It's a Work in Progress

Passage: Matthew 13:24-52

In this chapter Matthew throws out seven different metaphors that Jesus uses to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. In short order, Jesus says the Kingdom is like:
• A good field suffused with weeds
• A mustard seed
• Yeast mixed into dough
• Treasure buried in a field
• A rare pearl
• A net full of fish
• A mixture of old treasures and new
Elsewhere Jesus says, “The Kingdom of heaven is near!” and, “The Day of the Lord has come!” Jesus’ words have produced great confusion about the arrival of God’s Kingdom. Is it coming? Or is it already here?

When we utter the Lord’s Prayer, we make the request, “Your Kingdom come…” This implies that the Kingdom hasn’t yet arrived. And yet Jesus’ parables suggest that the stuff of the Kingdom is already in effect. The seeds have been planted. The crop is poking its way through the ground. The yeast is working its way through the dough. The treasure is there to be found, if you just know where to look. The net is closing in around the fish.
When we look at the world, all we see is a vacant lot. A garden choked with bindweed. A table full of junk at a flea market. We can’t imagine that the fallow ground will bear fruit. That order will be restored to that neglected garden. That somewhere in that pile junk is something of immeasurable worth.

Yet this is the stuff Jesus invites us to look for. It’s already there. The Kingdom is germinating; look for the signs. The Kingdom is waiting; search for it. Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom flies in the face of logic or intuition, which tell us, “Things are getting worse; this city is beyond repair; this world is too messed up for anyone to fix it; it’s hopeless.”

It’s not hopeless. We are citizens of a Kingdom that is under construction. We are investing in a work in progress. Jesus commands us not to write it off. Not to write off a world in which God is at work. Not to write off a person in whose heart God has planted the seeds of redemption. Jesus tells us: The Kingdom is there. And there. And there! Look for it. Dig for it. Sacrifice for it. Wait for it.