The kingdom of heaven is….organic.

Matthew 13:31-51

From the very beginning of his ministry, the preaching and teaching of Jesus was centered on and anchored in one single, clear message:  “The time is ripe.  The Reign of God is arriving.  Change your life and trust the good news.”^[1]   

Ever since Constantine this message has too often been either spiritualized or relegated to end times theology.  We forget that Jesus was actually delivering a radically subversive message in Roman occupied Galilee.  He really was committed to replacing the oppressive and violently enforced governance of the Roman empire—and all empires forever after—with the commonwealth of God’s justice and kindness.  He wanted people to understand, though, that it isn’t enough just to change governments or economic systems.  What he was aiming for—and is still aiming for—is a transformation of human persons and human society, a radical renovation of values and vision, a sea change in the collective human soul.  

Jesus wanted people to understand that he was not trying to raise a rebel army or initiate a political revolt because the kingdom of heaven, as Matthew calls it, would not be imposed on anyone.  God’s dominion does not arrive through military conquest or rebellion or heavy-handed politics.  Instead, it grows and spreads slowly, organically, until it has quietly amended everyone’s expectations and values while almost invisibly transforming the way the world operates.  This organic development of the kingdom, by the way, stands in stark opposition to the fever dream of Christian Nationalism.

In chapter 13 of Matthew, Jesus shares a series of parables, a string of pearls to help illustrate how the reign of God will softly supplant the iron grip of empire.  Since so much of what Jesus was teaching was about envisioning a whole new way of life with very different values, he wanted people to spend time with the ideas he was sharing.  So he gave them parables that hinted at his deeper message—stories that they could carry away with them so that they could feel some ownership of the vision when they worked out the riddles for themselves.

In the Parable of the Sower, the Sower spreads “the word of the kingdom”^[2] everywhere with no regard for where it lands.  A lot of people don’t get it or can’t be bothered.  Some receive it but can’t hold on to it.  But some take it in and it takes root in their hearts, minds and imaginations until it becomes their reality.

In the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, Jesus reminds his followers that all the goodness of God’s dominion is going to be growing up side-by-side and surrounded by all the toxic evil of the world.  Why?  Because there are forces in the world that are hostile to God’s vision of how life should be.  He cautions us that evil often mimics good and we can’t always tell the difference, so we shouldn’t be too eager to rush in and eliminate what we think is evil in the name of purity.

Following the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, Jesus gives us six rapid-fire parables in a row in the space of 20 short verses: the parable of the Mustard Seed, the Parable of the Yeast (which is really sourdough starter, but we’ll get to that in a moment), the Parable of the Treasure in the Field, the Parable of the Pearl Merchant, the Parable of the Fish in the Net, and the Parable of the Old and New.

At the end of all these parables Jesus asks his disciples, “Have you understood all this?”  The word we translate as “understood,” syniemi , has a layered meaning in Greek.  It means to put it all together, to assemble, to assimilate.  

Have you understood all this?   Are you putting it all together?

So if we really want to understand the parable of the fish in the nets—to put it all together—it helps if we have a handle on the mustard seed.  So with that in mind, let’s start at the end of this string of parables and work our way back to the beginning.

“Every scribe who has been discipled 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.”^[3]  In The Message, Eugene Peterson put it this way: “Every student well-trained in God’s kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.”  I think that captures the point pretty well.  

We’ve all known people who are so devoted to the old way of doing things, the old ideas, the old songs, the old way we’ve always done it—whatever it is—that they just can’t or won’t adjust to anything new or different.  On the other side of the coin we’ve all known people who are so enamored with the new that they have no patience or tolerance with the old tried and true.  “Hold on,” says Jesus.  “A well-trained disciple for the Empire of Heaven will have a good battery-powered drill, but Grandpa’s trusty hammer, wrenches and screw drivers will also be in his tool kit.”  Followers of Jesus in the commonwealth of God’s justice and kindness need a variety of tools to reach people with God’s love and generosity.   

Reading this parable again, though, I find it intriguing that this parable begins with “Every scribe” and I can’t help but think that the writer of Matthew may be describing himself here.  We know that the author was a fairly accomplished scribe.  He had to be to write a work of this length.  We know that he was using a copy of the Gospel of Mark since he pretty much follows Mark’s order of events and there are places where Mark’s wording is copied verbatim in Matthew.  So, is the Gospel of Mark the “new” referred to here?  We also know that Matthew, the writer, is very familiar with the Hebrew Bible.  Is that the “old?”  Matthew’s gospel, in and of itself, gives us a good example of a well-discipled scribe for the kingdom of heaven who is bringing out of his treasure something old and something new.

“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. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous.”^[4]   

This isn’t just any old net in this parable, it’s a sagéne, a long dragnet that was often pulled between two boats.  It is like the reign of God in that it catches fish of every kind.  It’s a very inclusive net.  The Empire of Heaven includes everyone.  There is no purity test for us to apply because the righteous fish are swimming right alongside the “bad” fish.  Like the Weeds among the Wheat the bad is mixed in with the good.  But that’s not our problem.  It’s not our job to do the sorting.  Angels will take care of it when the time comes.

“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.”^[5]

This parable may have been a bit shocking for the people originally hearing Jesus teach on the shore of Galilee or to those originally reading in Mattew’s gospel.  The “merchant” is a wholesaler, an emporo, in the Greek.  People in this business were not respected in Jesus’ time; they were regarded as decadent because they traveled a lot and associated with all kinds of people.  They also tended to be comparatively wealthy which made them suspect since making money meant that someone else was parting with money.  We know that this particular emporo in the parable had to be quite rich because he was wholesaling pearls which, in the first century world, were the most valuable and rarest of all gems.  This wholesaler is used to dealing with pearls.  He sees them all the time.  But unexpectedly, one uniquely beautiful pearl so captivates him that he feels he must possess it.  He gets out of the wholesaling business.  He liquidates his inventory so he can afford to buy this one very special pearl.  He trades the many for the one.  It transform him.  He becomes a buyer instead of a trader.  He has found the thing he had never realized he was searching for all along.  The domain of heaven is like that.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.”^[6]  A man taking a shortcut across the field stumbles across it.  When he realizes what he has found, he hides it again.  He doesn’t want to lose it to someone else.  He sells everything he has to buy the field but he’s not really interested in the field.  He wants what’s in the field.  Hidden.  Buried.  Get it?  God’s realm of justice and kindness is like that.  It’s the unexpected discovery that makes life immeasurably richer, enlarges joy, and changes everything.  

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”^[7]

I have a pet peeve with our English translations of this parable.  First, it’s not yeast.  Nobody knew about yeast as a distinctive organism until Anton van Leeuwenhoek observed yeast cells under the microscope in 1680, and even then he didn’t know what it was he was seeing.  What the original text says is that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven.  Zumei is the Greek word.  Think of it like sourdough starter.  Also, the woman doesn’t mix it into the flour.  She hides it in the flour.  She conceals it.  Enekrypsen is the Greek word.  Like cryptic.  So again, the commonwealth of God’s love and generosity is a thing that is definitely there but hidden from casual observation.  It’s also worth noting that the three measures of flour described here is a very large amount of flour—forty to sixty pounds of flour.  This little pinch of leaven is going to produce a lot of bread. 

Leaven was well known in ancient Israel and used year round except during Passover.  It had to be eliminated from the house during Passover because it was considered an impurity.  Plutarch described it as “the product of corruption.”  Leaven is actually a small amount of cultured mold.  And yet Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like that.  A little bit of something that some think is impure hidden in the midst of everything desirable… and this little bit of impurity transforms all the good “pure” flour.  It makes it rise.  It gives it that wonderful baked bread flavor and aroma.  The kingdom of heaven is like that.

He put before them another parable: “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.”^[8]

So, a small thing becomes a big thing… is that what this parable is all about?  Well, yes and no.  Mustard was and is an incredibly useful plant but it self-propagates so it takes a bit of work to keep it from taking over a field or garden.  Mustard seeds were ground like peppercorns and used to season food or make condiments.  The Gospel of Mark says it grows to become the greatest of all vegetables.  It’s leaves and roots are edible and there have been more than a few times in history where wild mustard plants saved people from starvation during a time of famine.  Farmers in Galilee and Judea would plant rows of mustard next to their crops to keep grazing animals like sheep, goats and cows out of their fields because the animals didn’t like the pungent taste or smell of the mustard plant.   It really can grow to the size of a small tree if it’s not trimmed back.  Sparrows and finches really do shelter in its branches and feed on its seeds, and it provides shade where any number of small creatures can escape from the heat.  So yes.  The kingdom of heaven is like that.  

Have you understood all this?   Are you putting the pieces together? Can you take these images with you and see where the seed is sprouting and the dough is rising?  

Maybe you’ll stumble across a remarkable treasure in a place where you would never dream such a thing or person or idea or insight could be.  Maybe one afternoon in the middle of something utterly familiar you’ll suddenly be completely captivated by something exquisitely beautiful that transcends everything else you’re accustomed to.

Have you understood all this?  Are you putting the pieces together?

Take your time.  Take these little stories home with you.  Let them percolate.  Every student who is in training for the commonwealth of God’s justice and kindness is like a good handyman who carries in his toolkit some of the newest and best but also some of the old tried and true.  Get the picture?

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^[1] Mark 1:15, my translation.  See also Matthew 4:23

^[2] Matthew 13:19

^[3] Matthew 13:52

^[4] Matthew 13:47-48

^[5] 13:45-46

^[6] 13:44

^[7] 13:33

^[8] 13:31-32