Matthew 13

What Would You Do-ooo-oo?

Posted on by Betsy

In 1982, the makers of the iconic chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream treat called the Klondike bar came up with a clever advertising campaign. They went around the country and asked people what they would do to receive a Klondike bar. Folks responded by dancing, singing, jumping in a pool, and performing other acts of spontaneous fun for the prize of a Klondike bar. I remember one young boy claiming that he would sell his sister for a Klondike bar. Do you think some family counseling might be in order there? In any case, it was a catchy phrase that sticks with us.

As I read through today’s passage, I kept thinking that these three Kingdom parables answer the question of what Jesus would do for the Kingdom of God. It is easy to read these and assume that we are the ones being asked to perform some task in order to attain the Kingdom, but upon closer inspection, we see that Jesus is talking about himself and what he was willing to do and give up in order to preserve the Kingdom for us.

Rabbinical law did not appreciate the notion of  “finders, keepers” and so the field that yielded great treasure had to be purchased in order for the finder to keep the treasure. This alludes to the great purchase that was made by our Lord on the cross, as he paid the price of his life for our salvation. Jesus is also the purchaser of the pearl of great beauty who was willing to sell all that he had in order to possess this one great and lovely thing. In this instance, we understand how much Jesus treasures and values people. We are the pearl of great price, paid for in blood and breath.

Matthew 13 (Common English Bible)

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that somebody hid in a field, which someone else found and covered up. Full of joy, the finder sold everything and bought that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. 46 When he found one very precious pearl, he went and sold all that he owned and bought it.

The last parable of the dragnet is a foretelling of the End Times, when angels will come and assist in the sorting of the fish, i.e. us, into the wicked and the just for the final judgment. All the fish are gathered, but not all the fish survive. The wicked will be sent into the furnace while the righteous will be put together into one community.

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that people threw into the lake and gathered all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, they pulled it to the shore, where they sat down and put the good fish together into containers. But the bad fish they threw away.49 That’s the way it will be at the end of the present age. The angels will go out and separate the evil people from the righteous people, 50 and will throw the evil ones into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.

Unlike the previous parables that warned of corruption spreading through the Kingdom, these three stories focus on how much Jesus treasures us, and points to what he was about to do for the world at the crucifixion. Of course nobody had a clue about that yet, although the disciples pretended to understand.

51 “Have you understood all these things?”Jesus asked.

They said to him, “Yes.”

52 Then he said to them, “Therefore, every legal expert who has been trained as a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings old and new things out of their treasure chest.”

Do we understand? Can we possibly comprehend the extent to which God would go to save us? God’s only son died so that we might live. God went to the ultimate extreme to save his children.

What would you do to save yours? Would you sing and dance and jump through a hoop? Today is a good day to teach them about what Jesus did. They are the real treasure.

Good Fish by Michelle Robertson

The Proving Drawer

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever watched a show called “The Great British Baking Show?” Thanks to Netflix, we are able to watch ordinary home bakers in England compete in a circus-sized tent set on the pastoral property of a huge estate for the ultimate prize of a glass cake stand. Each week the bakers engage in different challenges: Cake week, biscuit week, pastry week, etc. and my favorite: Bread week. I can just smell the fragrant aroma of bread coming through the television screen to my couch. 

The kitchen is well equipped for a set built in a tent and I am fascinated with the use of the “proving drawer.” This sits at the bottom of the oven unit and is kept at the perfect warm temperature to facilitate the rising of the dough. The proper amount of yeast must be mixed into the flour to get the perfect rise. A well-risen dough can quickly double in size in a proving drawer. Every bread baker must yearn for one in their kitchen.

A cursory glance at our passage today would seem to suggest that Jesus is talking about the kingdom working its way through the whole world like yeast, growing it from the inside. But the word “leaven” has always had negative connotations in the Scriptures. Leaven has been synonymous with sin and corruption.

Matthew 13:33 (Common English Bible)

33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.”

We get a clue about the negative connotation from the fact that the woman “hid” the yeast into three measures, or sixty pounds (NIV) of wheat flour until all of it was leavened. The original hearers of this parable would have been shocked at this. They understood that the measure would have produced a massive, unnatural size for a homemade loaf. They would have remembered the Old Testament use of “leaven” from Exodus 12:8 and 12:15-20 that indicated corruption and impurity. So Jesus’ comparing the kingdom to this giant, growing yeasted mess meant that he was warning them about the advancing paganizing influences on the kingdom of God.

 We face the same dilemma today, as secular thinking threatens the purity of the gospel. As the world turns to praising “The Universe” and away from praising the Creator of the universe, Christ’s message is polluted and corrupted.

My friends, you are the proving drawer for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your study of the Word can provide good yeast in your community to help grow the kingdom with truth and accuracy. So go and be that good leaven! Keep your passion for learning the Scriptures warm by constant stirring and proving. Watch your influence grow as you live out your Christlikeness in words and especially deeds. You are his proof!

Bread Week by Becca Ziegler

Smallest of All

Posted on by Betsy

One of the many blessings of a church with a preschool and kids’ ministry is that people get to observe first-hand how small things grow. Parents experience this at home every time they have to replace shoes and clothes that fit last week. A toothless baby needs braces before you know it. Soon enough, that fixed and perfect smile is grinning back at you on her wedding day. Small things grow … sometimes too fast!

In our reading today, Jesus told the parable of the tiny mustard seed. Have you ever seen a mustard seed? They are actually about 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter, about half the size of a peppercorn. This teaching sits amidst other parables that talk about small things growing; a handful of seeds becomes food for the community, small weeds shoot up and threaten to take over a garden, and a mustard seed provides branches for bird’s nests. Even these parables themselves help our small faith grow.

Matthew 13:31-32

31 He told another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. 32 It’s the smallest of all seeds. But when it’s grown, it’s the largest of all vegetable plants. It becomes a tree so that the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.”

A parable is a short and memorable story that is told to reveal a longer, more complicated truth. The word parable means “to throw alongside of.” Parables teach a single lesson with one point. Jesus’ parables revealed the kingdom of God to people who couldn’t comprehend the truth about it and protected him from his enemies. 

The mustard seed parable is a prophetic story that reveals the future of the church. From the very small beginnings, the Gospel of Christ would grow to be a movement that would be large enough to offer refuge and protection to the world in her branches. This kingdom on earth reveals the all-encompassing kingdom of heaven. The seed grows fantastically into a tree, not a bush as it should, indicating the supernatural scope of an exponential world-wide faith.

This is a fantastic reminder to us about our own faith. The applications here are endless. With a tiny grain of hope, life is renewed. With the smallest seed of faith, peace is restored. With just a little perseverance, a door is unlocked and you are set free. With one word gently spoken, anger is prevented. With one small act of kindness, a day is made. With one selfless move, an accident is avoided. With one smile, a stranger decides to hang on for another day. With one quick phone call, a lonely person is comforted. With one man’s actions on a cross, the world is saved.

Where is God calling you to be that one small thing? What little effort on your part could turn things around for someone else? You are the mustard seed! Go and plant peace, hope, and love in someone’s heart. You can make all the difference in someone’s day today.

Growing in Grace by Becca Ziegler

Abundance

Posted on by Betsy

One of the interesting things about life is negotiating the personalities of individual members in a group. In families, offices, institutions, and churches, people fall into different and sometimes opposing categories when it comes to taking a risk. Some are optimists, some are pessimists, some are risk-takers, others have a serious aversion to taking chances, some are followers, and some are leaders. If you ever want to see this in action, attend your church’s Finance Committee meeting. As the saying goes, “it takes all kinds.”

To put it another way, some are Tiggers and some are Eeyores. Tiggers see abundance. Eeyores see scarcity. One’s ability to take risks is firmly grounded in which one you are.

I fall into the risk-taking, glass always full, Pollyanna-lives-in-my-soul category, so I am always grateful to be balanced by the risk-averse folks who keep us in line and counsel caution. But sometimes God’s plan involves taking great leaps of faith.

I love the interplay between Jesus the risk-taker and the disciples, who are seriously risk-averse in this well-known story about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

Matthew 13 (Contemporary English Version)

13 After Jesus heard about John, he crossed Lake Galilee to go to some place where he could be alone. But the crowds found out and followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd. He felt sorry for them and healed everyone who was sick.

Jesus saw the sick and felt sorry for them. What a beautiful statement of who Jesus is. He had tried to get away from the hustle and bustle of Messiah-life, and was probably feeling very burned out. I can relate, and I bet you can, too. If we all had a chance right now to get away to a place by the lake to just rest, I bet we would cherish that. But Jesus, ever mindful of people’s needs, tended to the large crowd.

15 That evening the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This place is like a desert, and it is already late. Let the crowds leave, so they can go to the villages and buy some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They don’t have to leave. Why don’t you give them something to eat?”

Here is the risk-taker at work. He tells the disciples that the people don’t have to leave because the disciples can give them something to eat. The Eeyores in the group looked at each other and likely thought the same thing: “W-W-With what??”

Jesus was teaching them to appreciate what they had and realize that everything we have is subject to multiplication. The trick is to offer it to the One who will multiply it for our good.

17 But they said, “We have only five small loaves of bread and two fish.” 18 Jesus asked his disciples to bring the food to him, 19 and he told the crowd to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and handed it to his disciples, and they gave it to the people.

In the Savior’s hands, the meager resources are offered to heaven and blessed. They provided so much food that there is an abundance of twelve large baskets of leftovers. God is never a God of scarcity, but always a God of abundance.

20 After everyone had eaten all they wanted, Jesus’ disciples picked up twelve large baskets of leftovers.

21 There were about five thousand men who ate, not counting the women and children.

The question for us today is, where are YOU offering your resources? Don’t be fooled. Just as the Lord can multiply what you offer him, so too can the Enemy. If all you offer is hate, violence, anger, selfishness, and vitriol, you can be sure the Enemy will take that and multiply it in a hurry.

But when you offer love, compassion, prayer, generosity, and peace, heaven will bless and multiply that in great abundance.

The choice is yours. What’s in your basket?

God’s Daily Abundance by Michelle Robertson

The Smallest Seed

Posted on by Betsy

We are supposed to be having Vacation Bible School right now at my church, but of course the pandemic has changed that. It is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I have always had the role of storyteller at VBS, and the creative fun that ensues with sweaty, wiggly kids is one of the best parts of being a pastor.

Today’s parable took me back to a time when I was working with two off-the-wall pastors at VBS. We shared the story time, and I suggested we create a “growing plant” to use for this parable. You make it by rolling folded sheets of newspaper into a tight roll, and then cut slits from the top of the roll about half way down through all but the outer sheet. Then you tape around the base to secure it. When you reach inside and pull out the very center sheet, it grows into a large tree-like thing. If you use enough paper, it can be over six feet tall.

So I prepared several of these to use with each group, and the three of us took turns telling parts of the story.

Well, if you’ve ever been to VBS, you know that toward the end of the week and by the end of the day, the participants get punchy. So do the pastors. So at our last session, as I was pulling the paper out and making the tree grow, the narrating pastor decided to change the story and described how the mustard tree attacked the farmer. On cue, the other pastor grabbed the tree and pretended it was attacking him. His academy award-winning performance included the tree pushing him down as he wrestled with it, causing him to roll off the steps of the chancel and down the center aisle.

Well, that’s one way to tell the story! The kids LOST it. I still laugh at the memory of it!

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The applications here are endless.

With a tiny grain of hope, life is renewed.

With the smallest seed of faith, peace is restored.

With just a little perseverance, a door is unlocked and you are set free.

With one man’s actions on a cross two thousand years ago, an entire world was saved.

With one word gently spoken, a lashing out of anger is prevented.

With one small act of kindness, a day is made.

With one selfless move, an accident is prevented.

With one smile, a stranger decides to hang on for another day.

With one quick phone call, a lonely person is comforted.

The question for us today is, where is God calling you to be that one small thing? What little effort on your part could turn things around for someone else?

You are the mustard seed. Go and plant peace, hope, and love in someone’s heart. You can make all the difference in someone’s day today.

From Small Seeds by Barbara Hudson

Thick as Thistles

Posted on by Betsy

Once upon a time in jolly old England, I met a dog named Muffin. Muffin belonged to my boyfriend, and I met her when I had just arrived from the States on a trip to meet his parents. They were stationed in London with the US Navy at that time. Muffin took one look at me and said, “Nope.” I am actually very good with dogs, and so I was quite frustrated over my inability to win Muffin’s heart. I suggested we take her for a long walk along the creek. I was sure that I could convince her to adore me.

Instead, I ended up in a large patch of thistles. Long, spiny, SPIKEY, flesh-eating thistles. Thistles that penetrated my hands, arms, and legs in the spots where I had landed when Muffin….bless her little canine heart….PUSHED me down. Deliberately. With malice aforethought!

Oh, she was a clever girl! She waited for just the right time to jump on me, at the exact moment that my boyfriend made a move to put his arm around me. She played it off like an uncharacteristic display of happy excitement. I wasn’t fooled. She was jealous. Down I went, and I believe that she truly WAS uncharacteristically happy to see me….as I laid splayed on the ground, bleeding from the thorny spikes.

Jealousy had won the day for a dog named Muffin. On the other hand, I married the boyfriend. WHO’S THE WINNER NOW, MUFFY???

Matthew 13 (The Message)

24-26 He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

27 “The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’

28 “He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’

“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’

29-30 “He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”

I love the fact that the thistles are the bad guys in this story, too. As Jesus will explain, the thistles in the field represent the subjects of the Devil, who is the enemy. An enemy who sows in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep.

36 Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

37-39 So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

The thing about thistles is that they are deceptively pretty. They add color and texture to the sides of the creek, and their shape is like a soft Pom Pom. That is, until you get to the spikes.

The Devil and his minions are much the same. They are the pretty people, the people who are colorful and successful and don’t follow the same rules as the good seeds. They are the ones enjoying their affluence in the sun and their entitlement by the cool waters. They don’t do time, pay their taxes, obey the law, or have a moral code. They are ones who seem to be winning all the time.

Thistles, beware. Your time is coming.

40-43 “The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

This is the Word of God, for the good seeds of God. Thanks be to God.

Prickly Thistle by Becca Ziegler

If You Have Ears

Posted on by Betsy

Our foray into Matthew’s gospel today brings us to a familiar parable. If you spent any time in Sunday School or VBS, you may recall the well-known “Parable of the Sower.” It is a cautionary tale about seeds, soil, sowing, and harvesting. But mostly it’s about listening. If you have ears, pay attention.

I love the scene that Matthew sets in the first paragraph. He describes the cool lake in Galilee, the excited crowds eager to hear Jesus speak, and how Jesus turns a boat into a pulpit to deliver his message.

 Matthew 13 (The Message)

That same day Jesus left the house and went out beside Lake Galilee, where he sat down to teach. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he had to sit in a boat, while the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he taught them many things by using stories.

Pandemic pastors can relate. We have had to turn desks, kitchen tables, office studies, empty sanctuaries, pick up trucks, and back yard picnic tables into instant pulpits. My colleague and I even turned a graveyard, a beach, and a staircase at a baseball field house into instant pulpits. When God’s message needs to be heard, any pulpit will do. If you have ears, pay attention.

He said:

A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. 4 While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. 5 Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn’t very deep. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have enough roots. 7 Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants. 8 But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants produced a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as was scattered. 9 If you have ears, pay attention!

One of the things I appreciate about this particular parable is that you don’t have to try to figure it out. Jesus is very clear and straightforward in how he wants us to interpret its meaning.

18 Now listen to the meaning of the story about the farmer:

19 The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message about the kingdom, but don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches the message from their hearts. 20 The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it right away. 21 But they don’t have deep roots, and they don’t last very long. As soon as life gets hard or the message gets them in trouble, they give up.

Does this describe you at any point in your life? Hearing, but not listening? Things got hard, so you gave up? I know it describes me. God calls us to listen to his Word deeply enough that it takes root in our hearts and especially our actions…which speak louder than words.

22 The seeds that fell among the thornbushes are also people who hear the message. But they start worrying about the needs of this life and are fooled by the desire to get rich. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything.

Or maybe you’re in the thornbushes. You know what God is saying to you, but your concern over your day-to-day life, your worries, or your desire for more material comfort chokes out the message.

 23 The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and understand the message. They produce as much as a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was planted.

The message is simple. Be the good ground. Hear, understand, grow, and plant seeds in others.

If you have ears, pay attention!

Rocky Road by Becca Ziegler