The Way of the Kingdom
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A - 1 Kings 3.5-12; Romans 8.28-30; Matthew 13.44-52
24 July 2011

Hearing Jesus talk about separating the evil from the righteous and St. Paul talking about those whom God predestined may make us feel uncomfortable. After all, such statements about the Kingdom of God seem to reflect a bias in the early Church towards an exclusive sense of what it means to be saved. We like to think that God is more loving than these readings seem to suggest, and that the Church should be more inclusive when it comes to judging who is saved.

To understand how these readings represent the saving power of God’s love and the inclusive nature of the Church, we need to appreciate how they would be taken by a Jewish audience at the time of the early Church. Before the coming of Christ, most Jewish people believed that salvation was for the Jews alone. After all, God had made it very clear that they were God’s chosen people. As we heard in the First Reading from the First Book of Kings, it was God who chose the Jewish people for his own and it was God who made Solomon their king. There are hints in the Old Testament that God considers salvation a gift for all peoples. However, it would be pretty easy for a Jewish person waiting for the coming of the Messiah to take for granted that they would be saved simply because they belonged to God’s chosen people. In the meantime, they focused on holding fast to the Jewish religious laws. With this in mind, let us consider what these three parables about the Kingdom might mean for the Jewish people at the time of the early Church.

When Jesus speaks of someone finding a treasure in a field, the people in the crowd would have considered this completely realistic. It was quite common at the time for people to bury their valuables to protect them from being plundered during times of unrest. But in what way might the kingdom be like a hidden treasure that is found? Notice that the one who found the treasure didn’t own the land. In other words, this person wasn’t Jewish. The Jews “owned” the Promised Land and yet this foreigner discovers the treasure, buys the field and is able to claim a place in the kingdom. The point isn’t that the kingdom is for sale. The point is that people other than Jews are able to enter into the kingdom that was promised to the Jews. Those in the crowd who grasped the meaning of this parable would have been quite surprised to discover that someone who isn’t Jewish could be saved.

Jesus also says that the kingdom is like a merchant who searches for fine pearls and upon finding one, sells everything to buy it. Pearls were extremely valuable. So it wouldn’t have surprised anyone is the crowd that someone would sell everything to buy one. But when they considered why someone would search for the kingdom, they were probably perplexed. The Jews understood their relationship with God in terms of being God’s people. It would strike them as odd that an individual would seek out the kingdom on their own. The point is that even individual Jews cannot take the kingdom for granted. Those in the crowd who grasped the meaning of this parable would have been quite surprised to discover that even someone who is Jewish needs to make an effort to find the kingdom and seek out their own salvation.

When Jesus says the kingdom is like fish caught in a net, many people in the crowd would have understood the need to separate the good from the bad. Some people would have had experience working in the fishing trade. The implication is that someone who is Jewish could be thrown out of the kingdom. Once again the point is that even Jews cannot take the kingdom for granted. Those in the crowd who grasped the meaning of this parable would have be quite surprised, as they looked to their left, and looked to their right, to consider that someone among God’s chosen people might not be saved.

And as if that wouldn’t have been unnerving enough for the Jews, Jesus says that Angels will separate the evil from the righteous among them at the end of the world. What is alarming for the Jews is good news for the Gentiles: people are saved, not because they are Jewish, but because they are righteous.

At the end of passage Jesus asks the disciples if they have understood these parables and they say “Yes.” In the passages that follow in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus proclaims the coming of the kingdom and continues to tell parables. However, the disciples come to a point where Jesus says that it’s hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom and they exclaim, ‘Then who can be saved?’ (Matthew 19.25) All the things they thought about the salvation of the Jews as the people of God and how God made people wealthy to show favour upon them had been turned upside down. Indeed, it is not surprising that they would ask, who can be saved if not the people they thought had it made in this life.

Saint Paul picks up this theme in the Second Reading from the Letter to the Romans, where he begins his explanation for how, on the one hand, God chose the Israelites and promised them salvation, and how, on the other hand, the Gentiles are also promised salvation in Christ. Paul’s response is to demonstrate how God’s plan for the salvation of Israel is fulfilled in the salvation of all people in Christ. When Paul writes, “For those who God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” he is referring to the Gentiles who are saved by their faith in Christ. In other words, Paul is saying that, while God was forming the Israelites into his chosen people, he planned all along that Christ would be born among the Jews for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles, indeed, for the salvation of the world.

The premise of Paul’s argument is what he writes at the beginning of the passage: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” The point is that people are not saved according to their ancestry or their wealth. People are saved by being called according to God’s purpose and responding to their call by loving God. This doesn’t mean that things will go smoothly in this life for people who love God. Later in the Letter Paul acknowledges that those who love God may suffer distress, persecution and famine. Yet he also proclaims that none of these hardships can separate us from the love of Christ.

While the disciples reacted to Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom by exclaiming, “Who can be saved?”, we who live two thousand years later with the assurance of God’s love may react to these parables by asking, “Who can possibly not be saved?” While the disciples expected few to be saved, we expect everyone to be saved, except perhaps someone who randomly shoots and kills innocent people. Neverthless, these parables apply to us today just as much as they did to the Jewish people who listened to Jesus in the crowd. The point of the parable of the treasure is that people other than Christians are able to enter into the kingdom that Christ has promised the Church. Although we may not be surprised to discover that someone who isn’t Christian can be saved, the point of the parable of the pearl is that even we who are members of the Church cannot take the kingdom for granted. Even those of us baptized in Jesus Christ need to make an effort to find the kingdom in our midst and seek out our own salvation. The parable of the fish caught in the net also applies to the Church. We need to be mindful of the possibility that someone among God’s chosen people, even someone who goes to Church, might not be saved. I realize that this possibility seems to contradict what we believe about the nature of God’s love for us. After all, we believe that God loves everyone. But we also believe that God has given us the freedom to choose to respond to God’s love for us. In the First Reading, King Solomon pleased God by asking for the gift of wisdom but then he later squandered it by imposing heavy taxes and forced labour on his people.

In the film The Tree of Life, which was recently playing at the Westdale theatre, there isn’t much dialogue. The cinematography moves back and forth between beautiful scenes of creation, the forming of the planets, the evolution of life on earth, and mundane scenes of the everyday life of a typical American family living in the 1950s, which is beautiful in its own way. Most of what is said comes from the thoughts of the main characters. In one scene [click on image to watch video] a woman who has learned that her son has been killed recalls her own childhood and says, “The nuns taught us there are two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow. Grace doesn’t try to please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. It likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it and love is smiling through all things. They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.”

Although the film exudes the influence of Christianity, I don’t consider it a religious film per se. It's a reflection on the human condition that brings to the fore the fact that we must make fundamental choices in life (and in this way it is open to religiosity). The irony is that, before the end of the film, which admittedly is unconventional in its lack of dialog, action or plot, about a dozen people chose to walk out. Even in the form of a secular film, people were not receptive to this message about the meaning of life. As Christians, we need to be careful that we don’t make the same mistake, for we tend to imagine that we live our lives on earth and when we die God is there in heaven ready to embrace us with love and forgiveness. Thus, we tend to live our lives as if God’s love is a treasure stored up in heaven. We tend to forget that God created the universe out of love, and that love isn’t God’s response to our freedom, but rather that our freedom is itself a manifestation of God’s love. Indeed, our freedom is sustained by God’s love. How we choose to use our God given freedom and search for the precious pearl of God’s love in this life is itself our response to God’s love. We have the assurance of our salvation in the Church, for it has been saved by Christ who will come again to bring about the fullness of God’s kingdom here on earth for all peoples. But it’s still up to us to response to the gift of God’s love in a manner that truly reflects that we have chosen the way of love, the way of grace, the way of the Kingdom of God.

Postscript: The video of Fr. Robert Barron's review of The Tree of Life is posted on here, with the text posted here.

Fr. Mark Morley
St. Ann's Parish, Ancaster, Ontario