Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 on July 26, 2026
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
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The Kingdom of God: Understanding Jesus' Parables
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Be careful for what you pray. When we let those words come off of our lips so easily, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Be careful for what you pray. You are asking God's kingdom, well, not to be here because it already is, but to be acknowledged by us, that God reigns, and God has a will for us to carry out. Be careful for what you pray.
In Jesus' day, this teaching of the kingdom of God was so important that He gives us parables in today's gospel lesson to reach everybody, no matter what your background is, your age, your vocation, your circumstances, there's something in one of those parables to reach your ears and make sense to you. And we look at it now because God's kingdom is something for which we pray. We wouldn't be here this morning if we did not want to acknowledge God's in charge. And how does that charge us?
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
So here's what Jesus says. He takes very common things. The first, the mustard seed. How many of you, when you were girls, wore a mustard seed encased in plastic around your neck? Anybody? It was a popular piece of jewelry when I was a girl. I don't know if I've seen many for sale now, but I would have one, and we looked at it, and we would remember as small as a mustard seed is. If you even have faith that small, you'll be able to do mighty things.
But this parable that Jesus is teaching, he's teaching to people who live at a different time and have different thoughts about mustard seeds. You don't go to the store and buy it in a jar. It happens all around you. In fact, it doesn't make sense to the people hearing the parable because no farmer is going to sell mustard seeds. Mustard seeds scatter on their own. Mustard seeds make for what we call weeds. The mustard plants that grow everywhere, oftentimes in the nice plots that we've cultivated for our own gardens, and we don't want any of those nasty mustard plants in them. And dog on it there they are again.
The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It's small, and it seems to be planted at God's will. Sometimes against our own better judgment for how we see things when we believe we are in charge. How is it that those plants show up? When they do show up, they bring something. They bring home to creatures that need protection and shelter. They bring healing. Never hear of a mustard plaster. Mustard stimulates the blood, makes it flow. Supposedly is a good solution to arthritis. Mustard inhale, breaks up congestion. There's a healing thing about mustard.
So Jesus in talking about the kingdom of God, likening it to a mustard seed, isn't something that we control on plant, isn't even our little faith doing wonderful things. Mustard seed is God's grace to the world, scattered wherever God wants the kingdom to break in, even if that's in our private little garden plots, that we've so carefully planned, be aware of the healing and the shelter that comes with that weed.
The Parable of the Yeast
And then Jesus moves on to talk about a woman and yeast. Now, yeast was not necessarily a good thing in Bible times. Yeast was considered to be as much a destroyer as it was something that multiplies. If you were a good Jewish woman, you would clean your kitchen before Passover and make a kosher. Get rid of all the yeast, all that stuff that could spoil things, use only unleavened bread during Passover. Yeast, well, it just didn't make sense that that would be something that Jesus would talk to in terms of God's kingdom.
Nor would it make sense to have a woman in a parable, because women were not seen and heard and expected to participate in the religious practices of people. Yet Jesus talks about this woman who takes yeast of all things and folds it, hides it into dough, and that dough expands probably enough to feed about 100 people from the measures of yeast. In other words, be careful. This kingdom of heaven may go against all of your religious presuppositions about things and people and roles.
The Parables of Treasure and Pearl
And then Jesus moves on to two things of great value. What about if there's treasure found in a field? Wouldn't you sell everything to buy that field? I think if Jesus were talking today, he'd probably use the image of finding gold or discovering oil on a piece of land that you know about no one else does, and you can go and get the property. And it's in your name. We can already relate to that, right? We've all seen about the gold rush. We understand those things.
Or the pearl, the pearl of great value that somebody looking at all the pearls that come out of those oysters, and then finds one that is of such value, willingness to sell everything for it. Friends, Jesus is not giving us a lesson on economics. How to win the lottery. How to make a million. What Jesus is talking about is how we value things. And if there's something valuable, how we will give everything up. Surrender it all to get that, which is so valuable to us.
Try it this way. Anyone here married? Anyone here apparent? Anyone here have a dear friend. You know, the person that you would give your life, if necessary, to make their life better. That's what Jesus is talking about in the parable that the kingdom of God is likened to this property in which treasure is found or this pearl.
And don't forget, pearls come through irritations, right? The more irritated that oyster is, the better the pearl. Jesus is saying, these are the treasures I see in you. For God's love of the world that I came for you. You are the pearl. You are the treasure. I surrender all to bring you life, to lay claim to you.
I've heard it said in so many different ways. One being, if you were the only person that existed in this world, Jesus would still come and die on a cross just for you. Or if you can picture God's refrigerator in heaven, your picture is on it. That's the treasure that each of us is seeing to be in the kingdom of God.
And so, when you are so loved by that spouse, by that parent, by that friend, don't you want to love back? Don't you want to give your all back? That's what Jesus is saying. The kingdom of God is finding this treasure being aware of this gift of God's presence and love in your life. And wanting to surrender all other things, to hold it and respond to it.
The Parable of the Dragnet
For very good parables, but there's one more. And that's the dragnet. You have to be old to understand that. Dragnets were not just the nets cast by boats like Peter and John and James. Dragnets were actually long nets weighted, dropped from many different boats, hauled in by many fishermen because they were dragged along the ocean floor.
Now, what do you think those nets caught? Everything. Everything in the way got caught in the net. And as they dragged it ashore, somebody had to separate what was good and what was bad. Now, here's what I think happens to us. You and I get caught in the net and we come to shore and we start looking around and we go, ooh, over there's the grouper, real party guy. You know, he doesn't belong in the net. And over there's the snapper of don't get close to her. She'll snap at you. And oh, look at those urchins, those sea urchins. How did they make it in the net? And what's a sea? Can't that sea horse figure out what it wants to be? It's got to be either a fish or a horse. It can't be both.
And we go on and on. That fish isn't the right color. And that fish is this. And that fish is that. We tend to make all the judgments on what's in the net. The kingdom of God is like a dragnet that is brought in. And there is righteous and unrighteous deeds within the net. The thing is, it's not about who saved and who's damned, who's good and who's bad. It's not so black and white with God. It's more like what of our deeds are righteous. And which need to be purged away? How do we get ourselves clean?
Martin Luther said on his deathbed in the end, we are all beggars. Because when we're in that net and the angels are coming, and we separate out the good from the bad, I guarantee you I've got no status. No greater status than anybody else in this room. No greater status than anyone else in this world, in this history. We are all beggars depending on the grace of God and the salvation of one who saw us still as treasure, as priceless pearls.
Living in God's Kingdom
That's the kind of God we have. And that's the kind of kingdom that we are called into building. A kingdom of great value where it's not dependent on us but God's grace to spread and where God shows up in places our good organization and way of thinking would not expect. And we need to be attentive and listen anyway where we don't limit people by who they are, what they bring. Each of us, the pearl, each of us, the treasure. We are caught in that net together and we reflect the love of God as we share with one another.
That, I believe, is what it means to have God in charge. That, I believe, is what it means to live in the kingdom and help to build it. That, I believe, is what we need to take with us when we walk out these doors. Because the kingdom of God is not just in this room but wherever we go. And so we pray, our Father who art in heaven, how it would be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Amen.