![]() Note: This blog post is edited from the original written for February 17, 2019. Placing service over control and others over ourselves. Honoring people who have been ignored, taken advantage of, or hurt. While we are to yearn for God’s kingdom to come in its entirety, that’s not the only thing we are called to do. Oppression built into the very systems we rely on. Kingdom” is that when I look around, I see a lot of pain, suffering, and The reason I love the idea of the “upside-down Systems of power and control will be overturned, and those who are considered God’s agenda (the “your will be done” part) isĪs subversive as the reality of the kingdom itself. This does not look like a military liberation It is as pervasive (and invisible) as leaven (probably a bit of dough saved from the last batch, like a sourdough starter) kneaded into a boatload of bread, enough to feed over 100 people. Gods kingdom is mixed in with the kingdom of this world as the wheat and weeds were mixed together (the likely culprit for the weeds here is darnel, a.The kingdom is not here a noble cedar (see Ezekiel 17:22-23), but a common (though large) herb.God’s kingdom is mixed in with the kingdom of this world as the wheat and weeds were mixed together (the likely culprit for the weeds here is darnel, a dangerous wheat look-alike).It is truly the reality in which God reigns supreme, but it is not something that can be defined at a certain time in a certain place. The kingdom that Jesus is describing in these parables is different than this. Where their Roman oppressors would be vanquished, and God would once again be Many Jews of the first century yearned for the coming of the kingdom of heaven Parables surprise us, are hard to grasp, and subvert It’s quite fitting that Jesus is describing Parable means and have arrived at your interpretation easily, you are probably ![]() Strange, often subverting our expectations. Most parablesĪre mini-stories, but they are strange ones. Start with “The kingdom of heaven (God) is like…”īut, it’s not as simple as just equating parable with metaphor. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961, p. I like the following quote (which I found on this website)Īt its simplest a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought. We all know what a parable is, right? But, considering the variety of uses of the term in the Gospels themselves, it helps to have something to work with. He doesn’t offer clear answers, but unclear parables. Just tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like! Be straightforward! But Jesus is not straightforward in his description of this at-hand kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is like… a seed? Yeast? Wheat being choked out by weeds? Huh? Jesus, you’re not making sense here.
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