He told another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. It’s the smallest of all seeds. But when it’s grown, it’s the largest of all vegetable plants. It becomes a tree so that the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.” He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.” “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that somebody hid in a field, which someone else found and covered up. Full of joy, the finder sold everything and bought that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one very precious pearl, he went and sold all that he owned and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that people threw into the lake and gathered all kinds of fish. When it was full, they pulled it to the shore, where they sat down and put the good fish together into containers. But the bad fish they threw away. That’s the way it will be at the end of the present age. The angels will go out and separate the evil people from the righteous people, and will throw the evil ones into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth. “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked. They said to him, “Yes.” Then he said to them, “Therefore, every legal expert who has been trained as a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings old and new things out of their treasure chest.” (Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52, CEB)
The kingdom of heaven is like…
Mustard seed. The smallest seed to Jesus that becomes the biggest most invasive thing in your garden.
Yeast. Which once put into something can not be removed and spreads throughout all of what it was added to.
A found treasure.
Pearls.
A net full of fish, of which the bad ones are thrown back… “The angels will go out and separate the evil people from the righteous people, and will throw the evil ones into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.” But who are these evil people? There are people who claim to be followers of God that others would say are evil because those claiming to be Christians are actively working to make it impossible for others to live. That to me is evil, so are they thrown back, but they say they are followers of Christ, how does that work?
Sometimes Jesus’ this is like this is easy, mustard, yeast, treasure, and sometimes it’s not, fish thrown back, so do we get it?
The little things you do to show love to this world and the people that God created in it will go a long way to work into the fabric of society and help bring the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. And I pray that by doing this we will not be seen as evil and cast back. But I err on the side of love.
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 