8 PENTECOST, PROPER XII - A -
17 MATTHEW 13. 31-33, 44-52
For the past two weeks, we
have listened as Jesus has tried to describe what the kingdom of heaven is
really like. Undoubtedly, he was asked that question many times.
It’s like seed that has been
scattered on a variety of soils, He said. Some of it took root and produced
good fruit, and some of it did not. It is like a field where good seed was
intentionally sown, he said in another place, but somehow weeds took root and
sprang up alongside the wheat. That is the way God intends for it to be until
the harvest.
In today’s passage, he
continues with illustrations putting word-pictures in the minds of his
listeners. First, a mustard seed, tiny compared to other seeds common to his
time, yet one that will grow beyond expectations.
What Jesus is saying is that
kingdom of heaven was ushered in at his coming. However, no one took notice at
first. Just twelve men were chosen to follow him. A small beginning to be sure,
but great results occurred then, and have continued to occur over the centuries
as God promised. How many disciples, for example, does Jesus have today?
And, what of leaven? How does
it relate to Christ’ concept of God’s kingdom? How do we know, for example,
when one has entered into the kingdom? Leaven is like an inward faith that
naturally grows and manifests itself outwardly in word and deed. Entering the
kingdom activates a force that transforms from within all those who receive it.
From the parables of seeds
and growing, harvesting and reaping, Jesus moves to ones of discovery, not only
discovery of the kingdom itself but of its value. In a way, these two parables
allude to the endless variety of experiences by which individuals enter the
kingdom.
To one it’s wonderful worth
is suddenly, and it may seem, accidentally revealed; while to another it is
only found after long years of searching. To discover it is one thing; to
possess it is another. No little sacrifice is called for in order to have it.
It must be prized above all else. Those who are immersed in worldliness never
find it, nor do they ever realize the value of it. Like the treasure in the
field, it remains hidden.
Following the parables of the
mustard seed and leaven, Jesus reiterates the conclusion of last week’s parable
of the wheat and tares by describing what will happen at the close of the age.
This time he uses a “dragnet” to illustrate.
Again the angels will do the
separating as in the wheat and tares and there will be “weeping” and the “gnashing”
of teeth. “Have you understood all of this,” he asked, and they answered “yes.”
To end on such a dark note
would be to send his listeners away with a frightful image of God’s kingdom
would it not. However, he doesn’t end his teaching with that. Instead, he says
that we, who have entered the kingdom already, through the waters of Holy Baptism,
are to be like “scribes” who have been trained for the kingdom. What does he
mean?
In Jesus’ day, a scribe was
an expert in Mosaic Law. However, when he became a disciple of Jesus he was
able to preserve past insights and enlarge them in light of Jesus’ teachings.
The “old” things are the wisdom of the centuries, particularly the ancient
stories and hopes of Israel. The gospel Jesus brings, and the gospel Matthew is
concerned to tell us about, consists in bringing the two together.
From the law and prophets
Matthew shows us how Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel and the
one through whom God is establishing the new Israel. We need to understand that
his use of the “dragnet” is there to remind us that the coming of Jesus began
the process of final judgment.
There is nothing we can do
about that. The kingdom has come, is coming, and will come. What we can do is
to be prepared for that day by doing what Jesus is telling us to do. So that
when that day does come, we should not, as Paul says, fall back in fear, but
rather rejoice at His appearing.
Jesus taught and lived the
kingdom and as he did so, the world around him divided in two. There were those
who were swept off their feet by him and those who resisted and rejected the
gospel.
The same is true today and
will be until the day when God will remake the whole world having eliminated
the bad and the evil from the present one.
As they were in Jesus’ day,
the parables in Matthew’s thirteenth chapter are a challenge to us at two levels:
understanding and action. Understanding without action is static; action
without understanding is exhaustive and useless.
As we ponder Jesus’ stories
and think about what they meant then and mean now, we should, in light of the
conclusion of today’s gospel, ask ourselves what it means to be a “scribe”
trained for the kingdom of heaven?
Part of our training, if you
will, is to be grounded in both the Old and New Testaments, for both are Holy
with the new being the fulfillment of the old. This is not to say that all of
us are called to be Biblical scholars.
However, as Christians, we
need to be versed in the stories contained in both the Old and New Testaments
that shed light on God’s kingdom, on its discovery, and especially the “door”
through which all who choose to enter may enter, that is, through Jesus Christ,
our Lord.
For it is in Him we live and
move and have our being, and it is in our thinking, our speaking and our living
our lives to Him that we present ourselves to the world as “scribes” trained
for the kingdom of heaven who bring out of their treasure what is new and what
is old. AMEN+
No comments:
Post a Comment