Thomas J Parlette
“The Kingdom is Like…”
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
7/26/20
Jesus told a great many parables that were agricultural in nature. Not surprising since his audience was largely made up of fishermen and farmers. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus hasn’t really gotten to the big city yet. He’s still in the region around Galilee, preaching, teaching and healing among the common, everyday folk. He won’t venture into the big city until after the Transfiguration.
Matthew 13, from which our verses for today are drawn, is especially agrarian. Everything is seeds and weeds, with a little yeast thrown in, some buried treasure, some fine pearls and finally a net cast into the sea.
We began this chapter with the Parable of the Sower and then the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat – both of which Jesus takes the time to explain – the only two parables in Matthew that he does that with. In between the seeds and the weeds, we have four Kingdom parables, a parable of judgment and a pop quiz, followed by a charge to the disciples.
The Kingdom parables all begin with the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like…”, and describe how God’s Word works in the world and how people will react to the Word.
The first three – the one about the mustard seed, the yeast and the buried treasure – are interesting because they present some surprising difficulties.
First – there’s the mustard seed. Most of us have heard the parable of the mustard seed many times- the tiniest seed growing into the greatest of all shrubs. It has become sort of a quaint, comforting little story about fulfilling potential. But in reality, this is a strange story. The mustard plant was not desirable at all – in fact it was a weed, an invasive species and nobody would intentionally plant it. It is only because the seeds are so small that they go un-noticed by the sower and get planted by accident that we end up with a mustard shrub tree at all. And yet even though it is initially un-planned and perhaps un-wanted, the mustard seed grows into something valuable, something desirable – even useful, as the birds come and find a place to nest.
And then there’s the yeast. In most cases, yeast is something evil, something unclean. Yeast is something a Jewish household was supposed to get rid of – remember the unleavened bread during the Passover, no yeast – and yet in this parable, again, something you would normally want to get rid of has positive effects. Just a small amount of yeast leavens three measures of flour – which would have been enough to feed a whole community of people.
Within the last week, our country has been saddened by the loss of two icons in the on-going fight for civil rights and social justice. Rev. Cordy Tindell (C.T.) Vivian passed away and then John Lewis also passed. Both men played an active role in the movement for voting rights and racial equality in the 1960’s right up until the present day. And they left an indelible mark.
On his first Inauguration Day in 2009, Barack Obama, our country’s first African-American President, presented John Lewis with a photo inscribed “Because of you, John.” Without the efforts and sacrifices of people like John Lewis and Rev. Vivian, a Black President would not have been possible. Both men were proud to cause what Lewis used to call “good trouble.”
In 2018, Lewis said to his supporters:
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month or a year. It is the struggle of a lifetime. Never be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
What John Lewis called “good trouble, necessary trouble,” Jesus might describe as yeast. Certainly both John Lewis’ and Rev. Vivian’s lives acted like a bit of yeast in our society, leavening our common life and yielding a hundred fold. Jesus points out here that God’s Word acts like a mustard seed or a bit of yeast. The world is changed into something closer to what God intends when we sow God’s Word consistently and faithfully.
Just how valuable is this Word? Jesus tells two more parables to illustrate.
First, there is the parable of treasure in the field. This is an interesting parable with some problematic details. To begin with, why is this person digging around in someone else’s field? There is something a little shady about someone clandestinely excavating a field that doesn’t belong to them and quickly hiding the found treasure and running off to make a deal on it. A little sketchy. But the point is, that’s how valuable the treasure of God’s Word is.
But I think I do prefer the parable of the merchant in search of fine pearls to make the point. This one is a little more straight-forward. The merchant knows value when he finds it – and he’s willing to give everything he has to attain it. That’s how valuable God’s Word is – it is worth giving all you have.
The fifth little parable Jesus tells here follows the lesson taught by the weeds growing among the wheat story. It is, in general, about judgment. There will come a time when judgement will come. At the end of the Age, a net will be cast – and the good will be separated from the bad. So make sure you are hanging on to what is truly good and valuable.
Then Jesus gives his disciples a pop quiz – “Have you understood all this?” And they answer, “Yes.” And Jesus refers to his disciples as “scribes who have been trained for the Kingdom of heaven” and likens them to “the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
This is the part of this passage that hardly anyone really remembers. A lot of us remember at least one or two of the short parables Jesus tells today – but hardly anybody remembers being called “scribes of the Kingdom, called to bring out the treasures from what is new and what is old.”
This is where our Old Testament reading from Psalm 119 really supports Jesus’ teaching. The treasure that Jesus points us to today is the Word of God – the same word the Psalm celebrates as “wonderful” and “light-giving”, something to be yearned for – “With open mouth I pant, because I long for your commandments.”
Jesus challenges us to bring out the treasure of God’s Word from the Psalms (something old) and from his own teaching (something new) – for God’s Word is the valuable treasure that leavens our society and grows into something worthwhile and valuable.
Sometime in the early 1980’s, Greg Jones remembers watching a wonderful interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on public television. It is hard to believe now, but that was back when apartheid was still very strong and there was no outward sign that it would end anytime soon. Tutu said this curious thing:
“When the white people arrived, we had the land and they had the Bible. They said, “Let us pray.” When we opened our eyes, they had the land and we had the Bible. And we got the better of the deal.”(1)
The Word of God is always the better end of the deal – a priceless treasure, worth everything we have, that leavens our society and yields s hundred fold, bringing our world closer to what God intends.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Greg Jones, “Africa and the Bible,” www.episcopalcafe.com, July 28, 2007.
