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Parables of Jesus: Growth, Influence, Value
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Matt. 13:31 - 33, 45 - 46
September 13, 2009
I’m
going to begin this sermon with two words that strike terror into
the hearts of school children all around the world: Pop
quiz! That’s right, we’re going to begin with
a little test. It shouldn’t be too hard. There’s
just one question: What did Jesus talk about more than anything
else? Was it love? Ethics? The Golden Rule? Salvation? What
do you think? Is that your final answer? Well, if you’re
like most people, you got it wrong! The correct answer is: “The
Kingdom of God!” Jesus talked more about the Kingdom
than any other subject. That leads to the question: What
is the Kingdom of God?
Usually, when we talk about kingdoms, we’re talking about a place with
geographic boundaries, like England or France or Spain in medieval times. But
the Kingdom of God is different. It doesn’t have geographic or political
boundaries. The kingdom of God exists wherever God is recognized and honored
as king. We just prayed the Lord’s Prayer in which Jesus prays that
God’s will would be done in earth as it is in heaven. That’s
where the kingdom of God is- wherever God’s will is being done, which is
why it is sometimes called the Kingdom of Heaven.
There are questions about
whether the Kingdom of God is rooted in the here and now, or strictly in the
future, as the ancient Jews believed it was. There are questions about
what does God’s kingdom looks like. What are its priorities? How
does it relate to the larger world? To help us understand what God’s
kingdom is like, Jesus used lots of parables.
Parables are short little
stories about common matters that teach a deeper truth. They must have
seemed like innocuous little tales to those first disciples, until the stories
exploded later in their hearts and minds like little time bombs as the full implications
of them became clear. We’re going to be looking at these parables
of Jesus this Fall in worship.
This week I’m going
to read three parables about the Kingdom of God, but listen carefully, because
if you blink you’ll miss them. They are very short! (Read Matt. 13:31-33,
45-46)
31 He (Jesus) put before them another parable: "The
kingdom of heaven is
like a mustard seed
that someone took and sowed in his field;
32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it
is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of
the air come
and make nests in its branches."
33 He told them another parable: "The
kingdom of heaven is
like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of flour until
all of it was leavened."
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is
like a merchant in
search of fine pearls;
46 on finding one pearl of
great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Imagine you’re
one of the disciples, hearing these parables for the first time. You’ve
left everything to follow Jesus- family, home, and work. You are intrigued
by his power and his message. You believe that he is the Messiah and will
soon be setting up God’s kingdom. Like all Jews of Christ’s
day, you are expecting a literal, political kingdom- in Israel, in order to restore
it to its former glory. But you haven’t seen much progress toward
this great kingdom of God. Yes, Jesus has done a few miracles, and many
people seem to be following him. But he has also engendered a great deal
of opposition. And he has made no progress at all in establishing an army
or in challenging the Romans who occupy their beloved Israel. There are
no signs of a coming kingdom.
George MacDonald put it
like this:
“They all were looking
for a king
To slay their foes and
lift them high:
Thou cam’st, a little
baby thing
That made a woman cry.”
Jesus answered their concerns with these parables.
In both of the first two
parables, things start small and then expand. The mustard seed was used
proverbially to indicate something that was very small. Hundreds of these
insignificant seeds could have been easily eaten up by any passing bird. And
yet from that tiny seed comes a great plant- 8-10 feet high- in which those same
birds could build their nests.
Jesus is acknowledging
that his kingdom is getting off to a very small and unpretentious start- just
a rabbi, some uneducated fisherman, and a rabble-filled, fickle mob. Not
much of a beginning!. “But just wait,” Jesus says. “From
this small seed will come a great plant.” And that, of course, is
exactly what happened.
Followers of Jesus Christ
now number 1.9 billion- about a third of the world’s population. They
are present in virtually every nation. His followers have founded many
of the world’s best schools and hospitals. Jesus’ teaching,
as recorded in the New Testament, has been translated into hundreds of languages,
with hundreds more in progress- far more than any other writing ever. From
its humble beginning, the Kingdom of God (which Jesus inaugurated) has become
very large, and impacts much of the world in a wide variety of ways.
According to this parable,
one fundamental characteristic of the kingdom of God is growth. And churches,
as part of God’s kingdom, should exhibit this characteristic. But
growth is often uncomfortable for us, isn’t it? It involves change-
things are just not the same when there are more people. You can’t
know everyone. And to meet the needs of more people, you need more programs. Maybe
three worship services in two different styles. As youth groups grow they
tend to get rowdier and stuff gets broken. As adult groups grow they need
more space. Staff has to be added, facilities expanded. Growth is
wonderful, and it’s also costly. Churches need to be willing to pay
that price because we’re part of the Kingdom of God whose character it
is to grow.
The second parable is
similar to the mustard seed in that the small-to-large motif is picked up, but
in a different way. In this parable, a woman takes bread dough- a lot of
bread dough- about 50 pounds of it! And she adds just a little bit of yeast
to it, works it through the dough, and the entire batch of dough is changed by
it. Now I don’t understand how yeast works- there is some kind of
bio-chemical reaction which occurs that those of you who studied biology could
explain to me after the service. But I do know that just a little bit of
yeast can change the character of all the dough it touches. When baked
without yeast, dough becomes a dry cracker-like substance. With yeast,
it becomes wonderful, tasty, nourishing bread.
The second characteristic
of the Kingdom of God is that it has tremendous influence. It is pervasive. Though
it starts small, it will permeate entire societies and cultures. It has
a subversive quality, often working in a hidden, unseen manner, but in the end
it has its way. It transforms the lives of individuals, and history is
filled with examples of the influence of God’s kingdom on entire societies. I’d
like to focus on one example that has occurred in my own lifetime- the change
in our society’s attitude toward racism.
I grew up in segregated
Virginia. It wasn’t until I was in the 7th grade that black kids
were allowed to attend my school. We were taught in direct and subtle ways
that African-Americans were inferior to us and deserved to be treated as such. They
couldn’t attend our schools, play on our sports teams, or even join our
churches. But there were some followers of Jesus who knew this wasn’t
right, including some white Presbyterian pastors and a black pastor named Martin
Luther King, Jr. Rev. King believed that to allow us white folks to continue
in the sin of racism- and let there be no doubt, it is a sin- to allow us to
continue in this sin was not the loving thing to do. So, by various actions,
quiet some times, bold at other times, these representatives of God’s kingdom
forced us to look at the ugly attitudes we harbored towards people of color who
were made in the very image of God. And the conscience of an entire nation
was awakened. It was a painful time and many battles were fought. But
laws changed. Segregation practices fell away. Rights to equal education
and voting were extended to all of the citizens of this nation. The kingdom
of God eventually had its way.
We’ve still got
a ways to go. But the kingdom of God was at work and is still at work to
erase the ugly blight of racism from our minds and hearts. And that’s
just one example. A feature article in Newsweek not too long ago called
Jesus Christ the dominant figure of our entire Western culture! I quote, “art
and science, the self and society, politics and economics, marriage and family,
right and wrong, body and soul- all have been touched and radically transformed
by Christian influence.” By the kingdom of God!
Jesus and his followers
championed a new virtue, the virtue of compassion, which was not previously valued
in the ancient world. So the followers of Jesus Christ have been hard at
work around the world to end the abuse of women, the exploitation of children,
the destruction of the planet, and the devastation of hunger and disease. And
the hope of the parable is that one day the whole batch will be leavened, the
whole creation transformed by the kingdom of God!
The final parable is about
the pearl of great price. The first two parables talked about God’s
action in the world. This parable talks about our response to God’s
actions. A merchant spends his life looking for valuable pearls. Pearls
were prized in the ancient world, not just for their monetary value, but also
for their beauty. This businessman finds a tremendously valuable pearl,
sells everything he has, and buys it. That’s it! Not much
of a plot, is there? So, what does this parable teach us about the Kingdom
of God?
It teaches us that the
kingdom of God is of supreme value. It is worth everything we have. While
he was in high school, Derrick Adkins began his life-long battle with depression. But
he found he had some talent as a runner, and running track seemed to ease his
depression, so he threw himself into it. His goal was to become the top
high school hurdler in the nation. He succeeded. He continued his
track career in college. Although depression continued to hound him, he
trained relentlessly and achieved his next goal- becoming the top collegiate
hurdler his senior year. He then signed a contract with Reebok and began
running professionally.
Unfortunately his depression grew worse. He finally saw a doctor and began
taking anti-depressants in early 1996. When the side-effects of the drugs
affected his running, he had a crucial choice to make. Would he choose
winning races or his own health and state of mind? He reasoned that if
he could just win an Olympic medal, he couldn’t possibly be depressed anymore,
so he threw his medication away. Later in 1996, in his hometown of Atlanta,
Derrick Adkins won the Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles. He
was elated. But only three weeks later, he spiraled back into a deep depression.
His pearl of great price
had been to win an Olympic gold medal. He sacrificed everything in the
pursuit of it. But was it worth it? He was still miserable after
he got it. Do you have a pearl of great price? For what will you
sacrifice just about everything? Is it a certain lifestyle? Advancing
in your career? A special car or truck or boat or vacation home? Is
it worth it?
Derrick’s story
has a happy ending. After hitting bottom three weeks following the Olympics,
he returned to his doctor, got back on his medication and has been doing well. His
track career hasn’t been the same, however. But he has decided that
his health is more important than running. He testifies that praying and
reading the Scriptures have also helped him stay balanced emotionally and physically. He
entered theology school recently and hopes to invest his life in helping others
by proclaiming God’s kingdom.
These three parables remind
us that God’s kingdom is a powerful thing. It grows, slowly but surely. It
influences and changes all that it contacts. It is our great hope for resolving
the devastating problems which plague our world. And it has value beyond
measure. Jesus invites us to sacrifice all we have to be part of God’s
work on this planet. Are you part of the Kingdom of God? In other
words, is God reigning in your life? Are you helping the Kingdom to grow? Are
you doing the hard work of spreading the influence of the Kingdom? Is
it your highest priority and greatest value in life? The Kingdom of God.
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