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Sermon by the Sea - Matthew 13:31-33
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
My name is Jeremy. And we are in the middle of a series that we have called the sermon by the sea. And that is not because we are by the sea. We realize that we are landlocked here in Alberta. We're not confused about geography.
Speaker 1:It's because in Matthew 13, Jesus gives us a sermon by the sea. And to be fair, we did not get all that creative with the sermon series title this year, but that's fine. Good stuff in here. But this is a fascinating moment in Jesus' life because as much as we are all probably aware or familiar of Jesus telling parables, this is really where that approach to talking about the kingdom starts for the Gospel of Matthew. Up until now, Jesus has been giving advice and teaching about God and his kingdom, but it's here in chapter 13 that Jesus starts keying in on this idea of parables as the way he wants to communicate the heart of his surprising message.
Speaker 1:And so that is why we have chosen this series for this season of Lent as we are preparing ourselves for Easter. It's also why I am wearing my fancy scarf today. This is a clerical stole if you haven't seen this before. But it's hard of how we remind ourselves visually of the season that we're in as we're preparing for Easter. But as we have said in this series, it is almost like Jesus has said to himself, okay, they're just not getting it.
Speaker 1:My kingdom is different than anything they expected, and so I need to try something different here. Instead of trying to explain it head on, maybe I need to come at it sideways. Instead of talking about the kingdom directly, maybe I need to hint at the kingdom or tease it out of them so that they can discover it for themselves. Now, one of the things that my wife will tell you is that things go a lot better in our house if I think everything was my idea. I'm not sure if that sounds familiar to anyone else.
Speaker 1:Sometimes Rachel has this great idea and I can tell in my heart that she's just trying to make me think it was my idea, but that's good enough for me and so I'll take it anyway. Even if I was more or if I was more mature, maybe that would be different. But the beauty of Jesus is that he actually does want to invite us to search and discover him for him for ourselves. It's what these parables are for. Now, today, we're gonna cover two short parables that come together as a package.
Speaker 1:One of those is probably one of Jesus' most famous parables, the parable of the mustard seed. The second is the parable of the leavened bread. But before we get to that, let's look back really quickly on last week's parable. Because last week, Jesus told us a story about weeds and wheat, and it is a surprising one in many ways. Jesus says, there are weeds and there's wheat mingled together in the wheel world.
Speaker 1:Weeds are people who, in some sense, are poisonous and destructive for us. Wheat being the people who are good and healthy and nurturing and generally filled with the graciousness of God. But the first most obvious point of this parable is God telling us that he has no intention of wiping out all the bad people for us. We will just always live in a world that is a mixture of good and bad until the end of the age, until that time when God's ultimate plan for redemption of the world comes about. And I think that's pretty obvious.
Speaker 1:Right? Most of us don't expect the weeds in our world to be immediately uprooted and discarded. In fact, I think we are probably all a little grateful that God continues to extend his grace and opportunity to each of us even when we are a little bit poisonous. But the really surprising part of this parable is that Jesus seems to be saying, not only are there weeds and wheat mingled together in the world, but you and I, we just can't know who will end up being who. And so the surprising, beautiful image that Jesus gives us is that he is so confident in the strength of God's kingdom and so convinced of the power of his message.
Speaker 1:At the same time though, he is so purposefully committed to the ability of each person to grow and change and become something new. That he says, weeds and the enemy and the evil one are not even really a concern for him. They can't hurt God's kingdom anyway. What can are well meaning religious people who instead of extending God's grace out into the world, start drawing lines and writing people off and discarding stories before they've been completed. That's what damages God's kingdom.
Speaker 1:As I said it last week, Jesus is more concerned about his disciples writing people off than he is about the evil one infiltrating his field, and that should be a sobering realization. God does not need you and I protecting his territory for him. What he needs is for us to welcome all people and to help them grow into their own something beautiful. Now, today, is mustard seeds and yeast? And there's a lot packed into these two short parables.
Speaker 1:But first, let's pray. God, who continues to surprise us with grace, would you remind us by your spirit that we are not your protectors? We are the ones found safe in you. That we are not here to guard access to you. We are the ones welcomed by your invitation.
Speaker 1:We are not called to write each other's stories, but simply to look for you in ours. And so if we have been too zealous, would you forgive us? If we have slipped into apathy, would you reignite our passion? Would you help us to engage with your world with the grace and peace that you offer to each of us every day? And as we speak today and continue our path toward Easter, would you help us to engage this Lenten season with purpose, to embrace the in between season we're in, to remember loss and lack and gap in our lives so that we might prepare well for resurrection and the return of life.
Speaker 1:Gracious father, whose blessed son Jesus Christ came down to us to be the true bread of life. May we live in him as he is in us. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Okay.
Speaker 1:Here we go with mustard seeds and leavened bread. But before we jump into Jesus' parable here, I think the way that this has been structured for us in Matthew is important because the explanations for these parables, both the sower and the soil from the first week of the series and the weeds and the wheat that we talked about last week, those explanations of the parables come later on. They are both sort of set aside just for the disciples. And so one of the things that we looked at last week was where Jesus says, listen, I can't explain kingdom to you. I have to tell it slant.
Speaker 1:I have to tell it in a way that you get it for yourself. Now, once you do, everything will make more and more sense. But if you don't get it, and if you can't wrap your head around this new way of thinking, then the more I talk, the more nonsense it's going to sound like. And so because of that, it's almost like Jesus puts the invite out there for everyone. He tells the parables to the crowd, but those explanations, those are reserved for just the people who get it.
Speaker 1:Just the people who seek him out and start asking deeper questions of him. And so when you read through the Sermon by the Sea in Matthew 13, if you want to experience the sermon as it was given to the crowd, it's almost like you need to skip over the explanations that Matthew has included for us. Because those were just for the disciples. But what that does is it helps to connect one parable to the next. That's how the sermon flows, story after story after story without any interruptions.
Speaker 1:And what that does is it connects the parable of the mustard seed that we're looking at today much more closely to the parable of the weeds from last week. In fact, in the text, it follows right after it with the explanation of the weeds coming later on after the crowd has left. And so what's important about that is to realize that the mustard seed parable is a direct follow-up to the story we talked about last week. Now, in the story of the weeds, Jesus' point is your job isn't to judge. I'll look after that.
Speaker 1:You tend to the field, care for the people around you, and hope the best for them. But even if the crowd gets that, and even if they are on board with Jesus at this point, what is still the probable question that's in the back of everyone's mind as they stand on the shore listening to Jesus talk about weeds that are bundled up and thrown in the fire? They're still saying to themselves, right, not my job to judge. You got that, but it's okay because God will get them in the end. Right?
Speaker 1:The bad guys as I define them, they're still going to be bundled up and thrown in the fire. Am I right? And Jesus doesn't want to leave us lingering in that moment. And so in verse 31, he tells them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field.
Speaker 1:Though it is the smallest of seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. Now the NIV here doesn't include birds of the air, but it's there in the original language. And I wanna talk about it later, so I just figured I would include it now. Alright? Next verse.
Speaker 1:He told them still another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about 60 pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. So Matthew 13 verses 31 to 33. And remember here, Jesus gives no explanation for these stories. And so if you can imagine standing there in the crowd, this would seem a very strange sermon.
Speaker 1:But let's start with the mustard seed. Because as short as this parable is, there's a lot going on in this image. And there are already a few problems here. First, mustard seed is technically not the smallest seed. And second, technically, it actually doesn't grow into a tree.
Speaker 1:Now the first is probably just part of the nature of parable. It's meant to be hyperbolic. The mustard seed is indeed a very small seed, and it does grow into a very large plant. It's also very likely that this was the smallest seed that anybody in the crowd had ever regularly dealt with. In fact, it seems like a mustard seed had become a sort of proverbial reference in the ancient world to something that was very tiny.
Speaker 1:Later on in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. So mustard seed seems to be a pretty well known way to talk about something tiny and surprising. And in fact, we have references to mustard seeds outside the words of Jesus. Antigonus of Choristus and Diodorus Siculus were both ancient philosophers around the time of Jesus, and they both tell stories about mustard seeds, and they use them examples of things that are small.
Speaker 1:So this is not a story about seed technicalities. We don't need to worry about the fact that Jesus gets his horticultural facts wrong here. Is a story about contrast. Right? And I've actually heard people try to discredit the Bible by pointing to this verse and saying, see, the Bible is wrong.
Speaker 1:Jesus gets it wrong. He doesn't even know about seeds. How can we trust him for anything else? Almost just as ridiculous, I've seen people try to come up with bizarre gymnastics to argue that Jesus actually was right and mustard seeds were the smallest seeds. But spoiler here, they're not.
Speaker 1:Mustard seeds are small. Tobacco seeds are smaller. In fact, the seeds of the epiphytic orchid are the smallest. Over a million seeds are packed into a tiny single seed pod of an epiphytic orchid. It's actually pretty incredible.
Speaker 1:But that's not really the point, is it? This is a conventional story where Jesus is contrasting a well known example of something that starts small and grows in surprising ways. Get it. You see, it's a good reminder, however, that we have to take the Bible on its terms, not ours. Because if we try to treat the Bible as if it was a science textbook, or a catalog of horticultural facts or even an unbiased historical source, it's going to disappoint us.
Speaker 1:But if we approach the Bible on its terms, what we find is this fascinating collection of stories and poems and histories and wisdom that speaks to something so much more true than the size of seeds. And here, Jesus point is that the kingdom of God begins in ways we can barely even grasp. Smile for someone who has felt ignored. A kind word for someone who's had a really rough day. There are a thousand ways that small gestures transform our experience of grace and invite us into something actually divine.
Speaker 1:I still remember that moment in high school where my friend invited me to his church. And I had known him for years, but I had no idea he was into Jesus. And yet that small moment began a journey for me that has reshaped everything in my life since that day. If you have ever felt the profound impact that a small moment of kindness can have, you know what Jesus is talking about here. Never underestimate what your act of grace can begin and someone else.
Speaker 1:And I hope that's encouraging. Because what this means also is that once the kingdom gets a hold of you and takes root, it actually takes very little to begin enormous changes in your life. If your faith is not where you want it to be, then small investments in praying more regularly or being around more positive faithful people, that will start to pay off. If your marriage does not seem to be what it once was, then small, loving, kind, generous gestures done with intent, they will change things over time. The best things in this world come from a long obedience in the same direction.
Speaker 1:But it's actually the second problem with this parable that is far more fascinating to me. And this one is almost surely intentional on Jesus' part because this is what a mustard plant looks like. Now, they are big plants and they do grow rapidly. And so they are an apt contrast to the smallness of a mustard seed. And in fact, they are pretty unruly plants.
Speaker 1:They often grow to between six and fifteen feet tall if left alone. They get quite big. If you have ever had a lilac in your yard, you'll have an idea of how these types of plants grow. If you let them, they will take over everything. Our last house was overrun with lilacs, which were beautiful, but hard to contain.
Speaker 1:A lot like me. That's a joke. But, we had these beautiful lilacs in our yard that I spent years trying to kill. Because they were planted in one part of our yard on the side of the house, but they had sunk their roots all through our lawn and that actually sprung up on the other side and they were choking out a tree in our front yard that we also wanted to grow. And so I spent years trying to get these things to actually die and stay where I wanted them to be.
Speaker 1:Eventually, if you give them time, mustard seeds and lilacs will even start to develop a thick trunk like base that looks something like this. Now even still, a mustard plant is not a tree. Now in fact, last week, I mentioned the rabbinic book, Kalayim. So in the Midrash and the Talmud, which are Hebrew commentaries on the Old Testament, there is a section called Seder Zareim, which means the order of seeds. And in Seder Zarem, there is a book called Kalayim, which means mixture.
Speaker 1:And in that book is a commentary on the passages of Leviticus and Deuteronomy that have rules about when and where different seeds can be planted together. Now, last week I brought it up because the rabbi said that the weeds zone in and the plant weeds could be planted together, just like we saw in Jesus parable. Today, it's important because the rabbis actually talk about mustard seeds as well. And they forbid a mustard seed from being planted in a garden. And here's why.
Speaker 1:The problem with a mustard plant is they are just so unruly. It's hard to keep them contained. And so what happens is you plant them and they end up creeping all across the garden and that constitutes mingled seeds which are a no no in Leviticus. So you gotta keep your mustard seed separated. Point being, mustard plants are not considered particularly noble in the ancient world.
Speaker 1:They were common part of life, but they were not exactly the most well regarded plant around. And so, as familiar as we are with this parable, it would have actually been quite surprising to hear Jesus compare the kingdom of God to a mustard bush. Except that he says tree. In fact, what he says is that when it grows, it becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. Now, what we have to understand here is that this is not a mistake.
Speaker 1:Jesus is not confused about whether a mustard bush is a tree. This is not a horticultural mistake. This is actually a reference to the Old Testament that he's making. You see, many times in the Old Testament, Israel is referred to using this specific language. It's an image, a prophetic one that the people of Israel will become a place of refuge for the nations when God's kingdom comes to the world.
Speaker 1:So here's a couple examples. Ezekiel 17. This is what the sovereign Lord says. I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it. I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
Speaker 1:Note the image here of something very small, a tiny tender sprig that grows into an enormous cedar. On the mountain heights of Israel, I will plant it. It will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will come and nest in it. They will find shelter in the shade of its branches.
Speaker 1:Daniel chapter four. I looked and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky. It was visible to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1:Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it, the wild animals found shelter, and the birds of the air lived in its branches. From it, every creature was fed. So these are well known and beautiful images of the kingdom of God in the Jewish scriptures. These are images that were deeply embedded in the Jewish consciousness.
Speaker 1:And these were images that the Jews had come to associate with themselves. It's also why I don't like that the English sometimes drops birds of the air. You know, even though we all know that birds fly in the air, it's not redundant. It's actually part of a callback that Jesus is making to these prophetic images in the Old Testament. And so what Jesus is doing here in the image of a mustard seed is very intentionally appropriating and transforming this national image of pride in Israel.
Speaker 1:Here's what a cedar, a cedar of Lebanon looks like. Here is a mustard bush. The contrast is very intentional because Jesus is saying, I know what you have in mind. And yes, the kingdom is remarkable. And absolutely, it does start small like a tender sprig from a cedar tree, and it will grow unstoppable into something enormous.
Speaker 1:And if you choose to be a part of it, it will be glorious. But I hate to be the one to tell you, it won't look like you're expecting. See, at the time of Jesus, the Jews were looking for a military leader to save them. That's what they wanted in a messiah. Someone to lead them back to power to make them great again.
Speaker 1:Someone to overthrow their enemies and establish their dominance in the world. Someone to prove to everyone that God was on their side. You know, not that we would ever think like that. Right? But to everyone's shock, what Jesus says over and over and over again through his teaching is that his father's kingdom looks unlike anything they have imagined.
Speaker 1:In God's kingdom, strength looks a lot like weakness, and power looks a lot like sacrifice. Cedar trees look like mustard bushes, and being a king, well, sometimes that looks like getting down on your knees and washing people's feet. And Jesus seems to be saying that the true kingdom of God is scruffy and scraggly and has a tendency to show up in the places you least expected it to be. And sometimes it starts over here on the side of the house where you planted it, and then all of a sudden it's over there in the front yard where you didn't think it should be. And it's crept past the boundaries you put in your garden, and it's showing up in places that quite frankly it shouldn't be because the kingdom of God is a little bit mischievous in Jesus' imagination.
Speaker 1:And so literally, every time you give up whatever perceived status you have to hang out with someone you otherwise wouldn't, or you forgo what you could gather to yourself to contribute to something beyond yourself. You are part of helping this unruly kingdom of God show up in unexpected places. And yet, that's not the only surprise Jesus has in mind here. Because when you take the image of birds of the air finding safety and security in the branches of a cedar, and you transplant that image to a mustard seed that someone has planted in their field, you get a very different image, don't you? Remember, we are firmly in the realm of farming in this sermon.
Speaker 1:And Jesus starts chapter 13. Look, a farmer goes out to sow. Let's talk about soil. And he moves to the image of a landowner trying to figure out what to do with all these weeds in his field. Now he's talking about a mustard seed that someone went and took and very intentionally planted in a field.
Speaker 1:These are all images drawn from the world of agriculture. That's a world his audience would have known very well even if you and I aren't all that familiar with it. But if that's your world, and this is a seed that you planted and tended, what is the last thing you want to see when you look out your window? Well, other than maybe an enemy planting bad seeds in your field, it's probably birds. I mean, there's a reason why scarecrows are a thing.
Speaker 1:Farmers don't want birds in their fields. They may be fine in the trees, but here in the fields, those are the enemies. And yet Jesus says, those are exactly those who will be welcomed when the kingdom arrives. Everyone that you would normally work to shoo away because they don't look the part or play the role. Everyone who doesn't meet our expectations of a kingdom guest, that's what the kingdom was built for.
Speaker 1:And so in two short verses, Jesus has taken this image of the kingdom and flipped everything upside down. And he said that the true expression of the divine in the world starts so small you can barely notice it. It grows into something you would barely recognize and shows up in places you wouldn't expect. And it welcomes those you wouldn't want to even acknowledge in your embrace. Except he's not done yet either.
Speaker 1:Because next, he says that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about 60 pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. Now 60 pounds of flour is not a small amount. Bakers tell us that combined with water and yeast, this would make about a 110 pounds of dough, and that would yield enough bread for close to a 150 people to eat. Now, I love bread. Gluten is delicious no matter what anyone says.
Speaker 1:But as Frau Capon says, this is no slip of a girl making two tiny loaves of bread for her husband's pleasure. This is an entrepreneur, folks, a baker. And she's not preparing a tiny family meal, she is baking for a party. Also notice here that she is the representation of God in this image and Jesus doesn't skip a beat. But the image here is extravagant, loving, inviting, welcoming grace that has more than enough for everyone.
Speaker 1:Now, remember back to the shore where people have gathered and stood and listened to Jesus speak his riddle riddles of the kingdom. And imagine their thoughts as he tells them that there are weeds in the world, but they're not your problem. And then imagine their rationalizations as they say to themselves, it's okay. God will get them in the end. And then imagine as Jesus continues and says, actually, the kingdom starts in the smallest gesture of grace you can imagine.
Speaker 1:And truthfully, it will grow into something you are scarcely prepared to recognize. Because honestly, it invites those who you think are your enemies. But trust me here, it will be okay because there is enough to go around, I promise. See, the thing about yeast is as long as you keep it going, it actually never runs out. If you keep it alive and growing and multiplying, you can give it away indefinitely because that's what the kingdom of God is.
Speaker 1:That no matter how many people get invited to the party, there is always room at the table. So may the kingdom surprise you this week. May it take your expectations of God and turn them upside down. May you see that it is already at work in your life changing and transforming and leavening everything to the potential that was there when God created. Because I promise, once you see it at play, you won't be able to miss the kingdom again.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. God, help us as we engage with these images, these stories and parables, these riddles of your presence in the world to understand that what you are doing is trying to flip our expectations upside down, to show us that you are not who we think you are. You are bigger and more beautiful, more gracious, more loving, more inviting than we can possibly imagine. And so, God, in all the small ways that we have been given the opportunity to extend your grace out into the world with small gestures of kindness and love, mustard seed investments in your kingdom, God, would we do that with faithful abandon, ready to bring you into every encounter and relationship that we have. God, for those times where we feel like we have been left on the outside, like perhaps there isn't enough for us to join into the party, or we're not welcome or wanted in the safety of your embrace, God, would we recognize that you exceed all of our expectations, that we are welcome just as those who we think are enemies are welcome, and there is always an empty seat at your table when we are ready.
Speaker 1:In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.