March 4 - Kingdom Stories

The Kingdom of God, God’s rule in our hearts and lives, has character and worth. Getting warmed up with the parable of the soils, Jesus launched into stories about the Kingdom of God, starting each one with the words, “The Kingdom of God is like…” The stories are short, with a simple point. They ring well for this acquisitive culture that evaluates things by benefit and value. What is the Kingdom of God like?
·         It’s like a farmer who plants a field of wheat. In the night an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. At harvest time the field was gathered. The weeds were sorted out and burned, while the wheat was put in the barn.
·         It’s like a Mustard seed, tiny at first, then large enough to provide shelter.
·         It’s like the yeast used to bake bread, permeating the entire dough.
·         It’s like a hidden treasure in a field, worth selling everything you have in order to buy and posses the field and its treasure.
·         It’s like a pearl of great value, worth all you posses.
·         It’s like a fishing net, thrown into the water, full of fish. When dragged to shore the good fish were sorted from the bad ones, with the bad ones thrown away.
In the midst of the parables Matthew added this note: “Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet; ‘I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.’”
Matthew also tells us that Jesus did not interpret each of the parables, but taught them, “as much as they could understand.”But he did talk about them in private with his disciples…especially about the parables of the wheat and weeds in the same field and the net full of good and bad fish. The meaning is essentially the same for each one.
“The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”
To sum: The Kingdom of God is worth everything we have, being a treasure beyond their value. But Satan opposes the rule of God in our hearts. In the end, we will be judged concerning who we listened to and who we followed with our lives. Those who rejected the rule of God in their hearts and lives will be rejected by God. Actually, God doesn’t reject them. He simply honors their choice and ensures its consequence.
There is a lot of nonsense about God’s will for us floating around our culture, almost like a cultural myth. It seems to revolve around the belief that in the end we all get to go to heaven because anything else would be unfair…”fairness” being a big item for this entitled generation, and fairness being loosely defined as anything we choose to feel entitled to.
But if we listen to the words of Jesus, we must conclude that there is a heaven, and there is a hell. Each destination is determined by the choices we make: If we accept God’s rule in our hearts and lives his grace will wash the presence of sin from us, and we will live with him forever. If we do not, he will honor our choice and allow us the destination we have chosen. Popular culture indignantly asks, “What kind of God sends people to hell?” God doesn’t unilaterally send anyone anywhere. It’s our choice to make.
Prayer: “Great Father, I choose your rule in my heart and life. Please root out my rebellion and cast it far away, so that I gladly and easily follow you. Make obedience my delight and your rule my adventure. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”