Perspective: The Kingdom Is Like...

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The Kingdom Is Like...

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3 (NRSV)

It's everything you ever want
It's everything you ever need
And it's here right in front of you
This is where you wanna be

From "The Greatest Show" by Pasek and Paul

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, when Jesus begins His public ministry, He announces, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."¹  Later on, we read that, when He sends out His disciples to do the things He has been doing in His ministry, He instructs them to announce that "the kingdom of heaven has come near" as they liberate people from their diseases and demons.²

Jesus mentions the Kingdom of Heaven throughout His teachings, but He only seems to come close to defining it in the Sermon on the Mount, when He teaches His followers to pray, saying, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."³  The Kingdom of Heaven is not limited to some distant realm beyond this world.  It is a kingdom coming to this world.  It is the place where God's will is done.  Perhaps Jesus and His disciples are announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven is actually invading this world, and perhaps their miraculous healings are signs that this invasion is indeed taking place.

I've come to understand the Bible as the story of how the good world God created was corrupted by evil and how God has been working to set the world right.⁴  That said, I've come to understand the Kingdom of Heaven - or Kingdom of God, as it is called in other Gospels - as the world as God intended it to be.

One day, Jesus tells a series of parables in which He compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a number of different things.  Perhaps these parables teach us something about how God is redeeming this world.

First, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a farmer who scatters seeds on different patches of soil.  Some patches of soil are more suitable for the seeds than others.⁵  This parable teaches us that some people will be more receptive of the announcement that "the kingdom of heaven has come near" than other people.  For example, people who benefit from the injustice in this world might not hear the news that the world is going to be set right as good news, while people who daily suffer from injustice are ready for a change.

Second, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a farmer who sows wheat in his field and allows the stalks of wheat to grow alongside weeds until the harvest.  He will not allow his servants to pull up the weeds because they might uproot the good wheat he planted.⁶  This parable teaches us that God's redemptive work requires patience and that our own ideas for rooting out what we think is wrong in the world can be shortsighted.

Next, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny mustard seed that, when planted, grows into a large plant in which birds find shelter.  He then compares the Kingdom of Heaven to some yeast that is thoroughly mixed into flour.⁷  These parables teach us that doing the redemptive work God gives us might seem inconsequential at first but that it makes a major impact in time.

Next, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure found in a field, which compels the finder to sell everything he owns so that he can buy the field.  He then compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a pearl merchant who sells everything he owns so that he can buy one extremely valuable pearl.⁸  These parables teach us that the world as God intended it to be is worth divesting ourselves of the ways of the world in its present state and that God’s kingdom is made up of people who have done this very work of repentance.

Finally, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a net that catches all kinds of fish.  The good fish are kept and the bad fish are discarded.⁹ This parable, like the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds before it, teach us that God's redemptive work will require judgment and winnowing.  Some things in this world, like greed, hatred, exploitation, and oppression, cannot be allowed to continue if God's will is to be done on earth as in heaven.

The Kingdom of Heaven has been described as both "already" and "not yet."  Though the Kingdom of Heaven has not yet been fully realized in our world, we can already catch glimpses of it if we are paying attention.

Notes:

1. Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 10:7-8 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
4. See N.T. Wright's article "How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?"
5. Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23
6. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
7. Matthew 13:31-33
8. Matthew 13:44-46
9. Matthew 13:47-50

The photograph featured above was taken by me in May 2016 in the driveway of my grandmother's house.