UNDERSTAND
Matthew 13:31-58
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
In these parables, Jesus teaches us to understand the kingdom of heaven. It is important that we understand because then we will respond to it correctly.
Firstly, you have to see beyond its appearance and realise that the power is in the one who is behind it. The mustard seed can become a tree because God had made it so. The yeast could work its magic on that huge amount of dough because of the special properties that God had built into it. Whether you are looking at yourself as a Christian (and seeing how weak and inconsistent you are even in resisting sin in your life), or you are looking at the Church (with all its internal problems) or you are figuring out God’s Plan of Salvation for the World, you would fail to understand if you fail to see the one behind it all.
Secondly, once you realise that this is the work of God, you must know that this is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You must know that nothing you have up till now can compare to this work of God that is offered to you for free. Nothing must stand in the way of your acquiring and making the kingdom of God your experience.
Finally, you need to understand that for now those who reject Christ and those who embrace Christ will live under God’s benevolence. But at the end God will embrace those who embraced him and reject those who rejected him. Moreover, there are going to be true ones and false ones even in your midst. But again, at the end, they will be weeded out. What it means is that you cannot judge the kingdom of God by looking at the outcome of the lives of those who embrace Christ and those who reject Christ. And you cannot gain the kingdom of God with false pretences. The truth will be apparent at the end.
What we need to understand is that God will judge us, rather than we judge God. The kingdom of God is God’s project for us to be among those who will come under God’s mercy and grace and receive his blessings. When we understand it, we will respond to it correctly and in doing so will experience the miracle of God’s seed growing and working its magic in our hearts and minds.
But when we act like we are the judges, like the people in Jesus’ hometown who judged Jesus unworthy, we fail to see our need and fail to reach out to the one who can truly help us. We fail to understand and honour God’s gift to us all.
“And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”