Surprised by the Kingdom of God III

Subtitle: From seemingly insignificant beginnings to unimaginable endings.

Jesus’s preaching on the Kingdom of God was absolutely surprising to the original audience. Many of his parables were such that they taught about some aspect of the Kingdom that was against the common conception of what the Kingdom was supposed to look like. In this brief series, I will be looking at some of those misconceptions.

In this final installment of the mini-series on Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom of God, I want to focus on his parables. Many of Jesus’ parables begin with a phrase like “the Kingdom of God is like…” I think the reason for this is that through the use of parables, he is attempting to correct some misunderstandings about the Kingdom, some of which we have already looked at. It is worth noting, however, that there also seems to be a second purpose to the parables- that of concealing or hiding the teaching. Consider Matthew 13:10 and following: When asked why he taught in parables, Jesus replied,

“You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables,
‘For they look, but they don’t really see.
They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.’” (Matt 13:11-13, see also the following quote from Isaiah in vv 14 and 15)

That, however, is another topic. In this post, I want to look at two specific parables on the Kingdom, particularly in reference to the surprising nature of its progression through the Gospel. Both of them are found one after another, and I believe that they are different parables that teach the same idea about the Kingdom of God. They are found in the same chapter I just quoted, Matthew 13:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches…
The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”
Matthew 13:31-33

The parables are very straight forward. The Kingdom of God, or in Matthew’s terminology ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ has a seemingly insignificant beginning, pictured as a small seed or a tiny bit of yeast. Here, we see a connection with the first post and the messianic misunderstanding of the Jewish people (See: If the Kingdom of God is here, why are the Romans still here also?). The coming of the Messiah was thought to be in terms of a grandiose event, giving freedom to the Jewish people from their oppression under the hands of the Romans. I argued, in the post linked, that with the coming of the Kingdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ that oppression was destroyed- not the symptom (The Romans), but at the very root itself (sin, death, and the devil). We see as we continue reading that this was to the Jew first, and then also the Gentile.

But let’s consider the beginning of the Kingdom of God a bit more broadly. A Jewish Carpenter, thought to be of an illegitimate birth, begins telling people that the Kingdom of God has come. Strangely, twelve fishermen feel compelled to follow after him, taking his teachings as their own. Sure, the man has charisma, and most of the common folk like him a lot. But this isn’t really anything new- as Gamaliel would later say of the Jesus movement, “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!” (Acts 5:38-39). Of course, Gamaliel had a lot of history to back him up on this one- lots of “messiahs” had waxed and waned on the scene, each of their movements disappearing with the passage of time. Thirteen people. This new movement was nothing new. What could they accomplish with thirteen people? As we will see, Gamaliel was frighteningly right- and Jesus’ teaching in these parables is absolutely true.

Gamaliel’s advice came on the heels of Jesus crucifixion. The leader of this strange sect was put to death, and not only put to death, but put to death as a common criminal by the very group who were oppressing the Jewish people, and under the curse of the Torah pronounced on those hung from a tree (just to make matters worse!). Surely, this was no kingdom. All of the sudden, however, eleven of those twelve men, with a few others added in, begin preaching to others that this criminal had come back from the dead, and that his death was a divine act which took away the sins of the world. A band of men, preaching about their dead leader, and salvation through placing your faith and trust in his execution and apparent resurrection. Their method of spreading this message? Word of mouth. Good luck, fellas- you need it. A dead leader, and a bunch of guys glorifying his death and resurrection, going around telling a bunch of others to worship this guy by word-of-mouth. Apparently insignificant beginnings.

Yet, as Jesus said, even a tree begins as just a seed. Even the rise of bread in the oven begins with just a little bit of yeast. Eventually, that seed breaks open and grows to unimaginable heights. The yeast fills the dough and the bread rises. Shortly after the death of Jesus, the men began their preaching- that the same guy who died a criminal was the Messiah, and that God had raised him to life. That he had ascended to the Father, and now commands everyone, everywhere to repent. Three-thousand people came to believe their message. These were mostly Jews of the diaspora- who lived all over the Roman empire. They would take the message just preached to them back to their homes. Eventually, teams of men would go out all over the Roman Empire preaching that same word-of-mouth message, until Paul, a Jewish man who eventually converted to this new faith, would say that it had been preached to every creature under heaven (Col 1:23), and throughout the entire Roman Empire (Romans 1:8).

Two-thousand years later, the Kingdom of God that Jesus announced had come in Mark 1:14-15, seemingly insignificant with the death of its leader and the scattering of his disciples, has outlasted the Roman Empire. It has lasted longer than many other regimes and empires, all of which have risen and fell with the passage of time. Yet, the Kingdom of God has remained. In fact, it has spread. From a tiny section of the middle east, to all of the inhabited contenents, bursting into most countries, and tittering on the edge of entering the rest. Gamaliel’s words have rang true. The parables of Jesus also ring true- the tree continues to grow, the yeast continues to permeate the bread until the day when the true King is revealed, along with the subjects of his kingdom. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess the Lordship of the King, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10-11). Unimaginable endings.