July 26, 2020

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that somebody hid in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

We search for this treasure, always thinking it comes from within us or from the world hidden in some experience we have not yet had. The kingdom of heaven is not obvious; it is hidden and must be uncovered. And then through God’s grace we uncover it! We recognize it as what we have been looking for. We bury it again until we can buy the field and make it our own.

How many of us have had a vision of the kingdom, experienced in a piece of music, an experience, or an intuition, and then spent years jettisoning from our lives what gets in the way of possessing the kingdom so that we can claim it as our own.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one very precious pearl, he went and sold all that he owned and bought it.” We are all merchants, and life is about searching for pearls. When by God’s grace we find the pearl of great price, that is, the kingdom of heaven, which is life beyond rivalry that comes from God, we realize our search is over. We have found what we have been looking for and we sell all that we own to buy the precious pearl.

Now we have come to the fifth (of the seven parables in Matthew 13) and the most difficult parable. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that people threw into the lake and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This parable has two parts and the whole thing together is the parable. The first part gives us valuable information on how it will be at the end of this present age. The present age is the age that ends when Jesus returns. At the end of this present age everyone knows that pointing of the finger (meaning: “that one is bad”) is an empty gesture; it no longer works. But we then have no effective way of siphoning off violence through retaliation and revenge; we are like all kinds of fish caught in the same net.

Not only are we fish caught in the same net; we become the people on the shore dividing the fish into categories.

Everyone is pointing the finger and sorting fish into categories of good and evil. In such a world there is no grace, mercy or forgiveness and everyone is polarized. All see themselves as good and their rival as evil and civilization is in crisis. That’s how it will be at the end of the age. In short, it looks a lot like our own world on this day in July, 2020.

This is where the second part of the parable kicks in. Here the angels, stand-ins for what we do to each other, throw the evil ones (who have been separated from the good) into the fiery furnace, while the good (who refrain from separating) are saved.

So, what does this whole parable say about the kingdom of heaven? In the kingdom of heaven there is no separation of good from evil and no longer is their condemnation. Those participating in the kingdom of heaven know God loves us. The parable has twisted on us and we may discover it to mean the exact opposite of what we may have thought it meant.

“’Have you understood all these things?’ Jesus asked. They said to him, ‘Yes.’” Do we think the disciples really did understand? Then Jesus goes on and says if they do understand they will be trained leaders in the kingdom of heaven who bring truth, both old and new, out of their treasure chest to share with the whole community.

What will they be sharing? They will be sharing “Things hidden since the beginning of the world!” (Mt 13:35b)