for him, leave all to follow him. But as that pearl of great price was worth having, so too whoever has Jesus is rich toward God. Let us pray.