It’s Super Bowl week. When the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, the average ticket price was calculated to be $4,081 for one seat. And as they returned in 2023, that average had climbed to $9,927 per seat. May I point out that the word ‘ticket’ is singular, meaning that for my wife and I to be able to attend such an event, we would lay down $20,000 after you add the parking, food, and drink?

I bring this up neither to complain nor to make judgments, but I raise the thought to steer our thoughts towards value. To value something is to evaluate, to determine, and place upon it the importance, worth, or merit in order to attain it. It is a process that we engage every single day.

So, would you consider then, what is the big event in your life? What’s the highest price you pay in this life? Maybe it’s your house, a car, a hobby, travel, your health, your children, or maybe it is the Super Bowl. Again, do this reflection without self-judgment and without self-justification. What is your big event? Now would you consider Jesus’ description of value in our meditative word today from Matthew 13?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!” (Matthew 13:44-46)

Jesus is describing the Kingdom of Heaven as the big event. The Kingdom of Heaven is of great value. In fact, the greatest value–worth more than all we own in this world. In this Kingdom of Heaven, there’s no more sorrow, no pain, no crying, and no more death. What would that be worth to you? I have some great news for you.

The price for this big event is absolutely affordable. In fact, it’s freely given to you. God is so rich in mercy. He loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead and seated us with Jesus in the heavenly realms. And you can’t take credit for this. It’s a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Don’t look at this big event and think of it as cheap, though. The price that was paid was the highest the world has ever seen. Jesus is the most valuable of all. His death was the price that was paid in order that we could have the best seat at the most valuable event, which will have no end.

The Kingdom of Heaven.

Prayer
God, we celebrate and thank You for the salvation that You have given to us in Jesus. A cost for You that was the highest price of all, Your one and only son. And yet You placed such value on us even while we were still sinners, that Jesus, you faced that big event of the cross and the grave, you were victorious over it, and you give to us that victory.

You give to us a celebration of new life. Would you help us to consider today those values that we are placing on the things of our life, and consider and count ourselves blessed as having received for free the gift of salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven? In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.