New Thoughts (5/8/07-5/11/07)
To begin this portion, I will try to step back and look over the flow of the Sermon by the Sea, which has been a true feast of parables. Already as we have moved from soil to sower to seed to garden to kitchen, there has been a clear sense of development and direction to the way Jesus teaches. What jars the flow somewhat is the way the explanations of a few of those parables has apparently been interjected in mid-sermon. I speak of these as apparent interjections because it would be impossible to speak with certainty to the order of events. The best we can do is reconstruct them based on the testimony given.
Matthew, I have heard it explained, is by no means trying to lay out a chronology here. He is not acting as some official historian of the court. What he writes comes closer to memoir than history. This does not diminish the accuracy of what he writes in the least. It simply allows the fact that he is not concerning himself with giving us a verbatim transcript of this sermon. He is giving us content and experience. It seems likely that he thought it would prove useful to his readers to have the explanation of that first, key parable (Mt 13:18-23) at the beginning of the sermon – an advantage that I doubt any of the original hearers had – so that they could better understand what followed.
How was this gospel received? I can’t say, but I would suspect that for many in those early days, the only contact they had with this gospel was one of hearing. If this is true, they would not have opportunity to go back over this sermon after they eventually heard the explanation. They could not hit rewind, and they could not buy a tape. Matthew shows good sense in setting this critical explanation of that first parable so immediately after its delivery. The imagery is fresh and now comes the explanation. Now, those who heard his account of the matter were armed with the knowledge needed to hear what followed.
The second interpretive episode (Mt 13:24-30), that of the tares, is not so clearly a rearrangement, as I see it. First, I note that several other parables have been introduced before we come back to this explanation. I also notice a slight change of direction and style between those parables that precede the explanation and those that come after. Before the explanation, everything is depicted in what are more or less everyday occurrences in the lives of those in the crowd. It’s all agricultural in nature, but drawing closer and closer to the hearth, becoming more personal. However, after the break we come back to hear a different set of images. We are shown a man of at least some means here, at least propertied enough to be able to buy the field in question. We are next shown a merchant (Mt 13:45-46), and then are given a motif more attuned to the fishermen who first joined Jesus (Mt 13:47-50). I notice as well, that these latter images are not covered by the others who write of this sermon.
Finally, let me offer the point that as the explanation of the tares is introduced, Matthew provides a shift of scene (Mt 13:33-36). He has already summarized the presentation of those earlier parables. “All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes.” Then, he notes Jesus had left the crowds and gone home. It was then that the disciples came seeking explanations of His teaching. I would propose that it was more than likely also at this time that they actually learned the meaning of the parable of the sower. Now, having given these explanations, I see Jesus continuing His lessons for the upperclassmen, if you will. These last three parables are not the same, because they are not for the same audience. They are more directly and completely for the consumption of the disciples.
Again, let me insert the disclaimer that this can be at best speculative on my part. However, it seems a reasonably compelling interpretation of events. So, I shall doubtless maintain this perspective as I explore these last parables. How much that might color the application and understanding that I take from it remains to be seen, but recognize that this is in mind as I continue the study.
I have written elsewhere of the need Jesus had to break through the misconceptions of His listeners, how these parables serve, amongst other things, to break through all the preconceived notions of the people. In this first of the private parables it would seem He is being a bit more forceful in that effort. I noted Dr. Jeremias’ explanation of the familiarity of this theme of sudden, accidental wealth. It was a common, familiar storyline, and one that Israel felt a connection with when it came to their understanding of the Messianic age. How they viewed the coming kingdom was much the same as how they viewed this sudden wealth. It was there to glory in. It was there to be shown. What use, after all, a kingdom that goes unrecognized and unacknowledged by the nations round about? What use wealth, if it is not either being put to work producing greater wealth or else bringing enjoyment to its possessor? If God has chosen to shower blessings upon a man, where is the propriety in refusing to partake of those blessings? How is God honored in that?
I think you can see this viewpoint in the way the Pharisees approached their religion. Like this discovered wealth, the blessing of righteousness must also be something to display. After all, what use the blessings if they cannot be enjoyed?
This is, I should point out, how worldview impacts understanding. We are no different in our day. We have our expected behaviors, our expected ‘way the story goes’. We have been conditioned by our experience of life that when a happens, b is the typical response we should expect from others. Pretty soon, b will be our own typical response. When in Rome, after all… However, there is no moral assessment involved in this. It is just cultural absorption. Rather than assess and critique the habits of the culture around us, we assimilate. This is to our detriment.
The parable before us strikes at the root of the problem by taking its hearers down that familiar path of cultural understanding. He points them to a road they think they know well. In their minds’ eyes they have traveled it often, and are quite certain of the destination. Ah yes, there is the discovery of the treasure, and now comes the details of how this man enjoys the spoils. Hearing the opening, lines of discovery, they will have already envisioned the whole flow of that story. They will already be there at the conclusion, waiting for the story to catch up to them. Only the road has veered off.
It requires such a sharp turn to shock us out of our conceits. It takes a mental slap, as it were, to shake us free of our certainties so that we can actually hear what is being said. Think about it. We fall into such lazy listening habits all the time. It may be a class or a meeting that we have already decided holds nothing of interest for us. We’ve already figured the outcome, so we tune out of the proceedings. It’s going to take something out of the ordinary flow of things to call our attention back to events. It may be an email or even a letter that we figure we’ve already fully comprehended before we get past the first sentence or two, so we skip the whole body of the thing and simply assume that it says what we expect.
We get this way with the Bible, too. I see it in myself. When I turn to my reading in Table Talk prior to this study, I often find this happening. The list of reference verses after their daily study points to some relatively lengthy passage from the Old Testament. I turn there and begin reading. But, after a verse or two, I have established, “Oh, yes. It’s that passage. It’s this story”, and I feel like I have no need to read the rest. There’s other verses that need looking up, and then there’s my own study here to attend to. So, I go on the assumption that my memory of that particular passage is sufficient to see why they offered it as a reference for the day. But, what have I missed? How many times have we each come back to a particular passage – it may be one we’ve read countless times before – and suddenly seen something that we don’t recall ever seeing there before?
If we don’t learn to shed this habit of assumed knowledge (we could as easily call it an assumption of habitual knowledge) we are going to keep missing the point until the Holy Spirit comes and shocks us out of our tracks.
You see, we have a very similar mindset, at least here in the US. Wealth is good. Poverty is bad. We may not say it, but we pretty much believe it. There may even be a grain of truth to it, but that truth, if it is there at all, has nothing to do with our perception of things. We look at wealth in a very similar fashion to those who heard this parable first. It is there to make us more wealth or it is there to give us pleasure. Some in the perceived benevolence of their hearts will see it as something to pass on to their kids, an inheritance. By and large, though, even this seeming selflessness has less to do with the kids and more to do with pride. It suits their self image to have provided so well. They have done their duty by their children, and this will leave them a name amongst men.
The fact that we are so permeated with this conception of things is evident in our approach to the kingdom message. It is this worldview, this mindset, that allows the overblown Prosperity message to take hold so readily. It is this worldview, this mindset, that brings people flocking to the Name It, Claim It brand of theology. It is this worldview, this mindset, that brings us the Seeker-friendly, pain-free, mega-church success story. And, in one brief sentence, Jesus turns that whole mistaken worldview on its head, if only we will listen to Him.
How often do we overhear folks talking about what they’d do if they hit the lottery? It is our natural tendency to think about what comes after the windfall. Jesus wants us looking the other way. His focus is on what the man was willing to do to receive that windfall.
Of course, unlike those lottery players, this man is not gambling. He has the fact of the windfall there. He has the certainty that if he buys that field, the contents of the field are his. It is not a gamble at all. It is a shrewd business opportunity. We might complain that a good man would inform the seller, or at least pay him nearer what the field is worth. At least, we might make such a complaint so long as we are not the buyer. However, it is not the morality of the man’s actions that are in view. We know that the love of money is the root of much evil. That this man is motivated by profit is not the point. Jesus is not endorsing that motivator as acceptable.
What Jesus is looking at is why the man acts and the extent of his action. As to extent, the man sells everything he has to come up with the purchase price. As I said, he is buying a certainty, so it’s rather like scrounging up ten dollars to pay for a certified hundred dollar bill. Perhaps a better comparison would be selling one’s stock options at a time when they are valued at a fraction of the current price. However much the market may fluctuate in the moments between purchasing your shares and selling them, profit is certain. There is no risk of loss. This man could cheerfully sell off everything he owned to buy that field because he knew that as soon as he had bought it, he would have far more.
The point is not the result, nor the greed or business acumen that brought that man to act. The point is that the man recognized the value of what he had found. This is what we are being taught about the kingdom; to recognize its value.
I am put in mind of the mustard seed again; the example Jesus used to say that the kingdom might not look like much now, but it would grow. It occurs to me that a clay pot in a field likewise doesn’t look like much. Many might pass it by and see nothing but junk. But, this man recognized it for what it was: buried treasure. He stopped to investigate, and when he investigated he discovered something worth far more than everything he had. It was something worth far more than everything he was likely to have in his lifetime.
The kingdom is like that. Many will see it but not recognize it for what it is. But, the one who recognizes what he has seen: That one will surely do whatever it takes to lay hold of it. That is the ‘why’ of this man’s actions that Jesus wants us to see.
Moses passed a burning bush in the desert one day. Many might have passed onward with little concern, seeing only a fire. But, Moses recognized something in that fire. There was something more to this than just a bush aflame. He recognized and he acted. So, this man, recognizing the vessel was more than discarded scrap, acts. The whole point is that the kingdom of God should have this impact on us. We should recognize it – recognize it’s true worth – and we should value it above everything else in life. If we put the kingdom in the balance, and every other concern, benefit, joy and sorrow of life on the other side of that balance, the balance will not move in the least.
Paul wrote to the Philippians that he had lost everything he owned, but only so he can declare that he considers all that he had lost as no more valuable than dung because their loss allowed him to win Christ (Php 3:8). He found that Treasure in the fields outside Damascus, and did indeed give up all he was to obtain it. This Jew among Jews, this Pharisees’ Pharisee, this citizen of Rome would, before it was over, lose every benefit that might have flowed to him from any of those standings. He would be not only rejected but actively harassed and threatened by his fellow Jews for proclaiming the Christ. He would be punished and ultimately killed, so we believe, by the Romans. But none of that mattered. The loss of his eyesight there outside Damascus didn’t matter. The beatings, the running, the shipwrecks. They didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered, having won Christ. The value of what he had found in Jesus so vastly outweighed everything else in life that the balance of worth didn’t budge even when he stacked all these things against that One.
That’s the message. That’s the lesson of this parable. Recognize what you have found, and value it above all else. You who have the Kingdom, never lose sight of its value. Here, of course, I speak to myself. For us, it is no longer a question of what we have stumbled upon, it has become a question of what is ours by right of inheritance. In its way, although we possess our kingdom citizenship now, it remains a matter of our future. We possess the right, but we await the full reality. We are citizens of the kingdom, but we are currently residents of the world. But, wherever we may reside at present, we have the certain knowledge – not a vague hope, but the certain knowledge – of the immeasurably great worth of our citizenship.
Whatever we may go through in this life, whatever loss we may suffer in material terms, whatever hurts we may go through in emotional terms, we must keep the kingdom before us and ever on our minds. Count it all loss! It is worth no more than dung by comparison. The brief and momentary afflictions of a lifetime are as nothing when set beside the infinite weight of the glory to come. That is our key. That is our lesson. That is who we are called to be: a people who hold that the Kingdom is of such great worth that nothing else matters. Jobs and houses, friends and family, food and clothing; none of these are of any consequence to one who holds the Kingdom in sight. When we see such concerns as these crowding up around our concern for the Kingdom, obscuring our view of the Kingdom, it is a warning to us. It is a warning that there are weeds in our garden, that we have forgotten our first love. It is a call sent out to the gardener to tend to his garden. Get those weeds up before they strangle what is left. Rekindle that love which has grown lukewarm, lest the Bridegroom be displeased and spit you out from His mouth.
The people of God are a people given great promises. The Word has assured us on many matters and spoken most directly to our earthly needs as well as our spiritual. We are promised by Providence Himself that He will provide for all our needs if we will pursue His course. He has in no way condemned prosperity in material things, He has but warned us of the danger when we allow such prosperity a greater place in our lives than it deserves. Sadly, we grow to be much like the Israel that first heard the teachings of Jesus. We, too, have been distracted by the promises of glittering wealth. We get all excited when we hear messages of blessing and prosperity, but nobody will give an ear to the message of repentance. We can’t be bothered with hearing about our sins and their consequences. Just tell us about the forgiveness and the blessings. We hear the call to choose, and what we’re really thinking is we’d like to have the benefits from column life, but with the actions from column death. We come to think we can deal with God like we deal with the menu at the local restaurant. Can I get this instead of the salad?
There’s an old song that says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” That’s our story. We want heaven, we just don’t want to pay the price of admission. The parable takes us down that road a piece. We see the man approaching the blessings of heaven, in the figure of that treasure. As noted, the attention of the listener is already leaping forward to what that treasure will allow the man to do and to be. That’s our issue. We’re all about the rewards. We’re a people of “What’s in it for me?” Jesus, though, spins us around to look at the real deal: It’s not about the man’s profits. It’s not about the power of money. It’s not about the glory that man will enjoy. It’s about the cost of glory. It’s about what he would have to give up to gain that glory. It’s the call to give it all.
Now, I notice that a man in such a position is not focused on the sacrifice he is making. It is no sacrifice to him because he is already looking ahead to what he is about to gain. If he stopped for a moment to think: I am selling everything I own to buy this field. If he allowed doubt to creep in for just one moment: What if somebody else found that hidden treasure before he bought and ran off with it? The fields would hardly be worth the price then. But, his attention is on the sure reward of his actions. There is no doubt in his mind. His faith in the outcome is absolute. Therefore, this action which could theoretically be the breaking of the man are as nothing to him.
The call is to see the kingdom in the same light. It makes the same demands of us, that we give up everything to obtain it. It holds the same promise for us, that having obtained the kingdom, we have obtained more than more than enough. It deserves the same devotion from us, that seeing it made available we will do everything it takes to make it our own. We can see the cost, and we can recognize that the cost is high. But, if our eyes are truly on the kingdom no cost is ever going to be too high. The cost is nothing where such a great and certain reward is obtained.
It’s interesting to see how God works the timing of these studies of mine. Last night, I was presenting thoughts from my study of the parable of the yeast at home group. This brought me back to something I had written regarding Caleb’s story, and the battle of Ai. That this should come up for home group on the very week that my CD project has finally been completed and made available was awesome enough. But, as I went to pick up the CDs from the manufacturer it had occurred to me that it has been about forty weeks since I began pursuing that project. Forty years in the wilderness for Caleb, from the time he first saw the promise until he came into the land of promise. Forty weeks to get from the promise of it could be done for this CD, and the reality of it is done.
Now, I thought to myself, I have to face the walls of Jericho. There is a band to be formed, practices to be arranged, perhaps some rearrangement of existing material to fit. This doesn’t phase me too much, because I know how Jericho came out, and it didn’t come out that way by Israel’s power. It’s as much in God’s hands today as it has been all along, and He’s been faithful this far. Thoughts of facing my project Jericho, though, led me to thoughts of facing my project Ai; Ai, where one man took what God had claimed for His own. Ai, where one man’s sin threatened the whole camp. As I taught on this last night in conjunction with the yeast parable, it occurred to me that this is the Ai that must be faced on the project. The project began to fulfill a vow, with a recognition that it was God’s provision for that purpose. The project is rooted in the fact that all its proceeds shall go toward that vow. As the needs of life change, and the possibilities of even greater return than expected are set before me, it would be easy to decide that once the prior vow is completed, the rest is for my use. But, it’s not that way. The project is dedicated to Caleb’s willingness to give his whole blessing back to the Lord’s service, and that is how it shall be. To take for myself from the profits would be like that man who took just a little bit from Jericho. Ai must be faced, and faced in the power of the Lord, so that the victory in that place can likewise be celebrated.
Now, it’s important to record these things that God explains to me as they come, because we are (I am) a forgetful people. However, there’s an added bonus to it all. The things I refreshed my memory by teaching last night have a certain resonance with the things I had left to pursue in this study this morning. There is a theme in the yeast that encourages us by the reminder that there is always a remnant, and the remnant will permeate the whole of what it is put into. That is the way of sourdough, and it is the way of God’s Word. It is the way of the kingdom in the world. One might ask what that has to do with treasure buried in a clay jar. That obviously does not spread to fill the whole field, else this man would have been very rich indeed.
Here’s what struck me, as I saw the notes I left for myself this morning. The buried treasure of this parable is the remnant. It is the seed-dough that makes the next baking possible. Notice this: it is already in the ground. It is already beginning its fermenting, renewing processes. It is already unstoppable, as the process of yeast rising is pretty much unstoppable. That just comes as an addition to the things I had seen in the nature of the buried treasure.
When I looked into the references in regards to this parable, the thing that was noted is that this treasure was something the family had buried to keep it from the marauding enemy. The enemy might come, and there might be nothing the family could do about it. The enemy might burn the fields, but the treasure buried in those fields would not feel the impact. The enemy might plunder the house of all that was in it, but the treasure isn’t there. The Rabbi had taught His disciples, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21). This treasure in the field was in a safe place, so far as the family was concerned. It was the safest they could arrange in this life. It could not, though, guarantee their being alive to come retrieve it later. However, even if they could not come for it, that buried treasure would remain.
Now, let me try and lift vision higher. We are a people who have, if we heed our training, buried our treasures in the fields of heaven. Cloth and iron might not survive well buried in the fields, but we need not fear moth, rot or rust in the fields we have chosen. Neither need we be worried as to whether those treasures will be there when we need them. We know whom we have believed. We know He is able to guard these things entrusted to Him until His day (2Ti 1:12).
So, here’s the really awesome point of the parable for me: When that man bought the field, he had full legal rights to everything that was in it. The treasure he knew was there became his own legal property. Well, follow along with me, here. We have buried our treasure in the fields of heaven, but we cannot claim to own those fields. No, they belong to the Lord of heaven and earth. The King of kings holds the deed to every field of heaven. It is all His and His alone. The things we have buried there are His own legal property, and the enemy has never been able to take from Him anything once entrusted into His hands! Buried treasures, those things we have wisely stored up in heaven against our arrival, remain. They are under the legal protection of their legal owner, Who is, after all, our own legal owner by our own choice. We have called ourselves His bondservants. We have been marked as His own for life. If ever our treasure and our very lives were secure, it was made so when we buried it all in His fields.
The enemy may yet come to harry us. We may suffer loss and harm in this life. We may have to go through catastrophes we cannot manage to avoid. But, one thing is sure. The treasures we have stored up in heaven have not been found by the enemy. Our accounts continue to grow until the day we go home. In the place of our hearts’ longing, that treasure remains, fully protected and set aside to be given into our hands by the Lord of the fields when we reach His abode. Praise be to God!
