Coastline Bible Church

But both of these parables contain elements that would have been a surprise to the hearer. And it's not so much that a treasure was found or that a pearl merchant found a nice pearl, but it's something else. Both would have been surprised by the response of the people who found these treasures. The treasure in both stories, whether it was the pearl or what was buried, was so great that it created a response where the finder liquidated everything they owned in order to get that treasure.