Episode 428 Parables of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:24-43)

This week BibleWorm reads Matthew 13:24-43, Jesus’s parables of the kingdom. We talk about how to read parables and why we think Jesus uses parables to declare what has been hidden since the beginning of the world. And we discuss three of Jesus parables, which compare the kingdom of heaven to a field of wheat overplanted with weeds, to yeast leavening bread, and to a mustard seed that grows into a nice shrub where the birds can make a nest. In what way is the kingdom of heaven like these things? We talk about the gleaners in the field who throw the weeds into the furnace and we wrestle with the role of fear in Jesus’s description of the kingdom. But mostly we notice that these parables are about bringing life—to the wheat, to the birds, to the bread—and even to the weeds themselves. Maybe the kingdom of heaven is found in nurturing life in everyone we meet.