“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” [Matthew 13:45-46].
For those of us sticking to the Gospel readings during this hot and humid July, we’ve been bombarded or blessed — it depends upon one’s viewpoint — with powerful parables of Jesus. Two weeks ago, there was the parable of the farmer who apparently didn’t care how he broadcast his seed. He risked sowing some seed where a “successful” crop was unlikely. Last week, we had a somewhat nonchalant farmer who, when told that an enemy had laced his wheat field with weeds, said told his underlings to allow matters to run their course; “We’ll separate the wheat from the weeds come harvest-time.”
This week, we get rapid-fire parables with no explanatory text. The reading — Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52 [the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A] — drives home a point made by our Lord at the reading’s end: that “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” [Matthew 13:52]. With his parables, Jesus emphasizes the newness of his teachings, but he also stresses that even this newness is based on his earlier announcement of “what has been hidden from the foundation of the world” [Matthew 13:35b].
And what, might we ask, is this age-old message that Jesus is now expressing anew? It’s a message that many of us long to hear in this COVID-19 ravaged world, that God’s rule may not appear to be succeeding in this world, but in the end, God will have God’s way! The evil (or, in the case of the virus, the destructive), which currently sometimes seems to hold such power, will be vanquished, and the righteous will be part of God’s gracious and glorious harvest. That message worked particularly well for the parables we’ve reviewed during the past two weeks. Scholars have noted that the four parables in this week’s lesson come at that same message, but with a somewhat diagonal path.
Take the Parable of the Mustard Seed [Matthew 13:31-32]. For those many who want to turn all of our Lord’s parables into pithy little sayings, this one becomes, “From small beginnings (big things one day come)” — to borrow some lyrics from “the Boss,” Bruce Springsteen, in one of his songs. The problem with that message from this parable is that Jesus could have chosen a much better example of a “big thing” to spring from something small like a seed. One recalls that in the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel tells us that the “noble cedar” provides the sort of shelter that birds seek out. Jesus seems to be saying the same thing about a modest sized specimen of shrubbery. One might add that for Jesus to say the mustard seed becomes the “greatest of shrubs” [13:32] seems almost to damn it with faint praise. Wow, the kingdom of heaven is like a big shrub! His point, however, isn’t that the Kingdom is mid-sized, so much as its origins are hidden. From these hidden origins, God’s great sovereign Kingdom inevitably comes about.
And what about the Parable of the Yeast? [Matthew 13:33]. I’m left with the visual question of where the woman got her little package of Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast? Of course, Jesus wasn’t referring to the yeast that comes in little packages; he was speaking about leaven — an old, somewhat decaying, souring piece of bread from which the “new” batch of bread could be made. At some other points in scripture, leaven is given a negative meaning [see Matthew 16:6; 1 Corinthians 5:8]. So Jesus, do we have this right? The kingdom is like a moldy corner of old bread? No, Jesus isn’t so much describing its chemistry as he is describing its “hiddenness.”
Notice the woman in the parable doesn’t “mix” her leaven in with the flour; she “hides” it. Again, the message is its invisibility, its hidden nature. Also observe that she “hides” this little bit of leaven within three measures of flour. According to historical experts, that would have been enough flour to make bread for a hundred folks — a message perhaps not unlike that of the mustard seed, that a little can become a lot. Consider also that Jesus seems to be saying that the kingdom of heaven takes hold in hidden and mysterious ways.
If Jesus hasn’t confused us yet, he continues that 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” [Matthew 13:44]. I’ve always had some questions about this one. Not to drift too far down into allegory — that can be a real problem in understanding these parables — but the text seems to say that this guy found a treasure, and instead of saying “Finders keepers …,” he takes the treasure to a field that he doesn’t own, buries the treasure, and then sells everything to buy the field. But since he already had found the treasure; why bury it? An alternative reading is that he was digging for treasure on someone else’s property, when he found the treasure. He hides it in a different spot, but in the same field, and then sells everything to buy the field.
Some of us see echoes of this parable later in Matthew’s Gospel, when the “rich young ruler” comes to Jesus, inquiring what must he do to “have eternal life,” and Jesus tells him, “Sell everything, give it to the poor, etc.” [Matthew 19:16-22] Does this parable, coupled with the story of the rich young ruler mean that we all are to sell what we have? Or could Jesus actually have had something else in mind?
Finally, we get to the Parable of the Pearl [Matthew 13:45-46, noted above. I know, I know, the Parable of the Net (vs. 47-50) is actually the last parable in this week’s lesson, but I’m saving that one for another day]. Jesus allows that “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.”
In many respects, this parable seems quite similar to the Parable of the Treasure that precedes it. Both seem to offer what I sometimes refer to as the wonderful, Southern Protestant altar call question: “What will you give up for the kingdom of heaven? Are you willing to put God first? Are you willing to dedicate yourself to God’s Kingdom? Isn’t that Kingdom the thing in this cosmos that is the most valuable of all — a right relationship with God?”
And yet, if this is the primary meaning of the parable, does it not espouse a rather rigid form of works righteousness? That is to say, if that’s what the parable means, then it makes little difference what Jesus has done, salvation, relationship with God, whatever one calls it would be dependent upon our actions. Have we done enough to gain God’s favor? Have we exhibited the right sort of evangelical spirit? Alternatively, if we aren’t drawn toward evangelical action, have we manifested a sufficient degree of wokeness so as to assure ourselves a safe spot in the kingdom? Either way, if we read the parable to ponder if “our effort” is good enough for the kingdom, the parable is about us; it is no longer about the kingdom of heaven.
Do you remember two weeks ago our discussion of the Parable of the Sower? Indirectly, at least, I allowed in that reflection that many of us had spent significant periods of our lives trying to make sure that we were good soil, not rocky soil, or thorny soil, for the hard-packed soil on the pathway. We’ve read our Bibles, we’ve volunteered at church. We’ve all been busy little “workers in the vineyard.” We’ve worked hard for salvation and we deserve it.
Then, however, two weeks ago, we were challenged to understand that perhaps the parable wasn’t about the soil so much as it was about the Sower. Maybe Jesus wasn’t so much trying to tell us what we need to do as He was trying to tell us what God is really like. The irony of the parable may be that the real question it asks us is whether we can push ourselves aside to focus on God. The same question applies to this week’s readings, particularly with regard to the Parable of the Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl.
Here’s something you might not be quite ready to hear: the Parable of the Pearl is certainly about you, but not in the way that you might think. Is God interested in your commitment? Sure. Is God the most important “anything” in the cosmos? Sure. Should you love God with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your strength? Of course. But that still isn’t what the Parable of the Pearl is telling us.
There once was a wandering rabbi named Jesus. This Jesus was unusual, for while others sought great power, he searched instead for fine pearls. And in His search, He found one pearl of great value: YOU.
Finding you, He wanted you so utterly, so badly, so unquestionably, that with great joy [13:44], he gave up everything — including His precious, sinless life — to buy you and make you His own. So, you see my friends, the Kingdom of God isn’t up to you at all. The price tag was great, but you’re bought and paid for. Thanks be to God!
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