What Jesus does is so often unexpected, but it is also very good.
To light up our imaginations with the unexpected, but very good nature of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus puts before us a number of parables.
In case your memory is as good as mine, and most of you know just how great is my memory (Memory? What memory?), I will remind you that a parable is a story (usually made up) that is used to engage us in thinking through things in a deeper way. Parables do not have a “right” or “wrong” way to understand their meaning. That is not the way they work. Jesus chooses to use parables to engage us in thinking about God and the world in a new way. Engagement is exactly what Jesus wants from us. He wants us to engage with the kingdom of heaven.
So, just what is the kingdom of heaven? Jesus is going to tell us in a confusing parable sort of way. Like all good teachers, Jesus refuses to give straight answers. I had a very frustrating seminary professor who would answer in the most unhelpful of ways. “Professor, what does it mean that Jesus can walk on the water?” He would respond, “What do you think it means that Jesus walks on the water?” Thank a lot!
Parables are a lot like that. They force us to search for our own answers because they do not actually offer any of their own.
Now, I do not want to keep you hanging completely as we dive into these parables, so to aid you in exploring these parables, I would just like to remind you that the kingdom of heaven is much more than the place that we go after we die. The kingdom of heaven is near whenever God comes down to be with us. For example, when Jesus, who the Bible says is “God with us,” first shows up on the scene he preaches, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” It’s like Jesus bursts open the doors of the after game party, beats his chest and says, “Heaven has just arrived!”
And, if we think about it, we know what the kingdom of heaven is like. We see the kingdom of heaven when God walks through the trees in the Garden of Eden and creates and molds all life. We see the kingdom of heaven when God meets with Moses on the mountain and gives his people the Ten Commandments. If everyone would live a life in line with the commandments, it would suddenly seem as if we were living in the Garden of Eden once again. And, we see the kingdom of heaven when Jesus comes to walk and talk with us, his every step and action a spreading of the life and goodness of the Garden of Eden. The kingdom of heaven is present whenever God is with us.
And, the kingdom of heaven often appears in an unexpected way, but it is always very good.
Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the 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” (Matthew 13:31).
It is so fascinating to me that Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven as being a scrappy little plant, whose seed someone intentionally sneaks into the middle of a field.
Who plants a random scrappy bush in the middle of a field? Apparently, Jesus does.
According to rabbinic law, mustard could rightly be planted in a very orderly fashion between other rows of crops. You would want to plant some of it. It had medicinal value, and it tasted great on steak. This farmer does not plant it in an orderly way. He sneaks the seed into the middle of the field.
Apparently, Jesus is trying to say that he intentionally plants scrappy bushes in our nicely ordered lives. Another way to put it, Jesus’ kingdom has a tendency to disrupt our nicely ordered and controlled lives so that Jesus’ priorities can take over. Who likes giving up control? Who appreciates the control of their lives being taken away?
The kingdom of heaven is like intentionally planting a stalk of corn in the middle of your soy bean field. When I was young we would go into the field and spray those things down. If we did not, other farmers would drive past the field, see that weed right square in the middle, and wonder why that farmer does not have better control over his field.
But, Jesus likes that thing growing in the middle of the field. It just might grow into a tree and give the birds someplace to live. Again, it seems that the kingdom of heaven runs according to different priorities in life. Who cares about the birds? Well, Jesus does!
“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
What Jesus does is so often unexpected, but it is also very good.
How about that parable with the woman making bread?
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Now, I am not a baker, so this parable has generally just gone completely over my head in the past. Do not get me wrong, I know what yeast is, it is the little packet of stuff in the door of the fridge that supposedly makes the bread rise, if we were to actually open it and make bread. I just see it there, month after month, as a little packet of unused potential.
But, this parable came to life for me when I learned that what the woman “hides” in her dough is not yeast like we know it, but rather, more like sour dough starter. This is an active soupy and sticky mix of natural yeast and bacteria that is often maintained over generations of bakers in order to make bread again and again. Talk about using something old and something new. Furthermore, the woman in the parable hides that soupy starter in three measures of flour. I think to myself, “Three cups of flour; big deal!” This is where my baking ignorance truly shows. Three measures of flour in the ancient world would make about 40-60 pounds of dough. You heard that right. This woman hides some sour dough starter in enough flour to raise bread for the entire village!
The kingdom of heaven is like that! The kingdom of heaven is one in which the whole village is fed. And, my mind is immediately drawn to the secret that Jesus hides in the basket of bread in order to feed the crowds of over 4,000 and 5,000 people. My mind is drawn to the tree in Revelation that bears fruit that feeds the nations. My mind is drawn to the fact that Jesus cares about people’s very real needs to eat and live.
My mind is drawn to the secret group of neighbors and friends who made sure to order months worth of meals for a young couple who lost everything in a home fire. The couple has no idea who did it, but one day their favorite meal from a local Louisiana restaurant showed up at the door of their temporary hotel room. The meals did not stop coming. Some force of nature, hidden from them, was keeping them fed through the worst days of their life. Their family and friends were firmly living in Jesus’ kingdom. They lived in kingdom of heaven ways as they followed Jesus’ instruction: “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4). This young couple was sustained with hidden sour dough starter. It is the kingdom of heaven breaking into our world.
What Jesus does is so often unexpected, but it is also very good.
This kingdom of heaven is where birds are housed through the growth of weeds and entire villages are fed through secret bread making sabotage. It is almost as if Jesus puts the value of life above every other concern in life. It is almost as if Jesus desires all life to thrive in the kingdom of heaven, just as they did in the Garden of Eden. It is almost as if this value for life is so important that a person would buy an entire field in order to dig up such a treasure, or someone would sell all they had in order to buy such a valuable pearl.
It is almost as if Jesus puts the value of those he loves (all the created world) above even his own life, going to the cross to save the world that he loves. Jesus dies on the cross in order to give the kingdom of life to those he cares about. In the Bible, we read about a rich man going away in distress when Jesus tells him to sell all that he owns and give the money to the poor. Jesus actually does it on the cross, giving his life in order to preserve the lives of all of us who are poor in spirit.
What Jesus does is so often unexpected, but it is also very good.
It is almost as if the kingdom of heaven is like a fisherman who threw out a net and drew close to him fish of every kind. It is a kingdom of goodness. It is a kingdom where life is valued and all that disregards life is itself discarded. It is a kingdom that comes in strange and unexpected ways, but also is very good.
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