Dear Friends,
Today we complete our examination of Jesus’s parables in Matthew’s Third Discourse. Each discourse, you’ll recall, is a collection of Jesus’s sayings; this grouping, which is all of chapter 13, is a collection of Jesus’s parables. In each of the last two weeks, we explored a single parable from the collection. Each was told twice, first for the crowds that had assembled to hear Jesus’s teachings; and then, for the disciples only, a more explicit explanation of the allegorical meanings of the stories.
This week, the pace is much different and much faster. In just twelve verses, Jesus shares five more parables, known as the Parables of the Mustard Seed, the Yeast or Leaven, the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl of Great Value, and the Large Catch of Fish. I could probably write a separate sermon about each parable, but these are meant simply to be occasional notes about our lectionary readings. I hope this note will help to guide your thoughts on these wonderful, succinct little gems.
Before we look further into these five short parables, let’s join in this prayer for illumination:
Spirit of life, we do not know how to pray as we ought. Meet us in words written and in words spoken; intercede for us when our sighs are too deep for words. Be with us until we shine with the hope that is too often hidden in our hearts. We pray this in gratitude that you hear us, and in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Today’s first parable is the story of the mustard seed. As in all his parables in Matthew’s Third Discourse, except for the one about the sower at the beginning of chapter 13, Jesus begins each parable by comparing the kingdom of heaven to something else. Remember that the “kingdom of heaven” here means God. As you may recall, the Jews have so much respect for God that they don’t speak God’s name or even fully write it out. Matthew honors his Jewish heritage and his Jewish-Christian readers by respectfully using the term “kingdom of heaven” rather than “Kingdom of God.” We should therefore understand that these parables are not pointing to a heavenly realm at some specific divine location; God’s kingdom is not confined to a particular locality or even a particular time. God’s commonwealth is here and now, and it is eternal.
In today’s first parable, Jesus tells the crowd that “the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.” (13:31) It’s a strange metaphor. How can a tiny seed possibly be like the magnitude of God’s realm? It’s all about potential: from the tiny mustard seed, no larger than the tip of a pin, grows a plant as large and substantial as a shrub or even a tree. So large is the mustard plant that “the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (13:32)
And here we have another metaphor. “Birds of the air” is a metaphor for the Gentiles, and Jesus is very clear here: God’s realm is for all people. This is a new concept from this young rabbi from Galilee whose audiences were made up almost entirely of his own Jewish people. One wonders how that crowd would have received these words. By the end of his gospel, Matthew makes this even clearer, when Jesus charges his disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” (28:19)
This parable assures Jesus’s followers and the early Jewish-Christians to whom Matthew was writing of the certainty of God’s promise. And we, too, can find great assurance in this parable. God is eternal and ever-present, and we can trust in God’s promise, even during these dark days of pandemic and global devastation. For all of God’s people, even the least bit of faith will grow like the tiny mustard seed into a sturdy, living, and vibrant plant that will nurture all who seek rest in its strong branches.
The Parable of the Yeast or Leaven is very similar to the Parable of the Mustard Seed. Something that starts out small and unnoticed – something that is, in fact, virtually invisible – has life-giving effect. To understand this parable, it helps to know that a “measure of flour” is approximately 66 quarts of flour, so if yeast is “mixed in with three measures of flour” (13:33), there would likely be enough bread to feed over 100 people. Just as the tiniest mustard seed can become nurturing support for all the birds of the air – all the people of the world – so, too, can a tiny portion of yeast feed multitudes.
This is not the first time we hear of a woman turning three measures of flour into a feast for the multitudes. The parable is an allusion to the story in Genesis in which three heavenly visitors come to Abraham and Sarah’s tent. Abraham, wishing to be hospitable to the strangers, asks Sarah to make bread using three measures of flour. (Genesis 18:6) From that humble beginning came a heavenly feast. For Matthew, this would be a natural extension of the kingdom he knew of from the Hebrew Bible. God’s reign continues in the person of Jesus the Christ, growing like a mustard plant and like leavened dough from the smallest of beginnings. God is at work on behalf of God’s people, even though human eyes may be unable to perceive what is happening.
Jesus departs from the crowds and shares three more parables privately with his disciples. One tells of a person who finds “treasure hidden in a field” and is so joyful at the find that “he goes and sells all he has and buys that field.” (13:44) Similarly, the next parable is about 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.” (13:45) Both of these parables are about finding God’s treasure – the kingdom of heaven. The response to such an incredible find is to make it one’s own.
Notice how these parables are paired, and that each pair is targeted to a different audience. The first pair, for the crowds, emphasizes God’s action, while the second pair, for the disciples alone, stresses our human response. The second pair also hints that the treasures hidden from normal view are Jesus himself, Jesus the Christ who came to redeem all of humankind. This is information for the disciples only; the crowds are not ready for it. All four of these parables remind us that when we recognize God’s actions, we are called to treasure them and to respond to them with hope in God’s holy realm in our midst.
The fifth parable in this reading recalls the one we read last Sunday. Doesn’t a parable about “a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind” (13:47) remind you of the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds? While one is tailored to a nautical crowd and the other to an agrarian group, the result is the same. Only when the boat is full, when the harvest of fish is complete, can the good fish be separated from the bad, just as was the case when the wheat and weeds had to be harvested together before they could be safely separated into the useful and the poisonous.
The lesson in both is clear: at the harvest, that is, at the end of time, those who have followed God’s rules – those who have loved their neighbors as themselves, in the words of Jesus’s great commandment – will find themselves in the realm of God, which is the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who have squandered their invitation to grace will be separated out and destroyed. As the parables say, for the squanderers, there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (13: 42 & 13:50) For the righteous, on the other hand, the angels will come, and they will bring God’s abundant acceptance and grace.
We started this exploration of Matthew’s collection of Jesus’s parables back on July 12th. You may recall that I raised the question then about whether this collection consists of seven or eight parables. Verse 52 is the variable. If it’s a parable, then this is a collection of eight parables; if it doesn’t qualify, then there are seven. It includes the comparison we’ve seen in all but one of the parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .” It sounds like a parable, but is this enough?
First-century scribes, especially Christian scribes like those who wrote for Paul and those who later wrote the gospels, were charged with sharing the essence of the faith in the texts they were creating. “Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (13:52)
Forty years after Jesus’s death and resurrection, there would have been much that could be considered old. We know that Matthew relied heavily on his understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, and he counted on his listeners and readers knowing them as well. This includes the prophesies of the Hebrew Bible, the words of and stories about Jesus and his disciples, and the expectation of his imminent second coming.
However, after the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and the growing realization that the second coming was not imminent and would occur in God’s time, not humankind’s, much would have to be considered new. Even Matthew’s audience is new, much broader and perhaps even more wary than the beleaguered people of Jerusalem had been in Jesus’s time.
But (and here’s the essence of our faith) both old and new can exist in harmony. Matthew blends the treasures of his Jewish heritage – the Hebrew scriptures – with the new interpretations by Jesus that have already become the redeeming revelations of Jesus, now directed to the Gentile world, that is, to all the nations, and to us today.
If you’ll recall Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, you’ll remember that at some point in each of his films, the rotund director would make a very brief cameo appearance as a way of putting his signature on his work. Is verse 52 Matthew’s Alfred Hitchcock moment? Now that you’ve come to know these parables better, including their origins, their meanings, and (if I may be so bold) the intentions of both Jesus and Matthew, I leave the decision to you. Do you think verse 52 is a parable or not? Let me know your thoughts!
Joys and Concerns:
For the life of U.S. Representative John R. Lewis as he is laid to rest this week.
Let us pray together:
Holy God, for whom no need is beyond the strength of your call,
We pray for your church all over the world, that we would be seed and yeast where life has grown barren and heavy. May the life we discover in you bind us to each other and to the world you love. Merciful God, give us wisdom and courage beyond our imagining to take on these tasks.
We pray for friends and strangers struggling with the many effects of Covid 19, for those in the grip of addiction, for those who delay health care from fear of our global pandemic, for those who have limited or no access to medical attention. Make us able companions for each other, even at secure distances, and bless us with hope that bears fruit.
We pray for unsettled economies and those whose needs are overlooked in the choices made by the powerful. May we, who know so much privilege, bear our responsibilities with open hearts and open hands. Open our eyes to see the hidden ways we wound and hurt and the oblivious assumptions we make.
We pray, O God of Wisdom, that children, parents, teachers, school administrators, and all the janitors, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other helpers who are crucial to our children’s education be granted the wisdom and resources to navigate the difficult decisions facing all educators in these days.
Holy One, keep calling us into the world – your world – as seed and yeast and treasure. Equip each of us for the challenges we face as we learn to worship in the most unlikely places. You are the source of our song, even when we sing in silence.
By the power of your Spirit, we offer our prayer with resurrection hope in the name of Jesus. Amen.