Matthew 13 is at the heart of Matthew’s gospel. This is especially important when we remember
that Matthew wrote his gospel in the form of a chiasmus. A chiasmus is a series of parallels nested
together. A topic is introduced, and
then another, and then another, all the way until half-way through. Then the topics are revisited in exactly the
reverse order.
Each of the four gospels is written in
a very different form. Luke’s gospel is
written in a straightforward story style.
John’s gospel is a collection of highly developed individual
scenes. Mark’s gospel is circular; with
neither beginning nor end. Matthew’s
gospel is a chiasmus. Like any chiasmus,
the center, which we read today is key.
Matthew 13 is a collection of parables
about the kingdom of heaven. The problem
is that as we read this center of this chiasmus
we easily miss what Jesus means when he talks about “the kingdom”. Many people immediately think of heaven and
eternal life. But that’s not what’s
meant. Some people will think of the
kingdom as some sort of faith feeling or disposition that can exist inside a
person. But that’s missing it too.
Perhaps we should start by remembering
that we don’t live in a time of kings and kingdoms. A democracy operates very differently. We believe we have some measure of self-rule.
We’re used to our leaders having to make a plea to appeal to voters and do what
they want; else we don’t re-elect them.
Not so in a kingdom. A king is a
lifetime -or a forever- ruler. Political
leaders at just about every level in a kingdom don’t have to pay attention to
the population or make decisions in the population’s interest. They can do what they want as long as they
keep the king’s favor, or else they have to carry out what the king wants,
whatever the king wants.
Jesus is not the first one to use
kingdom language to talk about God. In
those days many Near Eastern religions used kingdom language. Judaism did.
The gospel writer Matthew is thoroughly Jewish. Like them he believed that God was the
creator of the world; and God is the rightful King of the world. They also recognized the presence of
evil. Something had gone wrong from
God’s original design and things were not as God intended. The devil had by some means usurped God’s sovereignty
and established a kingdom of his own. As
Matthew sees it the other kingdoms of this world (represented by the Roman
empire and the two king Herods, and even the Jewish religious leaders) were
also agents of the devil’s kingdom.
Herod the Great tried to kill the infant Jesus when he had the babies of
Bethlehem killed. Herod Antipas killed
John the Baptist. The Romans could be
brutal in carrying out their will. And
the Roman economy allowed only a few elite at the top with the masses subject
to them. Something like 3% of the Roman
population owned over 95% of everything.
It is important to note that Matthew,
along with the rest of the Bible’s authors, do not spend a lot of time
speculating about how or why God’s reign on earth has been usurped by
evil. Genesis 3 tells the story of Adam
and Eve’s fall. It’s the Bible’s lone
story about how and why things went wrong.
It presents the fault as that of humans who seek their own path to
fulfillment rather than trusting God.
Compare the Bible with other religions of the time and you realize just
how little time the Bible spends on the origin of evil. Greek mythology had all sorts of
stories. Jewish and Christian authors
whose work did not make it into the Bible also had stories of battles and
fallen angels and lots of vivid speculation.
But none of these accounts were accepted into scripture. While our minds might want answers about
knowing the origin of evil, if the Bible is the work of the Spirit, then evil’s
presence is a mystery that the Spirit does not think we need to have fully answered.
Matthew’s whole gospel is a story
about a conflict of kingdoms. It is the
kingdom of heaven vs. the kingdom of the devil.
There is no middle ground. The
rumbles began with Jesus’ birth. Then
conflict came in the open when Jesus is tested by the devil in the
wilderness. The conflict will grow until
Jesus is captured, arrested, and killed.
With the devil sure that victory is finally in hand the resurrection
suddenly upends the entire order the devil has established.
While God remains
the true king, we find ourselves living in a rebellious world that gives its
allegiance to another. We are in a tough
bind. While we want to live fully for
God and God alone, we are also sinners who not only fail to live up to the
ideals, but also join in the rebellion against God. Being a citizen of God’s kingdom does not
automatically take one out of the citizenship of the other. I suppose you could say that -at best- we
have dual citizenship.
As Matthew sees
it, since the beginning God has continually chosen people to work through to
restore the kingdom. Jesus’ genealogy in
Chapter 1 names some of them, starting with Abraham and moving through King
David. Ancient Jews, inspired by
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 worked to be committed to God’s kingdom and God’s kingdom alone. You’ll recognize these verses as the Shema,
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you
today in your heart. Recite them to your
children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when
you lie down and when you rise. Bind
them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write
them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
These famous
verses call on people to stay committed to God’s kingdom. It is to be their way of life; the ethics
they build upon. From the beginning
Matthew sees that God has chosen a people and formed a covenant with them. They will bring the kingdom into reality in the
rebellious world. That covenanted people
were first the Jews (blood descendants of Abraham) and through Jesus the
covenanted people was expanded to all people who live by faith.
While God’s
kingdom is alive and functional on the earth it is not at its fullness. It never will be until God acts to draw
creation to its fullness.
For Matthew, life
in God’s kingdom is dynamic. It is an ongoing
conflict with the kingdom of the devil.
Like any war one side’s moves are countered by the other. And so the struggle continues. The kingdom is past. It is present. It is future.
Jesus’ parables
of the kingdom then are teachings created to inspire the hearers to recognize
the struggle and to continue in it. The
kingdom is not something abstract and distant.
It is to be present in our lives.
Our actions are to be inspired and directed by it so that in very
concrete ways God’s will is done among us – his covenant people.
When you read
Matthew 13 keep in mind the conflict of kingdoms, and the way things would work
in this world if God’s kingdom was truly lived out by all.
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