Here comes a bunch of parables, flowing so thick and fast that it feels like drinking from a firehose! Mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, fine pearls, a fish net. Each parable describing the Kingdom of Heaven. So many that one may struggle to get the gist of Jesus’ teaching. Breaking down the component parts help to illumine the message:
At the time of Jesus, the mustard bush was considered a weed, taking up valuable space and nutrients. Only to Christians, in light of the familiar parable, is it considered a thing of worth. To Jesus’ listeners, it is worthless.
Yeast/leaven was home-produced in Jesus’ day. Old bread was allowed to spoil, to produce leaven. Not spoiled enough, it was useless; spoiled too much it was poisonous. Either way, it was unclean to good Jews.
A dragnet had terrible unintended consequences, catching all sorts of fish and sea creatures that were either worthless, or not simply not needed. The waste was enormous, the labor intensive, and the results often disappointing.
The pearl of great worth is relatable to anyone who stumbles onto a good thing and can recognize its true value.
The Kingdom of Heaven, like the Gospel itself, is open to those whom others deem worthless and disposable. It is open to those whom the world may deem to be rotten to the core. It is open to the very folks who are overlooked and rejected by those in search of the lovely and the worthy. The Kingdom of Heaven is open to Matthew’s community of the diverse, urban, Heinz 57 of ancient Antioch – who found the Kingdom in a very unlikely city, who truly stumbled into it, and discovered that it was of immense value, such that they gave up everything (family, tribe, community) in order to possess it, to be a part of it, to commit to it body mind and soul.
C.H. Dodd described a parable as something intended “to tease the mind into active thought.” And that it does! Especially when the thoughts are those of surprising growth and ultimate value.
