Untitled Sermon (3)

As I was preparing this sermon, I couldn’t not help getting too carried away with what I wanted to say about each parable. Each parable that we heard today, together with the ones we have been reflecting on the last few weeks, provide so much and such profound material that I could spend hours talking about each and every one of them. The discipline that I’ve had to adhere to as best I can the last few weeks has been to summarize the main points or to gather the main idea, and present them in the brief time that we have together on Sunday mornings. This has proven to be easier some times more than others. Today is one of those not-so-easy days. It is difficult because these little one-verse parables are deep-sea trenches of wisdom that to dig as deep into them as I’d like would take us much more than the 10 or 15 minutes that we have each week.

Today, we hear a continuation of his teachings by the sea, where he teaches in parables. Today we hear the last set of parables from this occasion. He will teach in parables again a little later in the Gospel text, but this is the end of this particular discourse. I will attempt to provide a summary of the parables in a way that we can understand it today. Then I will attempt to pull back and present something of a bird’s eye view of Jesus’s message for us this Sunday.

The first parable that Jesus mentions today is the Parable of the Mustard seed, one which we are all familiar with in some form or another. He compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, an extremely small seed. One which, after it sprouts and grows, it becomes a bush so large that it resembles a tree, so big that birds come and make nests on its branches. It is interesting because a mustard seed is not actually the smallest of seeds, though it is quite small. What’s unique is that it produces a proportionally large shrub compared to seed size, some can get up to 15 feet tall. In other words, the Good News of the kingdom of God might seem like they’re unimportant, but once planted, it sprouts a tree that far greater than what we could have imagined.

The second parable that we hear today is the Parable of the Leaven. The ancient people did not have access to microscopes, so they could not see that leaven, which comprises of various types of good fungi, like yeast, are living organisms that feed off of the sugars in the flour. However, the leaven would have looked less like our yeast and more like a sourdough starter or a poolish, which is just flour and water left to ferment. They would take a bit from this fermented flour mixture, and out it in a batch of fresh flour and water and form a dough. They would then notice that it would start rising. They could make more of that leaven by adding a bit more flower and water to the original fermented stuff and leave it to ferment, making more leaven, forever. So Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to this, in that taking a bit of the Good News into places, and it begins to spread and to give life to those places, fundamentally changing them into something completely different. As St. John Chrysostom says, “The leaven, though it is buried, is not destroyed. Little by little it transmutes the whole lump into its own condition. This happens with the gospel. Do not fear, then, that there will be many dangerous circumstances. For even then you will shine forth and be victorious [in spreading the gospel message).”

The third parable we hear today is the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, in which Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a treasure hidden in a field, one which a man finds, and out of joy sells everything and buys that field, realizing the great value of the treasure that he has found. So it is with the Gospel, that those who find the Gospel, out of their own will, let go of who they were and do all in their power to obtain that field. Once we realize just what it is exactly that we have here, we’ll stop at nothing to obtain it, and no distractions will be able to take us away from the treasure. St. Hilary of Poitier says this, “The treasure in the field, as we said, signifies Christ in the flesh, who was found freely. Indeed, the preaching of the Gospels has no strings attached, but the power to use and own this treasure with the field comes at a price, for heavenly riches are not possessed without a worldly loss.”

The fourth parable is the Pearl of Great Price, in which Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a pearl of great price, which a merchant does everything to obtain it. Notice that the merchant is someone who looks for pearls, so he surely has seen many precious gems and stones, and knows a good value when he sees it. But notice that it was for this one pearl that he sold all that he had and bought it. It strikes me that this pearl probably wasn’t cheap, but he nevertheless saw the incredible value of this one pearl. So it is with the Gospel. We might look for other pearls in different worldviews, different philosophies, or different religions even, but it is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone that’s worth giving up everything for, for it is eternal life. St. Gregory the Great puts it like this, “he who has a clear knowledge of the sweetness of heavenly life gladly leaves behind all the things he loved on earth. Compared with that pearl, everything else fades in value. He forsakes those things that he has and scatters those things that he has gathered. His heart yearns for heavenly things, and nothing on earth pleases him. The allure of earthly things has now dissipated, for only the brilliance of that precious pearl dazzles his mind.”

The fifth parable is the Parable of the Net or the Dragnet, as it is also called. This parable is essentially similar to what the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, which we heard last week. This is what St. Cyril of Alexandria says, “The calling that is through Christ is to be extended throughout the whole world. The net of gospel preaching seeks to gather together people out of every nation. People who are expert in catching fish and are mariners by trade let down their net making no discrimination, but whatever has been caught up in the meshes, wholly and entirely, is hauled by them to shore. So likewise the power of preaching and the marvelous and intricate teaching of the sacred doctrines, which the apostles, as good fishermen, wove together, draw people from every nation and gather them together for God. This net will gather all fish together until the time of consummation. Then out of all those who have been dragged out and caught, the angels appointed by God will make a separation between the wicked and the just.”

Finally, the sixth parable is the Parable of the Householder. And the Church Fathers seem to link this parable particularly to preachers, who, when they go into the the treasure trove that is the scriptures, we bring forth both the goodness and wisdom as we have found it in both the Old and New Testaments. As St. Augustine says, “Those things which are brought forth from the old [Testament] are enlightened through the new [Testament].” Want to understand the Old Testament? Read the New Testament. Want to explore the seed of the New Testament? Read the Old Testament. You cannot have a New Testament without the Old Testament.

Having gone through each parable and briefly discussing their message, let us now zoom out and take a bird’s eye view of the parables briefly. We discussed last week how, through God’s providence, the weeds were allowed to grow with the wheat until the harvest, when both would be picked and, at that time, the weeds and the wheat would be separated. We discussed how the job of the wheat was not really to do anything much other than be wheat, and to do the things that wheat does, and that the owner would eventually come and put all things right. These parables give us the sense that, in every situation, in every facet of life, in every time and season, the Divine Providence is active, working through the world, and through its creation, to bring about its fulfillment and purpose. That is to say, no matter the situation,