Have you seen advertisements for senior living facilities? The landscape is beautiful with freshly mown grass, beautiful flower beds, and an assortment of trees. The interior is alive with decorations and all the people are smiling as they sit and play games together or engage in conversation. Witnessing this rendition of “heaven on earth,” seniors will want to be there.
Jesus promoted the Kingdom of God, and we can imagine that he would paint verbal pictures similar to what the senior living advertisers do with their video commercials. Let’s listen to what he says (Luke 13:18-21)
“What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?”
Before reading on guess what Jesus might say. Would he talk about a beautiful city, well-ordered, with clean streets and friendly people, and a generous king in charge of it all?
“It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.”
Jesus surprises us again. What he talks about doesn’t sound anything like a kingdom as we know it. He talks about a little, insignificant mustard seed and a gardener planting it. What happens to this little seed?
“When it was fully grown, it became a large bush, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”
So, the Kingdom of God is something that is alive, like a seed. It is not an organization or a set of buildings or something that engineers might design. It grows slowly into a good size bush that becomes a haven for nearby birds. On the outside it is not all that impressive compared with other trees in the vicinity.
At another time Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within you. How can a Kingdom exist within us? At baptism a seed of new life in the Holy Spirit is planted inside us and given the right conditions it begins to grow. This Kingdom within is not perceived by the world around us, nevertheless it is real and active. When it grows to maturity it becomes a place where people can find the shelter of God. Jesus came to set people free from sin and Satan so that God could plant his Kingdom within their hearts. It wasn’t a political entity that he came to establish but the Body of Jesus. Those who receive the seed and allow it to take over their beings become part of the Body of Jesus and help bring the presence and power of God into the world.
For the non-gardeners Jesus offered another parable.
“To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of what flour…”
Yeast is also like a small seed. It is “planted” in dough so that the dough may rise into the form of bread. The yeast releases “spirit” into the dough, and though no one sees the yeast, it is alive and active in the dough.
Doesn’t Jesus give us the yeast of the Holy Spirit, mix it with our spirits until Jesus begins to rise within us and take over our lives? Aren’t we part of the mustard bush and the loaf of bread that the Holy Spirit is creating on this earth?
