30 Jul SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2023
Even though God answers prayer according to his holy will and bestows gifts and talents meant to deliver good outcomes, it doesn’t mean people will ultimately act in ways that deliver good outcomes. If God did in fact give Solomon a wise discerning mind, how did Solomon manage to make so many bad choices? I guess it’s not surprising. A number of brilliant talented people have succumbed when given too many choices. Eventually, people around them become a bad influence and they start choosing poorly, wisdom and discernment erode.
According to a footnote in the ESV, these parables describe “the arrival and activity of the kingdom of heaven.” The kingdom of heaven seems to have small beginnings. What it will end up being is not apparent at the start unless you happen to be the man who sowed a grain of mustard seed or the woman who hid the leaven. Only they are aware of a thing’s potential and how it may best be used or applied.
In each parable, there’s an agent present who from the start acts with intention. The agent knows what needs to come together to produce the end result. They are aware that their input will ultimately change lives. Their decisive action produces great results, not medium sized ones. No average shrub can fit all the birds of the air, but an extraordinary tree can. The woman isn’t making a couple loaves of bread, but somewhere near fifty pounds of dough.
The initial ingredient, whether a mustard seed or leaven has been sown or hidden respectively by an individual other than those who will come along later and benefit from or otherwise enjoy the result of that individual’s forethought and effort. Think about a time when you envisioned how nice it would be to have a shade tree where there was none. I’ve planted quite a few trees in my time, a red oak, numerous dogwoods, and evergreens. I planted each of them as seedlings anywhere from about ten inches high to a few feet. They took years to grow, but now stand stories high.
Even with the invention of bread machines, bread making of the yeast variety is not quick. You need a minimum of 2 hrs from start to finish even on the rapid cycle. For the kingdom of heaven to become established will take time. You can’t rush the end result and the final product takes many into account, making enough room and bread for a large crowd.
The kingdom of heaven is not like instant pudding. And for those who like cooked pudding, as I do, instant pudding will never take the place of cooked because it is just not the same. During the Lord’s Prayer, I now half wonder if the reason we ask for “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” per Jesus’ instruction is because the kingdom of heaven is such a gradual process that we can’t expect it to occur in an instant or come into existence with the stroke of God’s magic wand, so to speak.
To enjoy the end result of things raised to maturity, baked to completion, or fully realized either we or someone else must put forth a bunch of effort and a lot of forethought. That’s why any major build, project, repair, full size tree, whole batch of freshly made baked goods, or any other quality finished product will cost a pretty penny. Most of the time we don’t realize the work or time that went into making things come about.
So, it makes sense that the same would apply to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus may intend to help his audience realize that what seems insignificant at any moment in time: a tiny seed, tiny packet of yeast, a small act of God, a gesture, word, slight input or degree of influence that we volunteer or are forced to contribute as our part in the whole equation might be absolutely necessary, especially if God is ever going to achieve the desired result: the kingdom of heaven on earth as it is in heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Like people with their metal detectors in Riverfront Park in Harrisburg who lay down their equipment, take out their little trowel like shovels and dig down straight immediately, when their instrument tells them something is hidden beneath the surface, they don’t keep walking.
They get excited and aim to retrieve the hidden treasure. There is big potential in the possibility of treasure. Raise your hand if you bought a lottery ticket in the last month. That was handing over money for the slimmest chance of finding treasure so imagine finding hidden treasure in a field then selling it all to buy the land.
The kingdom of heaven is a sure thing to those who recognize it, like a pearl dealer who finds a pearl he knows is of great value worth having. He went and sold all he had to buy it. That would not be the same as buying every lottery ticket you could afford by emptying out your savings account. The odds would still favor being among the many losers.
The parable of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price explain the kingdom of heaven as no risk-gain. You are guaranteed to be a winner. In fact everyone will win. The pot will be split among the winners without reducing the amount each is awarded in the least.
Acquiring the thing, the kingdom of heaven which is a treasure by all accounts, will come at the price of everything you own and be worth it. Those who find the kingdom of heaven are guaranteed to come out ahead, satisfied ages beyond the degree we once sought to be satisfied by earlier ventures.
Now we have to deal once again with verses that have often been interpreted as eternal hell, torture, or damnation. At the end of the age means at a time in the future when the kingdom of God is established. At that time, the good/bad, also known as the righteous/evil will be sorted. Consider this from St. Gregory of Nissa, a bishop who lived from 335-395 AD and is well recognized for making significant contributions to church doctrine, especially with regard to the Trinity and Nicene Creed.
He wrote, “For it is evident that God will in truth be all in all when there shall be no evil in existence, when every created being is at harmony with itself and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; when every creature shall have been made one body.”
An article entitled, How & When the Idea of Eternal Torment Invaded Church Doctrine states, “St. Gregory, like many in his day, believed that we were on a progression through the ages, where at the end of the Age, those who had purged themselves of evil in this life would enter into the blessedness of the Age to Come, while those who hadn’t would be passed through cleansing fire, after which they would also enter into that same blessedness.” Check out the following webpage plus resources at: https://medium.com/@BrazenChurch/how-when-the-idea-of-eternal-torment-invaded-church-doctrine-7610e6b70815
How in the world when Jesus asked, “Have you understood all this,” they answered, “Yes,” I’ll never know. Jesus ends by reminding his audience that treasures are both old and new.
It’s interesting that Jesus spoke in parables to fulfill what has been hidden since the foundation of the earth. And that he references treasures old and new. Dare I say, we have the advantage of teachings old and new, as well.
Today, we have been offered further evidence of what is only now revealed: That the kingdom of heaven began long ago like a tiny seed sown, a bit of leaven hidden. All this time, the kingdom of heaven has been exerting its influence and doing its job unbeknown to us. The people of Jesus’ time and Christians of this age are like birds of the air who welcome a place to roost or to build a nest. We are like people who want to partake of heavenly bread without having baked it ourselves. What has been suggested is profound. We are the beneficiaries of God’s very long range plan and vision: To create a place where many can come to live, fill their bellies on good bread, and find invaluable treasure. Let us pray.
Lord, how the church has struggled to understand wisdom hidden in your WORD and to discover truths foundational to your kingdom. We wish to learn, trust, believe and practice what will help bring about heaven on earth. Now listen to these words from Romans 8:26-39.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In whose holy name we pray. Amen.