“The Kingdom of Heaven”
A census taker stopped at a home and asked the lady of the house, “How many children do you have?” The woman answered, “Four.” The census taker asked, “May I have their names, please?” The woman answered wearily, “Eenee, Meenee, Minee and Frank.”
The census taker was somewhat amused by this and said, “Okay, that’s fine. But may I ask why you named your fourth child Frank?” The woman answered, “Because we didn’t want any Moe.”
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Thomas Wheeler, once the CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (a.k.a. Mass Mutual), tells a cute story on himself. He and his wife were driving along the interstate when he noticed their car was getting low on gas. He got off the highway at the next exit and soon found a rundown gas station with just one pump. He asked the lone attendant to fill the tank and check the oil, then went for a little walk around the station to stretch his legs.
As he was returning to the car, he noticed that the attendant and his wife were engaged in an animated conversation. The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant. But as he was getting back in the car, he saw the attendant wave and heard him say, “It was great talking to you.”
As they drove out of the station, Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the man. She readily admitted that she did. They had gone to high school and had dated steadily for about a year.
“Boy, were you lucky I came along,” bragged Wheeler. “If you had married him, you’d be the wife of a gas attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer.”
“My dear,” replied his wife, “if I had married him, he’d be the chief executive officer and you’d be the gas attendant.” Sometimes we have perception problems.
Jesus totally understood humans and their, or our tendency to get things wrong or understand what is most important—especially when it comes to spiritual things. In our text this morning He fires off some more of His parables concerning the Kingdom of Heaven.
The mustard seed is not the smallest seed known today—but it was the smallest seed used by Palestinian farmers and gardeners of that day. It was the smallest thing that Jesus’ audience could identify with. We should never underestimate the impact of little events. Jesus started His church with just twelve members—and one of those had commitment problems.
Sometimes it takes just a little bit of patience to work with people. Sometimes it takes just a little bit of love to redeem a situation. Sometimes it takes just a little bit of grace to bring about a healing.
The mustard seed is as small as a grain of sand. You can literally hold thousands of them comfortably in the palm of your hand. Yet under favorable conditions it grows into a very large bush. Large enough for birds to build their nest among its branches.
How many times have you found birds trying to build a nest in a place you didn’t want them to? You tear it down—they build it back. You tear it down—they build it back. Before you have a chance to tear it down again, little baby chicks appear, and then, of course, you couldn’t possibly tear it down. You’re left to wonder if it wasn’t all planned just that way by bird brains smarter than you.
Birds will eat the corn right out of your cornfield. No shame. No embarrassment. They make messes with suspicious accuracy right on the hood of your car.
When somethings “for the birds” that means it’s not worth much. Bad ideas are for the birds—crumbs are for the birds—dead carcasses by the road are for the birds. But the kingdom? The kingdom of heaven…for the birds? Are you kidding me?
Birds don’t buy the land. They don’t till the soil. They don’t plant the seed. They don’t water or cultivate the shrub. They do absolutely nothing except flutter down and make nests in the branches. And it’s theirs. Now who plants a mustard seed so that it can grow up and become overrun with birds? And who designs a kingdom in which not only are the gates open to freeloaders but there seems to be nobody else there? On the other hand, who would be able to afford the kingdom of heaven any other way? Could any of us buy our way in? Work our way in? Deserve our way in?
One of the most profound mysteries of our faith is that not only is the grace of God free, it’s only free. No amount of money can buy it—good works can’t earn it—nor does self-sacrifice deserve it. The only way we can receive God’s gracious kingdom is by grace. In other words—as a free gift. In other words—like a flock of birds.
Jesus is reminding us that there are some things in life that are priceless: like grace—or salvation—or the hidden treasure and fine pearls in our text.
For example, how much would you take for your health? Or how much would you take for one of your children? Some of you are thinking, “Which one?” Just kidding, of course.
How much would you take for a good mind? Many of us don’t appreciate the really important things in life until we lose them. Yes, there are some things that are priceless—though we don’t realize it at the time. Maybe we need to sit down from time to time and give some thought to those priceless things in our life and ask whether our day-to-day priorities reflect the things that matter most.
Jesus goes on to compare the Kingdom of Heaven to a fishing net—which, since many of the disciples were professional fishermen—one would assume that they knew what He was talking about.
In one of his “Wake-Up Calls” this week, my encouragement coach JD Walt shared that God used shepherds in the Old Testament but used fishermen in the New Testament. The job of the shepherds was to find the lost sheep of Israel. The job of us as fishermen is bring everyone into the kingdom. Note what verse 47 says, “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught ALL kinds of fish.”
When we think of fishing, we probably think about pole fishing, catching one fish at a time. That’s more like the idea of the shepherd searching for the one lost sheep. Jesus wants us to think in terms of catching many fish. Fish of ALL kinds!
What holds a fishing net together? A series of knots. That’s what we are. We are tied together, as knots, with the purpose of catching others for Jesus. (Putting together a Band)
In verse 51, Jesus asks, “Do you understand all these things?” And they responded that they did. But I wonder if they really understood Him or did they just say so to get Jesus to move onto something else?
I’m not sure Jesus’ stories are really supposed to be translatable into some logical proposition. He told stories with vivid images because that was the way He wanted to communicate what He had to say. The vivid image is His message. It’s all mind boggling. Besides, if He had said what He wanted to say they would have all thought He was crazy and left long before this.
A couple of things that stood out to me about these parables are the fact that our salvation comes by grace—not something we can purchase; the birds in the mustard seed tree represent the Gentiles from that era—anyone and everyone is eligible to receive God’s grace; and from the fish story as well as the weeds and the wheat from last week—there will be a final separation at the end of time and we had better be ready!
Back in 1905 there was a baseball game played in Salt Lake City. A team called the Rhyolites were playing against a team called the Beattys and the Beattys were up to bat. The pitcher threw the ball, the batter swung and the ball rocketed toward first base.
William Griffiths, the first baseman, saw the ball coming his way. Then he watched with amazement as the ball ricocheted off a small stone and landed right in his glove. He beat the runner to first easily for the out.
The little stone had given Griffiths a lucky break, but he decided it had no business on the playing field, so he walked over and picked it up. He raised his hand to throw it off the field when something caught his eye. He took a careful look at the stone and recognized it was no ordinary stone. He saw a glimmer of gold in it. He quietly slipped it into his pocket and went on with the game.
That evening he returned to the ballpark with a lantern and spent an hour scratching around in the soil until he had accumulated a bucketful of rocks. By morning he knew that these rocks were valued at more than $900 a ton.
He called in two friends and together they quietly bought the ballpark. This is beginning to sound like one of Jesus’ parables isn’t it? The mine was called First Base, and the first shaft struck ore at a depth of only 33 feet. Infielder William Griffiths soon found himself to be a very wealthy man.
We have a great wealth at our disposal as well and it comes to us through our faith in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God simply means allowing God to rule in our life. But there are so many of us trying to live nowadays without God. Many have the illusion or the perception that they are doing well. Many are quite cheerful as long as life is going their way. But ultimately there is no joy, no lasting happiness without God.
Trusting God and giving God control of your life is the key to victory in every situation. It doesn’t mean that everything in life will always turn out the way you want it. But giving control of your life to God will give you strength to find meaning in every situation.
Through our faith in Jesus Christ we have a treasure in this world. God within us—God beside us—God giving us strength for the living of all our days. This treasure is worth selling everything else in your life in order to purchase it—but the best news is this: it’s a free gift!
Thanks be to God!
Eastman First Methodist Church 