Matthew 20:1-16 The kingdom of heaven is like . . .
Matthew’s Jesus uses this phrase a lot . . . my phone found over 30 places, some in which Jesus repeats it in consecutive sentences, and since My New Testament professor often said “If it’s repeated, it must be important” I’m thinking that tells us something. What . . . and where . . . do you think he was referring to when he used that particular phrase? Sometimes we hear it like Marco Polo might have used the term “the east” – to describe a place far away, with strange and mystifying ways. Or, maybe like someone trying to describe an experience others have not shared (and likely never will) , like standing on top of mountain after a successful climb, the taste of some exotic food, or bringing life into the world. I think some hear it as the beginning of a threat, or at least an uncomfortable promise of something that sounds delightful but from which they will surely be excluded, with the reasons for that exclusion to follow later in the sentence or dialogue.
But what if Jesus was using it more like the “You Are Here” sign on a map . . . as a means of orienting us to where we find ourselves, perhaps with an implied invitation to join in all the more fully? We are . . . or at least, I have been . . . too quick to let the word “heaven” transport us to some far place, distant in time and space as well as character from where we are now. I have come to believe that Jesus was (and therefore we ought to be) a whole lot less focused on life after physical death than in bringing real life to those who have their bodies but have lost their hope, their will, and/or their sense that what they are doing actually means something. We look around, listen to the news, then read the Bible and find our world is not so much different from the one in which Jesus lived and taught, then, before we even realize it, our brains interpret that to suggest there is no point to life, no purpose. Is it any wonder Rick Warren sold so many copies of The Purpose Driven Life (and all the training materials and paraphernalia associated with it) to refund every dime he had been paid over the years by Saddleback Church?
But Jesus seems to keep saying “WAKE UP!” in parable after parable, sometimes even resorting to physical actions to make his point – scooping up a child and placing it at the center of his teaching circle, writing in the sand when the religious leaders prove once again they can’t see the writing on the wall, or turning over the tables in the temple. He wanted the people of his time, especially the religious/community leaders, and the people of every time, especially the religious/community leaders, to recognize the very ‘good news’/gospel he began to proclaim at the very beginning of his public ministry: “The kingdom of God/heaven has come near!”
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