This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Matthew 13:31-33 and 44-52. The English Standard Version supplies the headings The Mustard Seed and the Leaven, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure, The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value, The Parable of the Net, and New and Old Treasures.
Today’s readings are the third in a selection of parables in chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew, which has 28 chapters. In the last two weeks,[1] I discussed the other two selections. As I pointed out then, even the disciples didn’t understand the parables and asked Jesus to explain them.
Jesus explained two of them. The first is the parable of the lunatic sower, the one in which a farmer sows precious seed even in soil where it won’t grow. The second is the parable of “good” wheat springing from seed sown by Jesus, side-by-side with “bad” weeds sown by “the enemy.”
Today, Matthew tells us that after Jesus explained the parables to the disciples, he asked them whether they now understood them. And they replied, “yes.” I wonder if they lied. I wonder because I’ve read many books about the parables, produced by scholars after years of study.
One of the best known is called “Stories with Intent.” The author is Klyne Snodgrass. In it, he examines many possible interpretations of every parable of Jesus. And he proposes one as “the best choice.” It seems like he’s saying you know you’re good soil if you accept his interpretation – but he’s not saying that, because he rejects some interpretations taught by “great Christians” like Saint Augustine.[2]
What’s central to the parabolic method of teaching is that parables are cryptic. They’re indirect. They reveal as well as conceal. They’ve got to be decoded. Teachers use parables in order to explain surprising things, things which turn traditional understandings upside down. And things related to politics and government, things which powerful people regard as threats. Things which get people crucified.
One of the many striking things about the Bible is that in the New Testament, the word “Kingdom” is used 128 times in the first five books[3] and only 26 times in the remainder. Jesus spoke often about the Kingdom of God.[4] The disciples spoke instead of the lordship of Jesus – over each of us as individuals, and over all things.
Now I come to my title for today’s reflection: Why did Jesus save you?
I think most church members would answer by saying what Jesus saved them from. I think they would say Jesus saved them from going to hell. Saved them from evil spirits. Saved them from making bad choices. Today’s readings support that understanding. For example, in verses 49 and 50, we read that at the close 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.
I think if I pressed them, if I asked them to say what they think Jesus saved them for, what he expects them to do, they would answer: share the good news of personal salvation; help people in need, mostly by praying for them, but also by helping them with food, housing, clothing, and medicine. Many would say join a church, join worship services, join communion services. A few would say come under the authority of a pastor or a council of leaders.
I think if I asked them what scriptures they would use when they share the good news of personal salvation, and when they explain why they help others, many of them will just say “this is what Christians do.” Some may speak about the stories Jesus told – probably the good shepherd who goes looking for the one sheep which went astray and the good Samaritan who helped the man who was attacked by robbers. Some may even speak of the sower and the trader, the pearl of great value, and the fishing net.
That brings me to the parable of the mustard seed and leaven or yeast, which we read in verse 33:
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.
What this parable tells us is that the kingdom of God grows quietly, grows inexorably, meaning “nothing can stop it.” Does this mean that we need not personally take on the work of sharing the gospel? No! It means the opposite. It means we’ll place very high value on what we have. We’ll be like the man who sold everything to buy the pearl of great price. So much so that others will regard as lunatics. We’ll be so concerned that those who do wrong will be so severely punished, that we’ll do all we can to turn them away from behaviours which lead to harm. We’ll direct our energy, our wealth, our every breath, to social reform – to end a culture of “close one eye” when people do wrong things. We’ll embody what the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero called “the violence of love and fraternity, which wants to turn weapons into sickles for work.”[5]
Why did Jesus save you?
Peace be with you.
[1] The Random Sower and the Church we are Becoming. The Parable of the Weeds and Church Scandals
[2] Augustine promoted “allegorical” interpretations. For example, in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), he urges us to understand the victim as Adam, the first, disobedient, mortal man, and the Good Samaritan as Jesus, the last, obedient, immortal man.
[3] The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John plus the book of Acts, because Luke designed Acts as Part 2 of his Gospel.
[4] Or of Heaven, as Matthew prefers to call it in order not to offend his Jewish readers.
[5] Cited in Commemorating the UCA Martyrs: The Sowing and the Grain, Jose Maria Tojeira, S.J., Ignatian Solidarity Network, November 22, 2024.
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