The Kingdom of Heaven – Matthew 13
Introduction
Today’s reading in Matthew 13 includes 5 of the 10 parables in that Gospel. It skips over the explanation of the weeds and the wheat in vv.36-43, but I am going to include that, making the total 6 parables. This is because the parables come in pairs. The fact that the explanation of the weeds is sandwiched in between two other pairs of parables is significant – it means that there is an important connection that needs to be made, and I don’t want to miss it out!
Pairing, or parallelism is common in the Bible. It is one of the ways in which a point was emphasized.
So the parable of the mustard seed is paired with the parable of the yeast, the hidden treasure with the pearl, and the weeds with the net full of fish.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
All six parables are about the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven, or Kingdom of God, is arguably the major motif in the three synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke. That is not to say that John does not include it – but language communicates different things to different people, and John’s readers were treated to the language of ‘life’ or ‘eternal life’, meaning the same thing. So when Mark 9:43, 45 and 47 uses ‘enter life’ twice and ‘enter the Kingdom of God’ once, but they both mean the same thing. When John 10.10 speaks of life in all its fullness, it means the same thing. To be a subject in the Kingdom of Heaven is to be alive – as alive as it is possible to be, because we are subjects of the God of life!
The Kingdom of Heaven is about God’s kingly rule, and about those who are in relationship with Him because they accept that rule. It is the realm where God rules. In one sense, that means everything – in Exodus 19.5b God says, ‘the whole earth is mine!’ But in another sense, because the Biblical picture is of a Kingdom that is in the present but will also be completely realised in the future, the Kingdom is not yet complete. The Kingdom is about those who accept God’s rule, and specifically the person of Jesus, who himself claimed that in Him the Kingdom was near – it is dependent on relationship with him. When all those who claim Him as their Saviour are complete, the Kingdom will be complete.
In the Greek, Jesus is not saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is literally ‘like a mustard seed’. What is means is, ‘It is the case with a mustard seed that…’ and then comes the explanation of what happens. It is what happens that is like the Kingdom of Heaven.
What do the parables tell us?
1. Parables of Growth in Transformation
The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast tell us that the Kingdom of Heaven grows inexorably. Our task is to let it grow! That task is passive – we are to trust God. If we put ourselves into the mindset of people in Jesus’ day, instead of our own scientific understanding of the process of a seed germinating and yeast leavening, we will understand these parables better. The people who heard Jesus would have understood that he was talking about two things that are dead to all external appearances, suddenly coming to life in a tree and in the risen dough. This was a miracle that although they could see daily, they could not understand, nor could they do anything about. So it is with the Kingdom of Heaven, says Jesus – it gives life in abundance, just as the tree gives protection to the birds, and the bread feeds many people. The size of the tree is not what is most important, since the mustard is really only a big shrub of about 8-10 feet in height. The seed that comes to life is an image of resurrection. ‘Out of the most insignificant beginnings, invisible to human eye, God creates his mighty Kingdom, which embraces all the people’s of the world.’
Additionally, the tree was a known symbol of world power in the Old Testament (eg. Ezekiel 31 and Daniel 4). And the leaven was symbolic of malice and wickedness in the Passover Haggadah, which is why it was forbidden. Jesus’ use of those symbols reveals God’s transforming power. Now those same symbols reveal the much greater extent of God’s power. The life that the Kingdom of Heaven offers will permeate everything, just as the dough is leavened throughout. In the same way, God’s power works in us, to transform us. Some Bible versions translate what the woman did with the leaven as ‘hid’ instead of ‘mixed’. So it is in a secret, inconspicuous way that the Kingdom of Heaven begins to take effect. So we need to trust God and be faithful to Him – we don’t know what is secretly happening in others’ lives!
So the extent of the Kingdom of Heaven is seen to be much greater at the end than the beginning. It is the end that is the Kingdom of God, not the seed or the leaven itself.
2. Parables of Joy and Complete Self-surrender
The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value are again, not directly about the things in themselves. It was common in Jesus’ day to bury treasure, because there were no banks as we know them, and regular invasions in the Middle East meant that burial was a safer way of keeping valuables. In face, treasures are still being found today! And the method of discovery – presumably digging in a field in one and looking in the other – is irrelevant. In both cases there is the element of surprise. The discovery was so amazing that everything else was considered comparatively worthless, and was given up, in order to acquire that which was worth much more. It reminds me of the title of C.S. Lewis’ autobiography, Surprised by Joy. These two parables are full of joy. It is a wonderful word. In another passage, Paul says that ‘for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despised the shame’… We will do almost anything for joy. That is the central point. So the Kingdom of Heaven gives such joy that it is worth laying everything else aside for it.
Jesus uses a familiar folk tale here, but surprises his hearers with a different ending! [read Gospel of Thomas and rabbinical midrash from Jeremias p.32] Jesus’ demand for complete self-surrender is not really a sacrifice because the person has to give up everything else, rather, it is self-interest, in that everything is given up for something greater. It is about recognising the greater when we see it! It is ‘giving up’ in the context of JOY. When that great joy seizes a person, everything else seems worthless compared with the value of that which is able to give such joy. No price is too great to pay. So it is with the Kingdom of Heaven. It is of infinite value. This is true whether the person is a common farm labourer who finds a treasure in a field, or a businessman who regularly deals in valuable pearls – the Kingdom of Heaven is no respecter of persons.
[The story of my brother…] So the joy found in discovering the Kingdom of Heaven in the person of Jesus who brings it, results in a willingness to give everything else up for it. It really is a case of ‘S/he who loses her/his life for my sake will find it…’
3. Parables of Patient Trust in a Sovereign God
The parables of the weeds and the wheat and the net full of fish of all kinds both emphasise the importance of the end. Jesus’ coming as a human being is just the beginning – ‘the long awaited time has now come and the Kingdom of God which is to embrace the whole world has begun its course’. It is important to be patient, because the final harvest of wheat on the one hand and the division of the good fish from the bad in the other – both representing the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven with the final judgement at the end - is not our responsibility. If we are not patient and try to judge too quickly ourselves, instead of waiting for God,
· errors of judgement could occur,
· and the last opportunity for repentance has not yet run out
[The nun’s story about South African plants – what is a weed anyway?]
So we end as we began, acknowledging that the realm of God’s rule is everywhere and everything. Just as the net catches all fish, and the harvest cuts down the weeds and the wheat together, so God rules over all, whether people acknowledge him or not. But not everything is acceptable to God. To be part of the Kingdom of Heaven in the end, at the grand finale of God’s judgement, we need to start by ‘choosing life’. Choose life and you shall live…when Joshua said to the Israelites, ‘Choose today whom you will serve…as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.’ he was choosing LIFE. God’s rule gives LIFE. Serving Him = LIFE. Now, as then, and as ever will be. That is what the mustard seed and leaven mean. Choosing life means choosing to be constantly transformed.
Choosing to give up everything but the complete self-surrender to his way because of the joy that relationship gives, is what the parables of the treasure and the pearl mean. It means recognising what is truly of most value.
Choosing to be patient so that God can have time to have His loving way with everyone before the final judgement is what the parables of the weeds and wheat and the net full of fish mean. Let’s not make mini-Gods of ourselves by setting ourselves up as judges of others. GOD is the sovereign ruler of all, and He WILL have His way! And His way is far more compassionate than ours.
AMEN.