Best Buy

                                          Matthew 13: 44-52

 

 

            Turn on the internet and type in “best deal.” Many sites emerge.

“Best deal in town,” “best deal finder,” “best deal shopping;” you get the idea. There are many suggestions for how and where to get the best deal. But the internet can only lead you to where you ask. If you ask for the best clothing deal, it will make suggestions. The same is true for all kinds of material things. What if you ask the internet to take you to the best deal of your life? Do you think the internet could do that for you?

          What would be the best deal of your life, anyway? Is it the same for everyone? Would it be something to do with money? Security? Health? Long life? If you could make the best deal of your life today, what would it be? If you had one wish? If you had one goal that you could make come true? Would you go for it? Would you commit yourself to this one thing if you knew it was the best deal of your life?

          Today we look at three more parables of Jesus. The first two act as a pair. They convey the same meaning, but Jesus uses two different illustrations to make the same point. Remember that Matthew 13 is a series of parables from Jesus, all designed to tell us about the kingdom of heaven. All three of these parables only appear in Matthew’s gospel. There are no parallel stories in Mark or Luke. The third parable is the parable of the Net. It is a parallel illustration that would fall in line theologically with the parable of the weeds, which we have just looked at recently, so we will concentrate in this message on the first two parables.

          What is the kingdom of God like? Well, it’s like a treasure hidden in a field. It’s also like a pearl of great value. How is that so?  It is so in this way. The kingdom of heaven is so valuable, so life changing, that when you have a chance to enter it, you lay down anything and everything that is in your way in order to come in to the kingdom.

          In first century Palestine, it was not uncommon to bury money in the ground. There were no modern banks as we know them today. There was certainly no FDIC to insure your money on deposit. So you put it in as safe a place as you could. Sometimes, that meant hiding it in the ground. There were rules about buried treasure. If you were a workman, and working in someone’s field, anything you found in that field, including buried treasure, belonged to the owner of the field.  But if you bought the field, anything in the field at the time of the purchase was part of the purchase. So in our first parable today, the workman finds a treasure in the field where he is working. He realizes his find. It is so incredible that he sells all that he has in order to buy the field, which makes him the owner of the treasure as well. Is there an ethical problem here? Does the workman have some ethical duty to disclose his find? The short answer to that is that is not relevant. The story is not a lesson on ethics. It is a lesson about a life changing discovery.

           In our second parable, a merchant is in the business of searching for and acquiring valuable pearls. He finds the greatest pearl he has ever seen, and he is in the pearl business, so he knows how great it really is. He sells everything he has in order to acquire the pearl.

          How is the kingdom of heaven like a treasure in a field or a pearl of great price? They are just things. Well, yes, they are just things, but are not just any old things. They are things of superlative worth. They are the one thing that defines all the other things. When we talk about the kingdom of heaven, we are not going to have anything parallel in our universe with which to compare it. All we can do is to compare the things of our understanding to that thing not of our understanding. So, the kingdom of heaven is like… In this case, it is like the greatest treasure ever found or the greatest pearl ever made. Although it will take almost the ultimate sacrifice to make these acquisitions, it is worth it, because it is the Best Buy. It is the deal of the century. It is the deal of their lives!

          Think about the gospel in terms of pearls. Let’s just say that ethical living…being a good guy…being trustworthy and nice, is like a bag of exquisitely beautiful pearls. Or let’s say that religion…regular church attendance…Bible studies…Sunday school; serving on committees…is like another bag of those valuable pearls. But then, imagine that Jesus comes to town. He is preaching the gospel at church hour and you can’t go to church in both places. He is showing us the way, and your ethics have rules that get in between you and that Gospel. You have to put it first or it won’t work. What will you do? One way is nice. It’s clean. It’s always worked before. But it depends on you. The other way? Messy. Putting all your eggs in one basket. We all know what our mothers told us about that. But our mothers didn’t reckon on that basket being held by Jesus. To follow him will be pricy. In some very real ways, it will cost you everything you have. That is the cost of discipleship. And the kingdom is worth infinitely more than any cost we might be called upon to pay. No matter how much and how deep the cost may be for us, it cannot match the cost paid for each of us by out Savior.

          Verses 51 and 52 are probably best read together. Verse 52 is very difficult and scholars continue to debate what it means, so don’t feel bad if you find it complicated. In verse 51, Jesus asks the disciples if they understand. They say yes. Certainly they do understand on some level, but Jesus is asking a lot from them. Only a chapter later, they are still asking for explanations and Jesus shows his frustrations at their slowness. But here, they say they understand. So then Jesus makes an observation which is more like a caution and a command. He says that scribes trained for the kingdom of heaven are like houses who display both new and old possessions.

Think of the scribes as the disciples. Now think of disciples as followers. Now think of followers as not just first century but also twenty first century. Now think of yourself. If you today in your reading of Scripture neglect to read and study the Old Testament, then you have relegated it to the attic of your spiritual house. The Bible is a testimony. It is a testimony of the Gospel, divided into two sections and sixty six books to tell one story. Let your treasure…the presentation and understanding of the Gospel...reflect both new and old. Let your spiritual house present it all, for it is all part of God’s revelation to us.

In Matthew 13, Jesus is telling his first century and modern day disciples about the kingdom of heaven. Even Jesus has to struggle with words and concepts big enough to tell the story. The kingdom of heaven is not an everyday story. It is not an everyday place. But wait. That’s not quite true either. The kingdom of heaven is an everyday place. Oh, I know, it’s not a physical destination. But it is a spiritual destination. Even the very parables that Jesus chose demonstrate that to us. The treasure was obtainable. The pearl was obtainable. Their owners were able to enjoy them in real time! The kingdom of God is very much a destination, and a destination for which the cost of admission is everything.

But everything is love. The proof of love is obedience and repentance. And obedience and repentance bring us the fruits of the Spirit. And then…we are home, for the kingdom of heaven starts here and now in our hearts. It is the treasure. It is the pearl of great value. It is Emmanuel…God with us.

                  Living in the Weeds

                       Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43, Romans 12: 17-19, 21

 

 

           

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a perfect neighborhood! In a perfect town? Wouldn’t it be nice to have perfect neighbors? Garrison Keillor talks about such a place in his weekly show on public radio: A Prairie Home Companion.  It’s called Lake Wobegon, “where all the men are strong, all the women are good looking and all the children are above average.”  When I was raising children, I think I would have moved if I could have found such a place.

Of course, the world doesn’t work like that, does it? There really is no such place. If people are there, it is an imperfect environment. That’s because people are masters of the imperfect. We have noble ambitions. We mean well. But mostly, we look just like the field that Jesus talks about in Matthew 13.

In the Parable of the Weeds, the enemy comes into our midst and surrounds us with seedy ideas, low thoughts, disloyalty. The enemy is the devil, and yes, he will come right into a field planted by Jesus himself. The world we live in is nothing like our fictional Lake Wobegon.  It is littered with weeds and thorns and thistles. It is an unsafe place, this world we live in.

We marry. We bear children. We shower them with love and affection. We dare to hope for them, to dream with them. We march them off to school with knapsacks full of paper and pencils and sandwiches, all packed with love. Before long, the world we have so carefully kept from them comes creeping, then galloping into view.   There is prejudice and deceit. There is incompetence. There are rules which seem to separate our children from the very beliefs that we have worked so hard to instill in them.

So we seek refuge in the church. Yet many churches, many church leaders, seem to lack direction, to sway in conviction. Churches worry about membership, about attendance. Church leaders debate about programming. How will they compete with other events? How will they compete with each other?

Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven with a man who sowed good seed in his field. In spite of all his preparation, the presence of evil could not be kept out of the field. Jesus says the weeds were so prevalent, so intermixed, that to try to deal with the weeds before the harvest would jeopardize the harvest itself. Jesus said that the field is the world and that the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. But there are also weeds. According to Jesus, they are sown just like the good seed is sown. Weeds in this parable are intentional. Our own sinful nature can account for quite a lot of weeds in the garden of life, but in this passage, the devil himself is the architect of the weeds with which the sons and daughters of God must co-exist.

This parable reminds us that as children of God, we will never be cultivated without the presence of weeds. Temptation and idleness and unbelief lie right in our midst and challenge us for the very ground in which we try to grow. The harvest to which Jesus refers is not until the end of the age. In other words, the harvest is not until the end of time. As long as there is life here on earth, there will be this integration of good and evil, of believers and unbelievers, sharing the same ground, the same neighborhoods, the same schools, even the same churches.

Yes, I did say churches. If the field in the Parable of the Weeds is the world, then the church is exposed just as much as any other institution. Only the harvest can separate the good seed and the harvest is on judgment day. Then, the angels of God will cull good from bad, weed from crop. But today, what do we have to keep us from choking?

One of the things we must learn from this parable is that there is no sanctuary from the world itself. It is sown with good and evil, pretty and ugly, sin and redemption. The question is not where or how to hide, but rather how to live with the sin which surrounds us without becoming part of it. It is no easy task. When we look at the analogy of the crop, we can see the difficulty. In Jesus’ time, wheat was sown in Palestine. There was a weed called bearded darnel. In its early stages, it was impossible to distinguish from the wheat. Only when the crop had headed could one see the difference. By that time, the roots had become so intertwined that the poisonous weed had to be separated by hand.

The church today is surrounded by the weeds of other belief systems, by the worship of idols of every sort, kind and description, by the lure of pleasure over duty, of selfishness over selflessness. Even within the church itself, we find ourselves dealing with budgets and programming rather than kingdom work. We tinker with worship services to make them more entertaining. We worry about time slots and staying contemporary. We debate style points like when to baptize and free will over predestination. Meanwhile, the weeds grow thick among us as we lose ground to the enemy. The bookshelves are full of new theories and so-called interpretations of Scripture and denominational meetings are making headlines for their liberal agendas.

We know from the Parable of the Weeds that such intermingling is part of life. We must also take note that while it is inevitable, it is also subject to judgment. Just as surely as we must live among the weeds of sin, we will be held accountable for the choices we make, both as individuals and as the church.

How do we live among the weeds? How do we grow until we are separated? The Word of God is full of answers and guidance to those questions. One such answer is found in the words of Paul to the Christians in Rome. He calls us to hold fast to what is good, to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer, to live in harmony with one another, to associate with the lowly, never repay evil with evil, to leave vengeance to God (Rom 12: 9-19).

Even though we must live in the weeds, that is, even though the world in which we live is choking on the weeds of sin, we still have choices. We are called to live in the world, but not to be of the world. We do not have to do this alone. We are also called to community, to become part of the body of Christ. When we choose God, we become surrounded by that priesthood of believers, that holy nation that is the church. For all the impurity within its individual parts, the body of Christ is still pure. It is our community. It is our sanctuary. It is the star to which we can hitch our wagons and ride out the perils of life until God calls us to his harvest.

When I was looking up some information on Garrison Keillor, I ran across a quote he once said. I thought it profound. So let me share  his thoughts with you as a benediction to this examination of the Parable of the Weeds.

To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear

truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily  discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard.

But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except

faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk

on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is

not the last word. What is the last word, then? Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling,

making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids — all the places

where the gravy soaks in and grace shines through. Even in a

time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far

to see the campfires of gentle people.”

And Jesus said: “He who has ears, let him hear.”

Paths, Rocks, Thorns and Topsoil

                                           Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

 

 

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the crowd a parable. It is called the Parable of the Sower, though it might be more accurate to call it the Parable of the Seeds, for the parable tells a story about seeds and how they fare in the climates in which they find themselves.

Big farms today do little by hand. There are machines to turn the soil, to sow, to weed, to harvest. It wasn’t long ago that such was not the case. Even now, small farms still exist. Even today, on those farms, mules do the work of tractors and tractors do the work of combines. Especially in this community, we are not that far removed from the farm and from that special connection to the soil and weather and climate that brings us the fruit of the ground.

Jesus wasn’t a farmer, but he understood the ways of agriculture. He often drew on that knowledge to both explain what he wanted to say and to withhold knowledge from those who were not meant or were not ready to understand. Parables were used both to reveal and to hold back knowledge. If you wanted to understand Jesus, you had to be ready for his message. The same reasoning applies today.

The Gospel of Matthew is generally thought to contain five separate discourses of Jesus, beginning with the Sermon on the Mount as his call to righteousness and ending with his prophesies concerning judgment. Today’s passage is the beginning of the Messiah’s 3^rd Discourse, concerning his teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven. When we read this parable, it will help to realize that Jesus is using a number of parables, this one included, to talk about the kingdom of God. It is the only discourse in Matthew that is addressed to the crowds in general.

Jesus went out of the house where he was staying. He went down to the sea. It didn’t take long for crowds to form. They followed him everywhere. Some believed, but many didn’t. They followed him for many reasons, not the least of which was that he had healed people. He had done miracles. He had fed multitudes with nothing. People wanted to be there when he did something again.

So Jesus decided to teach. His ministry was all about teaching. He was often called “Teacher.” Jesus had largely been going from synagogue to synagogue. Now we find him at the shore. His synagogue ministry had fallen on deaf ears and was shutting him out. So he went another way.  But the crowd was too big and people kept closing in on him and trying to touch him. So he got into a boat. He sat down in the boat just offshore and out of the reach of the multitude and he talked to the people.  He talked to them in parables. Everything Jesus told the people was in parables. Matthew’s gospel records five different parables told that day.

A farmer sows his seed, probably by hand, although he might have put a sack on a mule and torn a hole in the corner of the sack and led the mule up and down the rows until the seed bag was empty. The seed falls in the furrows meant for it. This is good soil. But the seed also falls on the path made by the farmer or his mule. The path is not only a walkway for the farmer but also a right of way for passersby. It is as hard as asphalt. On the day he sows, there is a breeze. The farmer is happy for this little relief from the heat, but the breeze carries some of the seeds into other places where the ground has not been prepared for cultivation. Birds also carry the seeds to other places. So the seeds end up in thorns and thistles and on shallow ground covering the many limestone beds of the area. The seeds have taken up residence in different environments, and those environments will impact the lives of those seeds.

Later, Jesus explains the parable. The path represents barren ground. The seeds never have a chance. The surface is too hard for them to take root and the birds and insects will feast on the exposed seeds. Rocky soil is that which appears okay, but actually is shallow and only a thin covering for the limestone rock inches below. The seeds falling here will put down shallow roots, and the summer sun will bake them dry as the limestone reflects the sun’s heat back into the plant. Thorns are perhaps the worst enemy of all, as the seeds will germinate, even put down roots, only to be choked by the thorns and thistles among them.

There is, of course, the good soil, the soil which was prepared by the farmer. It has been turned over, sifted, prepared for the task ahead. It will receive the seeds and provide them a good and rich and healthy environment for them to grow. They are safe in this soil. They can put down roots and get ready for real growth. They are still subject to weather, to wind and hail and heat. But they also can prepare for the rain that will surely come. There will be a harvest. For some it will be a hundredfold, for some, sixty, for some, thirty. But the harvest will come and it will be good.

If Jesus is speaking of the kingdom of God, and if there is a lesson to learn from the fate of these seeds, then what does Jesus teach us? Even his explanation needs some explaining, but that is sometimes the nature of learning about our place in the kingdom. What would Jesus and Matthew have us see about the kingdom of heaven?

 Some people are hard and unreachable, just like the path that the farmer trods. I don’t know why. God made all of us for his kingdom, but all of us are not destined to reach it. The lesson for me is to try very hard not to drop my seeds on any barren paths. I want them to have a chance to grow.

Some people are like rocky soil. They hear, they want, they sort of see the light, but when the going gets tough, they just fall away. I think of them as needing a break. Maybe, just maybe, someone will come along and transplant them or water them. Their chances are poor, but at least they are not closed down to the possibilities. If only they could get some legs, some roots, on their faith!

I know all about thorns. I’ve been laboring most of my adult life in the thorns of business and ambition and chasing financial security, paying lip service to Christianity. It’s so hard not to let your faith become another item on your “to do” list. Go to work. Pick up the children. Get to PTA or the ball game or to practice or to that meeting. Oh yes, and say a prayer.  Check it off your list and go to tomorrow. Thorns. They will choke out your heart and leave you with only the details of religion instead of faith itself. If you never let God’s message control your actions, you cannot mature and you cannot hope to bear God’s fruit.

There is a lesson here too for the seeds planted in the good soil. They produce at different levels. Why will some produce a hundredfold while others only thirty? We can perhaps draw some understanding from the farmer. He does all he can. The seeds are in good soil. But what about the rain? Will there be enough? Too much? Too soon? Too late? Are the seeds deep enough but not too deep? What about wind? A late freeze? All these things are out of the farmer’s control. But they are not out of God’s control.

My wife has two plants in pots in front of the carport twenty feet apart. The pots are the same. The soil is the same. She waters them the same, sprays them the same. They get the same sunlight. One of them is healthy and beautiful. The other is eaten up with insects. One seed has flourished. The other has fallen on hard times. Why are the results so different in the same environment? Perhaps the answer is that are not at all in the same environment. Perhaps they only appear to be. 

In our parable today, we have looked at different kinds of environments for seeds…and for people. Some of us are blooming while many of us struggle to hear God and to understand his will for us. The kingdom of God is for those who come to him making all the room he requires. We do not have to come at all, but if we do, we must come believing that he is in charge, that we must turn everything over to him in order to hear him. He will make us bear his fruit, but only if we have turned the garden over to him. We need not be concerned about the variation of the yield or the abundance of a good harvest. If some yield more than others, it is to God’s glory.

The Parable of the Sower was a story told to a crowd at the seashore. But there is a story within the story for those of us who have heard the word of God and understand, for those of us who are already his disciples. We are like the farmer in the parable, the sower. We sow. We do our best to plow the ground, to prepare the soil, to make it a rich and healthy environment for growth. We broadcast the seed with care to reach the place where we intend it. We plant our seeds in bedtime stories and church choirs and ballgames. Whatever happens after that is up to God. We don’t need to worry about the result. He is the rain for which we wait, the reaper for whom we long. It is our job to sow. We may not even live to see the harvest, but harvest there will be.

And Jesus said: “He who has ears, let him hear.”

                             Wisdom Does

                                                Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

 

 

          Ever been around a spoiled child? I have been blessed to never have had spoiled children, but I have certainly been around them. They are rude. They don’t share. They are bossy and demanding and always want to be first. When an adult asks them something, they ignore him. If you say no to them, then it’s on. You will be greeted with howling and crying and stomping. You know what I mean. There is no pleasing a spoiled child. It wants what isn’t there.

          In the eleventh chapter of Matthew’s gospel, it seems as though Jesus has encountered another version of spoiled children, only they aren’t children at all. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus has been speaking to the crowds concerning John the Baptist, who is now in prison. Jesus has called him the greatest among those born of women, some very high praise for the Baptist. We know that Jesus does not include himself in that number. Jesus is unique. He is the Son of God. But then, Jesus points out that the least of those in God’s kingdom are better than the likes of even John the Baptist.

          Then, Jesus takes a look at the current generation.  The context surrounding his remarks tells us that he is focusing upon the religious leaders of the time. He compares them to spoiled children. They don’t like the Baptist because he dresses funny and lives in the desert. He has no sense of humor. He doesn’t drink and he eats weird stuff. They don’t like Jesus either, though he has a great sense of humor and spends time around people, eating and drinking with them. There is no pleasing the religious leaders of the time. They have devised a set of rules that practically no one can keep. Of course they don’t like John the Baptist or Jesus, because they won’t play by the existing rules. If the rules don’t make sense, then they just ignore them. The scribes and Pharisees have a lot invested in these traditions. They are angered by anyone who would presume to challenge their authority. They take their pleasure in their rules and in the criticism that they level at those who can’t or won’t live by those rules. They remind Jesus more of spoiled children than men of wisdom. They are bossy and demanding and always want to be the most important.

          Jesus says that “wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Wisdom is justified by her deeds. What does that mean? The Greek word for justified is the same one used to say “made righteous.” Paul uses that word a lot to help us understand how the sacrifice of Jesus works for us. It allows us to be made righteous. So we might say that righteousness is the doing of wisdom. Normally we might think of wisdom as an attribute, something like a personality trait. We think of certain people as “wise,” because of what they say or sometimes because of what they refrain from saying. Wisdom is something said, like a phrase from Abe Lincoln or Mark Twain.  For instance, the lyrics of the great Beatles song Let It Be talk of Mother Mary speaking words of wisdom. They allude to the whisper or speech of wisdom, as do many places in literature.

But that doesn’t appear to be what Jesus is saying.  Jesus seems to be equating the state of wisdom with some sort of action,  rather than a state of being or an utterance. What a curious turn! Jesus says wisdom is justified by her deeds. Put into context, all the rules and regulations and laws of the religious leaders do not amount to wisdom. Jesus tells us that wisdom is lived out in the hands and feet of disciples. The evidence of wisdom is the deeds we do, the actions we take. Until we act on our intentions, they are just so many more words. They can serve as a call to action, but at the end of the day, it is the action we take by which we will be measured. Wisdom does.

          After a declaration of woe issued to certain cities because they won’t turn away from sin, Jesus then turns back to the crowds. He tells them three things and they are worth our attention. First, Jesus thanks God for the revelation sent to those whom God has willed to receive it. Those who are busy being spoiled and running things do not receive the revelation. Rather, it is those who receive the gospel in simple, believing faith to whom it is revealed. God’s Word is complex and sometimes just plain difficult, but God’s message is simple.

Next, Jesus announces that all authority under heaven has been given to him. The authority comes from the Father, but it has been given to Jesus. Jesus is free to give it out to those whom he chooses. This is a revolutionary announcement. Jesus is claiming to be the Son of God and claiming that he has the authority of God to do all things. This announcement surely sent those spoiled children, the scribes and Pharisees, into a rage, for they would see such an announcement as blasphemy. The blasphemy was there all right, but it belonged to the scribes and Pharisees for their rejection of the Son of God.

It’s curious in this day and time that it has not occurred to some leaders of our very own denomination that blasphemy is not an outmoded idea. It can still be committed and it still will face dire consequences from our heavenly Father. Jesus in this very passage warned that the city of Capernaum would fare worse than Sodom for its refusal to act in Christian witness. Twenty first century religion in America, in its unquenchable thirst for relativity and its drive toward equality at any cost, now faces the wrath of the God whom it claims to serve. Instead of working to change the culture, some of our leaders would have us water down the message until the culture has changed the message. It won’t work. It never has. Those of real faith will perceive that Christian soldiering is far from a thing of the past.

Finally and thankfully, Jesus turns from his condemnation of those who would deflect the real values of the kingdom. He directs his attention to those whose eyes and ears have been opened to receive the good news. To them he issues an invitation. “Come to me”, he says. Are you laboring under all the rules and regulations? Come to me, believe in me. That’s enough. “I will give you rest”, he says. “Learn from me”, he says. My yoke won’t break you down; it’s easy. My burden won’t put you on your knees; it’s light. Don’t worry about the rule book. Just obey the Golden Rule. Jesus promises us that he is gentle, that he is humble. He promises us that a life of servant hood, the practice of humility, living unselfishly and in community, will bring rest to our souls.

You know, it seems to me that our Savior in these verses has shown us not only the way to live, but the way home as well. He is revealed to the body of believers. He has authority over all. He invites us to come. He shows us the way. He shows us that some rules are made to be broken, and perhaps more importantly, that even if the rule is made by church leaders, it is still subject to the authority of the living God and the scrutiny of his disciples. 

It would be unwise to ignore the teaching of Jesus, for that, too, is an act. His teaching is alive and it is clear. Wisdom does, but so does foolishness. When we do nothing, when we ignore, we are doing the deeds of inaction and disobedience.  If wisdom is action and deeds, then let our actions be in obedience to his invitation. “Come unto me…learn from me…you will find rest for your souls.” And that is wisdom.