Thomas J Parlette
“The Kingdom of Heaven in 5 Parables”
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
7/30/23
Many of you probably remember the game show “Name That Tune.” When I was growing up I remember watching the original show with my parents and marveling about how much they knew about music. I, of course, hadn’t been exposed to much popular music in my youth – but they seemed to get most of the tunes right.
I think you remember how the play. The contestants would bid on how many notes they needed to hear in order to identify a song – “I can name that tune in 6 notes.” Sometimes people would boldly get down to 2 or even 1 note to name that tune. I think they just re-launched an updated version of the show somewhere in the streaming universe. I’d like to think I would do better now than I did as a kid.
Well, this morning, Jesus is doing something similar as he sets out to “Name the Kingdom of Heaven… in 5 parables.
Everybody has probably wondered what heaven is like. Maybe you think it’s people in white robes lounging on cottony clouds while pluck on a harp. That’s the iconic image of the newspaper cartoons – based in part, on glimpses snatched from the dreamlike visions of the book of Revelation.
Or maybe the image in your head is a gleaming celestial city, where the streets are paved with gold. That comes from Revelation as well.
The prophet Isaiah seems to think heaven is a great banqueting table, groaning with food and wine – a sumptuous feast spread out on a mountaintop. The Vikings would have liked that one – their image of heaven was a vast, smoky mead hall, with joints of mutton forever turning on spits over the fire and drinking horns that never run dry.
Theologian Robert Farrar Capon once wrote that with regard to life after death, we are like oysters dwelling on the ocean floor, looking up at a ballerina on the shore and wondering how she moves. (1)
Human beings have always speculated about this place called heaven. The Bible speaks of heaven on numerous occasions, but rarely provides much detail. And any specifics we do get resemble more free-flowing poetic imagery that actual description.
The only honest answer is that heaven is a mystery. It’s a well-attested mystery in the Bible – but a mystery nonetheless. Sad to say, our view of heaven in this life is rather like the view from a ship at sea, sailing through a dense fog. The lookout stands at the rail, peering into the glow. From time to time, shapes seem to loom up, then they vanish as quickly as they came. The chart says that somewhere out there is land, and the instrument readings confirm it. But even the sharpest-eyed lookout cannot see land.
Patricia Bulkley is a hospice chaplain with many years of experience. She’s heard many hospice patients over the years report vivid dreams they experience in the last days of their lives. Patricia collected some of the dream stories she has heard over the years, and teamed up with her son, Kelly – a psychologist – to analyze them. The result is their book called Dreaming Beyond Death.
Charles Rasmussen was a retired sea captain, who was dying of cancer. He was filled with fears about dying, until one night he dreamed of sailing on the high seas. He felt the same thrill he’d often known as a merchant-marine captain, sailing his ship at night through a black and empty sea, knowing he was on course. Captain Rasmussen told the hospice chaplain, “Strangely enough, I’m not afraid to die anymore.”
Or, there was a woman who told of how she dreamed of a candle, burning on the windowsill of her hospital room. Suddenly, the candle was snuffed out, engulfing her in darkness. For a moment she was filled with terror – until, in her dream, she saw the candle spontaneously re-light, but this time outside her window.
Then there’s the story of the great psychologist, Carl Jung. Jung has spent his life helping patients to analyze their dreams, and he had recorded quite a few of his own. The very last dream he communicated to his followers was of a great round stone. It had these words chiseled into it – “And this shall be a sign unto you of Wholeness and Oneness.” Jung took this to mean that his life’s work had been completed.
The Bulkleys make the point in their book that these dreams don’t prove that heaven exists. They’re dreams, after all – they originate in the human mind. But they do speak powerfully of our hopes and aspirations as human beings. And for those family members and friends who are left behind, they are powerfully suggestive signs of what life beyond this life may be like. (1)
In Matthew, chapter 13, Jesus speaks not of dreams, but of visions that are parables. Most of Jesus’ best-known parables are stories – the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the laborers in the vineyard. But this collect is now as well known. These parables at the end of Matthew 13 are brief, evocative snapshots, presented in rapid-fire fashion.
Each of them, in its own way, provides an answer to the question, “What is the kingdom of Heaven?” But these parables don’t directly answer the question, “What is heaven?” Jesus is speaking here about the Kingdom of Heaven, the heavenly rule over all things. There’s a difference, but I admit, it’s a huge difference.
The kingdom of heaven is not so much a spiritual reality beyond this world, as it is a spiritual reality breaking into this world. For Jesus – as for many wise, spiritual teachers – the boundary line between earth and heaven is thin. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus begins his preaching ministry by proclaiming “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mark and Luke usually say “The kingdom of God is at hand,” but not Matthew. Matthew prefers to say “the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus sees his mission as waking people up and making them aware of this dazzling new reality and the nearness of God in daily life.
Such is the message of these mini-parables in Matthew 13. Here’s the first one:
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
A mustard seed is a tiny seed, but it grows rapidly, maturing into a very large plant. Some biblical scholars think Jesus’ mustard plant is what botanists call “black mustard” – more of a shrub, really than a plant. Occasionally, it grows as large as 6 feet tall. Black mustard is essentially a weed. No self-respecting farmer would let it grow in their field. Once established it’s very difficult to get rid of.
But here’s what’s different in Jesus’ parable. In his rendition, the farmer intentionally sows the mustard seeds. It’s like Jesus saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a bunch of dandelion seeds that someone sowed on the front lawn.
Why would any do that? We have enough dandelions naturally – why would anyone plant seeds. And they’re so hard to get rid of. But maybe that’s exactly what Jesus is trying to tell us about God’s heavenly realm. The seeds of heaven may seem tiny and insignificant, but once they take root in the ground, there’s no stopping them.
The next parable is similar. “The kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures until all of it was leavened.”
Anyone who has ever baked bread knows what yeast can do. Sprinkle the tiniest bit of the stuff into your wet dough, knead it thoroughly, and let it sit for an hour or so in a warm place. Then place your loaf in the oven – and before you know it, it has doubled in size. That wet, unappetizing lump of goo has been miraculously transformed into a warm, crusty loaf of bread. Break it open while it’s still warm, and you’ll see that Jesus is right. The steamy fragrance is like a little bit of heaven.
So, the influence of heaven is slowly growing in our world, just as a yeasty loaf expands in the oven. But Jesus is saying even more than that. The woman in his parable mixes the yeast with three measures of flour. That’s an enormous quantity – about 50 pounds. This baker is running a commercial operation. The bread baked from that amount of dough would feed 100 people. (2) It starts with a tiny, insignificant pinch of leaven: and look at the result! In just such a way, the in-breaking reality of heaven has the power to transform the world.
Our passage skips ahead then to this next one:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Imagine a farm worker guiding a plow behind a pair of oxen. The sun is high overhead, the day is hot and he’s growing weary. Suddenly, he hears the sound of metal on metal, looks down, and sees something gold glinting back at him. His plow has broken into a clay jar buried in the ground. The jar is filled with gold coins, hundreds of years old – way too many for him to pick up and take home.
So what does the farm worker do? He covers the treasure with dirt – then he runs home and scrapes together all the money he can find. He goes to all his friends and relatives, cajoling them into loaning him everything they can for this sure-fire investment. Then he goes to the farmer who owns the field and makes him an offer for the property.
The farm hand holds his breath while the man considers the offer – and when the farmer finally agrees to sell, the farmhand hands over the purchase price. Inside, he’s bursting with happiness. His heart is racing, for he knows the treasure in the field is his at last.
The next parable also has a commercial setting:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Think of it, though as a modern tale. An antiques dealer is making the rounds of the Saturday garage sales, looking for merchandise. She’s hoping to find some costume jewelry that she can a make a few bucks on – maybe buy a whole box of assorted pieces. It’s almost noon – well past the time for turning up spectacular bargains, everything has been pretty picked over. She’s about to call it a day when she spies on last sale, just a couple of folding tables set up on a lawn. On impulse, she pulls the car to the curb and walks over to take a look.
And immediately, she sees it. A huge pearl necklace, gleaming with a translucent sheen – the largest pearl she has ever seen. She picks it up and takes a close look with her practiced eye – it is unquestionably genuine, and probably worth $10,000-20,000 dollars. Casually she asks, “How much do you want for it?”
The owner knows it’s a nice piece and answers, “How ‘bout $100.00 dollars.”
The dealer looks in her purse, but all she’s got is 20 bucks. She thanks the owner, walks casually to her car, pulls away calmly and when she turns a corner, she floors it to the next ATM machine. Her stomach is in knots as she withdraws another $80.00. She prays under her breath as she drives back – “please let that pearl still be there.” And it is there. She buys it, and returns home rejoicing.
A treasure buried in a field. An undervalued pearl, just waiting for a knowledgeable buyer. The Kingdom, says Jesus, is already present in our world, hiding in plain sight, but in such a way that not everyone can see it. Having glimpsed its presence, we have only to reach out and claim it for our own.
For the fifth and final parable, we turn to the world of fishing:
“Again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.”
Here, too, the gifts of God, the signs of the in-breaking kingdom of heaven, are present among us in great abundance. Anyone who has ever taken a fishing pole in hand knows the feeling of casting a line into the water and hoping something tugs at the other end. In Jesus’ parable, it’s a net rather than a line, and it comes back bulging with silvery treasure. In fishing, every cast is an act of faith, an act of hope. The vast majority of times, nothing happens. But it only takes one fish to make a day worthwhile.
Jesus then surprises us, by changing the explanation of this parable. We began by looking at it from the standpoint of those who are casting the net; but Jesus informs us that, in this story, we are not the fishers, we are the fish. The keepers must be separated from those that have to be thrown back.
So, what is the kingdom of heaven like? A mustard seed. Leaven in a batch of dough. Treasure hidden in a field. A pearl of great value. A net bulging with fish. Yes- it’s like all those things. This isn’t really a theological treatise that Jesus gives us today – this collection of short parable is more like a pile of snapshots. Far from providing a street map of heaven, these parables are hints, suggestions, intimations of what lies beyond. These hints are the best Jesus, or anyone else can offer, for the fault lies not in the explanation, but in the feeble understanding of the listeners.
The Buddhist philosopher Alan Watts has written in a way that speaks to every religious tradition. He says:
“You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it, just as you cannot walk with a river in a bucket… To have running water, you must let go of it and let it run. The same is true of life and of God.” (3)
Heaven, we must admit, is a mystery. Yet, as the hospice chaplain discovered in listening to the secrets of the dying, it is in dreams, visions and parables that we discern the deepest and most profound truths pertaining to this life and the life that is to come.
May God be praised for the glimpses of heaven we have all around us. Amen.
1. Homileticsonline, retrieved June 10th, 2023.
2. Ibid…
3. Ibid…
