Yet more parables about the Kingdom! And at the end of it Jesus says to the disciples, “ok, do you get it now?” To which they respond, “oh yes!” (Mt 13:44-52)
I have to wonder whether they were being entirely truthful at this point. Having needed explanations all along the way, now they get it? Or maybe it’s a case of: let’s hope that we get it, say that we do, and maybe he won’t put us on the spot and ask us any difficult follow up questions…
The follow up that Jesus does provide is interesting because it emphasizes that there is both new and old in what he is saying. Sometimes he wants to emphasize the continuity in his message (“until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter will pass from the law …” Mt 5-18) and sometimes the radical shift (“But I say to you …” Mt 5-22). Here he tells us that those who study his words will find both – which is a useful counterbalance to undue emphasis on the importance of sticking hard to tradition, or to throwing all the past away in search of something contemporary.
As to the parables themselves, we’re back with the wailing and gnashing in the final one. The metaphor switches from harvesting to fishing but is otherwise it’s the same as we heard previously.
But the first two are rather different. Here we have someone searching for something. The kingdom is now identified with seeking rather than something that happens to us. The clear emphasis in the other parables is that the Kingdom is something that happens outside our control. It’s about what God does, not what we do. Yes we have to respond, but we are not the ones who initiate. We are not sowing the seed or casting the net.
So in these two parables, who is it doing the searching?
Traditionally they have been interpreted as the Christian searching for the kingdom. But there is another possibility, which aligns them more closely with the others in this set. That is that the searcher is God. The pearl or the treasure is us. We are the ones that God is searching for and wants to draw into his Kingdom. And we know he will pay any price to do so.
So if Jesus was to ask us if we get it, how would we respond? Maybe by shuffling a little uncomfortably and saying “for sure”, and hoping he doesn’t press us too hard to prove it?
That’s ok, because he’s the one searching for us. We get drawn into the net regardless. He knows our value even when we are not sure of it. He has already paid the ultimate price to get us into the kingdom.