Today's Gospel reading selected three parables about the Kingdom of God from Matthew 13 (24-43). Coincidentally, they occur immediately after the parable of the sower (on which the title of this blog is based). Three more parables come after this reading, making Matthew 13 an awesome catalog of parables on the Kingdom of God.
I don't want to offer an idea on the content of the parables but rather on the concept of a parable. God knows us so well! He knows how we tick. If Jesus would have started preaching, giving various facts about the Kingdom of God? Sure, we'd listen. Jesus didn't go with a mere description, however. He painted a picture, using analogy and images to teach. Isn't that awesome? We have a hard time picturing something we've never seen (the Kingdom) and abstractions only help so much. Not so with this story! We can picture a field of wheat, we can picture having an enemy, and even if we're not a farmer, we have some vision of what a harvest is. In the other stories the examples are similar. Maybe we can't conceive the potential power of the faith, but we can look at a seed and know that, however small it is, it can grow into a tree. And who among us hasn't found a "pearl of great price" here or there? A dream house? A retirement account that Trump would envy? A 6-speed Dodge Viper V10 with 600 horses and the racing stripes down the middle? I digress, but we all know how the merchant felt when he saw something of immense value.
Parables teach so well because we can relate to theme. Jesus taps into our imaginations, our intellects, and our emotions teach us. Now that is a teacher who knows His students.
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