You can’t say Jesus ever made it easy. This teacher did not spoon-feed his students the answers for the test. He made them think, the kind of thinking that requires challenge, debate and wrestling with his teachings. Likely it was in his storytelling that minds stretched the most, stretched them even into this present life lived so vastly different from his time.

Teaching Technique

On the surface, the stories have rustic settings, places where the tensions and drama of today are not staged. Bread is homemade, people stroll through fields sown with small seeds, good fortune comes both to those who work hard for it and those who just stumble upon it, and fish nets are pulled in full. The stories begin, “The kingdom of heaven is like…”

Jesus often utilized stories when he talked with the crowds, parables loaded with meanings drawing upon a moral. It gave his teaching mystery as he spoke of what the world is like as well as what the world could be. It made them think.

Implicit to “the kingdom of heaven” is understanding things aren’t perfect in the here and now. Yet, if you look for it, admit to it, the proverbial hell in a handbasket isn’t around the corner either. There’s much to be celebrated as well as much to be desired. The parables affirm it. It only takes a small amount of yeast to make dough rise and ready for baking, small mustard seeds grow into tree-size bushes, good things are found by accident in fields, prized pearls are discovered among good collections, and there are days when the catch is amazing. You may have to intentionally look for it, but the good in the kingdom of heaven happens just as frequently as it doesn’t.

Basic Injustice

As it is though, people often shut their eyes to what’s wrong not just in the world, but right around our own corners. Yet indifference isn’t the only contributor to the problem. More so are our practices and lifestyles which have a basis in oppression and inequality. Again, as it is, this unfairness begins right at the American kitchen table.

Sorry to say, but our society is addicted to sugar, fat, and salt.  Modern busy lives require convenience that is afforded in fast, processed foods with quick meals rather than the thought and time necessitated for made-from-scratch home cooking. While providing this service, the food industry also capitalizes on the brain’s response to added ingredients that sustain cravings. People keep coming back for more and sales are sustained. We’ve all had that sense of “I just need to have _____.”

Diets based in these “needs” lead to poor health including diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and more. When it’s an individual’s choice to do so, that’s one thing. But it doesn’t end there.

Food insecurity is a real issue in America. In this land of plenty, people live in places where it’s hard to get to a store to buy food. Supermarkets are reluctant to build in impoverished areas, food deserts result, and the disadvantaged don’t have transportation to drive to other areas. Tell yourself that’s not your fault if you like. Or look deeper into what happens.

Yes, this country aids those living at poverty levels so people can eat. Yet again, note how the shelves are stocked in low income areas that do sell food. Produce areas are small with little organic choices, meat selections are fatty, and the sugary selections are plenty and easy to reach. Healthy options are few, and those who can least afford poor health experience it most often due to their dietary consumption. Again, not your problem?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

Where is this kingdom of heaven in food deserts and food industries that keep people addicted and in poor health? Where and how can the average person make even incremental changes in these issues that destroy life?

Consider this: food banks and church food closets often rely on donations. The same goes for organizations that serve meals to the hungry and homeless poor. Without this support, this country would crash with the weight of those who would be sicker and dying from poverty. Every time bags and boxes of food are given to support those who don’t have enough to feed families, the elderly, or the disabled, the kingdom of heaven appears. It’s as small as a mustard seed, pearl, or seemingly undetectable as yeast in a bowl of flour. But for those in need, it’s treasure is as great as a net full of fish.

Just make it mean even more. Give food that is wholesome and healthy. Contribute fresh vegetables, bring in organic cereals, donate canned goods with low sodium. Let the kingdom of heaven support life in the best form possible.

Granted, it’s not easy, maybe costing more than you prefer, and it’s especially not easy when heaven contrasts what should be against what is not. When a man found a great treasure, he had to sell all he owned to get enough money to buy the field which held the treasure he found. And when the merchant found the prized pearl, he needed to sell all his stuff in order to buy it. Their sacrifice was worth it, but personal sacrifice was what it took.

Sacrificial Love

All true value is going to be costly. Yet sustaining life and health also sustains other values, like freedom to vote, equality of opportunity, pushback on cultural oppression that would revise and silence history. The kingdom of heaven is pained by injustice and stands in centuries of both small efforts and peaceful protest creating the “good trouble, necessary trouble,” as John Lewis declared, to bring about change both in hearts and systems such that all children of God know the love and provision of God.

So it is then, when the nets are full of fish of every kind, the good fish are saved and the bad ones thrown away. It’s a sorting that is not based on fairness or who gets to say what, but by the measure Jesus proclaimed of love for neighbor and love for enemy (Matthew 5:43-45)  .

Jesus would go on to experience that “good trouble, necessary trouble” himself, calling out oppressive leadership and taking up a cross without resistance as he met a cruel death. In doing so, he reversed by resurrection what should not be to what is worth changing so the good yeast may permeate the dough and raise up a new world, the tiny seed will shade and give provision to those in need, the great treasure and prized pearl of love of God will be found and valued, and all kinds of persons may be caught into a new story of, “The Kingdom of heaven is like….”

Matthew 13:31-34, 44-52

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