Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

Today’s passage contains several parables.  I am going to skip over the parable of the sower because I have written about it several times (and will probably do so again in the future).  The next parable is the parable of the weeds, which teaches the opposite message of a saying often quoted for military operations which goes, “Kill them all, let God sort them out.”  In this parable Jesus’ teaching could be summed up as “Let them all live in peace, God will sort them out.”  It is not our job to decide who should be, or shouldn’t be, admitted into the kingdom of God.  Rather, our job is to tend God’s field and allow God to sort the crops from the weeds after the harvest.  After explaining the parable of the weeds Jesus told two parables comparing the kingdom of heaven to a great treasure.  Both of those parables suggest that if we truly understand what God is offering us, we will give up everything else that we have, or could have, and will expend all of our efforts to have it.  Finally, today’s passage concludes with the account of Peter walking on water.  We often hear this story and make the main take away that Jesus walked on water, but that is not the main take away.  The main take away is that Peter walked on water, but only so long as his focus was on going to Jesus.  As soon as Peter got distracted by the wind, he began to sink.  Peter was able to do the same thing Jesus did, when he did so in order to get closer to Him.  The same is true of us, we can perform the miracles Jesus did, as long as we do so in order to become closer to Him.  If we allow the things of this world to distract us, we will begin to sink.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

Usually when I look at the Parable of the Sower, or hear someone preach about it, the focus is on what kind of soil the seed falls upon.  However, today I want to look at the one who scattered the seed.  Jesus tells us that the parable is about those who hear the message about the kingdom of God.  Here’s what I noticed about the one spreading the message about the kingdom of God: they did not concern themselves with what type of soil they spread the seed on.  Which brings me to the Parable of the weeds.  There Jesus tells us that weeds were mixed in among the wheat and that the servants asked the farmer whether they should pull the weeds.  The farmer told them not to pull the weeds because they might uproot some of the wheat in the process.  I think this emphasizes the lesson I wrote about the previous parable.  It is not up to us to decide to whom to spread the message about the kingdom of God.  It is not our job to decide if someone is packed down ground, or rocky ground, or thorny ground.  We should assume that everyone to whom we have the opportunity to preach God’s word will be good soil.

I was tempted to stop there, but the message from the Parables of the Mustard Seed and of the Yeast have a message which fits with that one.  Mustard seeds are very small, but grow into large plants.  Yeast is even smaller, yet a small amount of yeast can transform a large amount of dough completely.  So, just as we are not to worry about whether or not our “audience” will be receptive to the message of God’s kingdom, we should not worry about whether we are “big” enough, or strong enough, to accomplish the mission to which we feel called.  We should just do what the Spirit leads us to do and leave the results to Him.

Speaking of leaving the results to Him, this passage ends with the story of Jesus walking on the water.  We always talk about it as Jesus walking on the water, but the real point of the story is Peter.  Peter had enough faith to get out of the water and start walking towards Jesus, but then he looked around and got scared.  Which brings us to the first lesson of this story: when Peter took his focus off of going to Jesus, he began to falter.  However, that isn’t the end of it.  When he faltered and began to sink beneath the water, he called out to Jesus to save him.  Jesus did so.  So, when we inevitably allow ourselves to become distracted from God and begin to falter. we know that Jesus will be there to reach out a hand and catch us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

I like writing about the parables in this passage because they contain so much for us to contemplate.  However, there are two which I rarely do more than just touch on, if that.  They both express the same thought in slightly different ways.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Until today, these two parables never really connected for me.  I am not sure that I can express the understanding of these which came to me today in a way that gets past the “Well, yeah, OK” they inspired in me previously.  The point here is that the kingdom of heaven is of such great value that anything, and everything, else is a small price to pay to acquire it.  If you are not, if I am not, willing to sacrifice everything else which gives us pleasure and joy to obtain it, we fail to understand its value.  Up until today, I am not sure that I understood this.  There can be no risk, no pain, no suffering, no loss that I am unwilling to suffer in order to obtain admittance into the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever price God asks me to pay, I sincerely hope that I am willing to pay.  I would like to say that I am willing to pay that price, but I am not sure that I can honestly say that.  If there is a limit to the price we are willing to pay in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, than we are not worthy of entry.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

I am going to skip over the Parable of the Sower today because I don’t feel like I have anything new to say about it (which will not always stop me, but for today) and start with the Parable of the Weeds.  There is a phrase used by soldiers and others who favor using violence against evil, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.”  That phrase is diametrically opposite to the point which Jesus made with the Parable of the Weeds.  Jesus made the point that when we cannot distinguish the good from the evil it is better to leave the evil alone than to harm the good.  In fact, a principle generally observed in U.S. law, and that of many other nations, that it is better for 10 guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to suffer judgement derives from this.                                                                                          Jesus made a secondary point in that parable, one which was important enough that He told a second parable which focused on that secondary point.  In the Parable of the Weeds Jesus tells us that after the harvest, the weeds will be burned while the wheat will be gathered into the barn.  Then in the Parable of the Net, Jesus speaks of a net which gathers all kinds of fish.  The good fish would be collected and the bad fish thrown away.  He explicitly tells us that the good fish represent those who are righteous and the bad fish those who are wicked.

Jesus tells two other parables here which I want to comment on because I think their message is no longer thought about enough.  In one He talks about a mustard seed and in the other He talks about yeast.  Both parables tell us not to be disheartened because we think we are insignificant.  A mustard seed is tiny, but it grows into a large plant which dominates its surroundings.  When you make bread, the yeast is completely overwhelmed by the volume of the other ingredients used, but the yeast completely transforms the dough.  So, each of these parables makes the point that we should not think that our actions are of no significance because both the mustard seed and the yeast appear insignificant to those who know not what they are, but both have a big impact.  However, each parable has a secondary point.  Some of us are called to be like the mustard seed, which changes its environment through determination and consistent effort.  And some of us are called to be like the yeast which changes its environment by transforming what is around it (or, in our case, transforming those who are around us).  And perhaps some of us are called to do both.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14

Jesus taught using parables because the concepts He was teaching could not be summed up in simple, one-size fits all ways.  Those unwilling to accept the complex answers which Jesus teaches find His parables confusing and contradictory.  Those who truly seek God will understand how each parable presents just a partial picture of the whole truth.  An example of what I am talking about can be seen by comparing Jesus’ parable of the good seed and the weeds to the saying “Kill them all. Let God sort them out.”  Jesus’ parable is the exact opposite of the saying.  Both things tell us that we do not have the ability to distinguish between truly good people and truly bad people.  Both tell us that only God can do that.  However, Jesus tells us that it is better to let the guilty go unpunished than to harm the innocent, while the human saying tells us that it is more important to punish the guilty than to protect the innocent.

We will see how this next bit goes.  I am going to try to make a connection between Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of Heaven and the account of Peter attempting to walk on water.  Jesus describes how small things lead to great things.  This is a theme which Jesus speaks of quite a bit.  Earlier in Matthew, Jesus told us we should be like salt.  Here, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to yeast and to a mustard seed.  All of these things share a common element.  It doesn’t take much salt to completely change the flavor of food.  It only takes a small amount of yeast to make a lump of dough become much larger.  A mustard seed is very small and hard to locate if you drop it, but the plant which comes from it grows very large.  So, the message Jesus was giving us there was that small things can accomplish great things.  The connection to Peter attempting to walk on water is that if we want to do miraculous things we need to focus on Christ and not let ourselves be distracted by what else is going on.  In a way this brings us back to what I talked about in the first paragraph.  If we want to transform the world by destroying evil, we need to be strong and powerful.  On the other hand, if we focus on doing God’s will, He will transform those around us even though we are no more than a grain of salt, or a bit of yeast.