Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The sermon
text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St Matthew. And
we read from his gospel:
The kingdom
of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his
field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than
all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.
Prayer: Let
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O
Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells his
disciples eight parables about the kingdom of heaven. Two weeks ago, we read
about the parable of the sower, and last week we read about the parable of the
weeds. And in today’s gospel reading, we read about the other six parables.
Today we’re going to focus on the first four: the mustard seen, the leaven in
the flour, the treasure hidden in a field, and the pearl of great price.
And so we can see there is a
gardening parable (the mustard seed), and a cooking parable (the leaven). There
is a parable about a man who “strikes it lucky” (the treasure), and about a
merchant who searches the world from top to bottom (the pearl).
And Jesus shows us that
everything we see on earth, everything that is created by God—mustard seeds,
leaven, treasure, pearls, nets--, everything that God has given for us to do –
gardening, cooking, and so on, all point to something else. Everything that we
can see has a message from God hidden in it telling us about things that we
can’t see. Everything that we experience in our life has a message from God
hidden in it telling us about things in God’s life.
You see, there is a great
tendency sometimes for people to say: what you see is what you get. And that’s
simply not true: we get a lot more than what we see. And God didn’t simply
create the earth, and nothing else. He also created a heavenly realm.
So we look at our lives and we
have clothing and shoes, but God also gives heavenly clothing. He says: You
will be clothed with power from on high. Put on the whole armour of God: the
belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the readiness given by the
gospel of peace as shoes for your feet.
But also, we have food and drink.
But God also gives us heavenly food and heavenly drink. Jesus says: Man does
not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He
says: I am the bread of life. He says: Whoever is thirsty, let him
come to me and drink.
We have a house and a home. But
God also gives us a heavenly house and a heavenly home. Jesus says: In my
Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I
go to prepare a place for you?
You see, each of these parables
today talks about one thing: the kingdom of heaven. Jesus teaches us
that there is such a thing as heaven, and that it exists. This world is not
everything. And we read that heaven is not a democracy, but a kingdom—it has a
king, and this king has a realm, a nation, a country over which he rules.
So many Christians today live as
if this world is all there is. People even come to church and want to hear
something that is “relevant to their lives”. If you’re not striving towards
another life, towards eternal life, towards heaven, then nothing here will be
relevant. People think that Christianity is useful only insofar as it helps me with
this life.
There is more. The first verse of
the bible says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He
didn’t just create earth, he didn’t just create the things that we can see, but
he created the heavens, a completely different realm where he lives in perfect
light together with all his angels and archangels.
And so in our Gospel reading
today, Jesus teaches us particularly about the kingdom of heaven.
He says: The kingdom of heaven
is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is
the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the
garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make
nest in its branches.
Some people like to have a quick
fix to solve all the problems of the church and all the problems in life. If
you are this kind of person, Jesus is going to frustrate you this morning.
Jesus wants us to go out to the backyard and observe what we find out there: to
go and observe the trees, the bushes, the seeds, the soil and to take note of
these things as little teachers. He wants us to appreciate them as his
creation, and learn from them. Many people just can’t appreciate anything, and
can’t look at the simple things of life and see just how wonderful they are.
And in this parable, Jesus tells
us about a mustard seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. Of all
the things that people were used to planting, the mustard seed was one of the
smallest. And at the same time, it grows into a large bush, with all kinds of
branches and leaves.
The mustard seed is Jesus Christ
himself. He is the seed that God the Father plants into the world. Jesus is the
king of this heavenly kingdom. At the heart of this kingdom of heaven is the
king of heaven himself. And with this kingdom comes eternal joy. But also here
on this earth, before we finally experience that eternal joy in all its
perfection and in all its perfect glory and before we meet this king face to
face with our own eyes, this kingdom is planted through the preaching of God’s
word. And this preaching involves explaining to people each part of God’s word,
showing people what their sin is and showing them how Jesus forgives it. And
also, this kingdom involves people using God’s word, hearing God’s word, and
being strengthened in this word, and faith in this word. People recognise each
day that fall short of God’s glory, and find something new to repent of.
Christians find some new situation or some new person or some new thing to pray
about or to pray for. Christians are allowed each day to see some new situation
of darkness in which God’s light is needed.
All of this is Jesus’ kingdom at
work. And most of the time it looks like nothing it happening. Jesus only ever
preached in a small corner of Judea, and he sent out only 12 apostles, many of
whom were only simple fishermen. People look at their pastor and think: what’s
this idiot going to do? What’s he got to tell us that we haven’t heard before?
People look at baptism, and think: what’s a bit of water? People look at the
Lord’s Supper, and think: what’s a bit of bread and wine?
But these things are everything –
because these things are where Jesus is to be found. The whole kingdom of
heaven is hidden in each word of the Scripture. And from there the kingdom
grows into a massive tree. For so many people, they can look back at the life
and see how their faith had such humble beginnings, and yet, Jesus says: It
is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and make nests in its branches.
Jesus says: The kingdom of
heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour,
till it was all leavened.
Jesus has told us gardening
parable, now he tells us a cooking parable. Three measures of flour was the
normal amount of flour that people used to cook a meal with. And here we read
where a woman not just puts some leaven in the flour, but hides it.
Here we come to listen to the
Gospel. We come to listen to the words that come straight from heaven that
because of Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, each
and every single one of our sins is forgiven us. The church has the task, like
his woman, to hide this Gospel in the hearts of people, like hiding leaven in
flour. And when we hear this gospel, God creates faith in our hearts, and sends
us the Holy Spirit.
But you know, all this is hidden.
It is buried deep in the conscience. We so often want to be completely fixed
and healed right now. We have the temptation to want to wake up one morning and
to say: I’ve come up with the miracle fix. But that’s not how the leaven works.
It takes time and patience.
So the Gospel is hidden in our
hearts, but it doesn’t stay hidden: it ferments. Can you think about some dough
with some yeast that is left to ferment, and then you come in later, and you
can smell it all in the kitchen? That’s what the Gospel is like.
So daily and gradually this
Gospel begins to take effect, slowly, steadily. The gospel starts to make our
flesh uncomfortable, and we start to recognise new sins that need to be
cleansed out. The new leaven destroys sin, and daily our hearts learn to
despise and overcome this worldly life and all its hardships. You see, this
life isn’t godliness, but it’s training in godliness. This life isn’t health,
but continually getting well. This life isn’t rest, but it’s exercise. Martin
Luther says: “We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The
process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal
but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but
everything is being cleansed.”
But Jesus says that eventually: it
was all leavened. What a wonderful day it will be in the kingdom of heaven when
our old self of sin and disappointment is completely peeled away, and our
bodies and souls are full completely of heavenly light and joy!
Jesus says: The kingdom of
heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.
Then in his joy he goes and seels all that he has and buys that field.
In this parable about the
treasure hidden in a field, Jesus teaches us once again how the kingdom of
heaven is hidden. But here we see how a man comes upon this treasure almost by
chance. There are many people who wouldn’t know the gospel if they fell over
it, but then what a wonderful thing it is when one day they fall over it! And
because this treasure is hidden, people think they already know it, and they
neglect it.
Also, many a pastor knows that
there are many people who don’t really know what the Gospel is, and have never
come to enjoy it, even in the church. In the book of Revelation, it uses a
special number 144,000 to talk about those who have been redeemed. I remember a
pastor once said: When I was a young seminary student, I used to think that
144,000 wasn’t very many. Then I was a pastor for 10 years, and I thought it
was a lot!
People look for salvation in the
law, and the law of God simply doesn’t give us salvation. People have some kind
of instinct that God keeps a list of all of what we do right and all of what we
do wrong. But they make two mistakes: they think first that through their own
works they can cross off God’s list the things that are wrong. But also, they
forget that the list of wrongs is much longer, 10 times longer, 100 times
longer than the list of good things. And if you think otherwise, then you’re
simply not honest.
Jesus loves you so incredibly
more than you think! Jesus’ blood is the only thing that has the kind of power
to make us completely clean in God’s sight, and through this blood, Jesus
forgives each and every single one of our sins, blemishes, and faults.
Galatians says: The Scripture
imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ
might be given to those who believe. And in Romans we read: God has
consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. In John we
read: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever
believes in him may not die but have eternal life.
This Gospel, this free
forgiveness of sins, is such a wonderful treasure hidden in the field. The
field here is God’s word, which looks like a dirty dusty old field – if only we
knew what treasures were hidden beneath each page and in each word! Jesus says:
Then in his joy he goes and seels all that he has and buys that field.
And for our last parable today,
Jesus says: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of
fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that
he had and bought it.
This parable is similar to the
treasure hidden in the field. But in this parable, the merchant doesn’t simply
come across the treasure by chance which he didn’t even know was there. In this
parable, the merchant know that there must be better pearls in the world than
the ones he already has, and he goes out looking for them. He is a like a
person with a burning conscience that says: I know that there must be more to
life than this. There must be a better philosophy of life than the one I have
now. So many people even in the church go for years without any comfort for
their sin, or a particular sin, one that keeps on niggling them, and think that
there must be some comfort for it, if only I could find it. They think: all the
comfort I have now is like plastic pearls from the two dollar shop. I want a
real one, real enduring comfort, comfort that comes from God!
And then, God has a word for
them. A word of the kingdom of heaven! A word of the forgiveness of sins, life
and salvation. A pure word, that is more pure than any other word that we have
ever found before.
And once the man has found this
pearl, then he sells all he has to buy it. He gives up his worldly
philosophies, and he endures suffering, persecution, and ridicule just so that
he can have the pearl.
What a fine pearl this kingdom of
heaven is! Do we understand just how much Jesus loves us, and just how powerful
his blood, his death and resurrection really are?
St Paul says: I consider that
the suffering of this present time are not worthy comparing with the glory that
is to be revealed to us.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for the
gift of your heavenly kingdom. Help us to understand it, and draw us daily into
its great mystery. Strengthen us daily in your word and in faith until we die,
when we will see you face to face. Send us the Holy Spirit, that we may relish
and enjoy this most precious treasure of your pure Gospel! Amen.
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