This week Matthew continues his account of how Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:44-52). But these descriptions are a rather different. Those we heard previously were like a country, a perfect place, a garden mirroring the garden at the moment of creation. Now we have buried treasure, pearls (hidden inside oysters), fishing nets.
These metaphors are no longer of something outside us, something given, a place where we might find ourselves, or not. Now this kingdom involves action – our action – seeking, sorting, finding. Once Jesus has pointed out just how different God’s kingdom is from all those political structures and power politics that we are used to, then he goes on to explain that we can’t just be passive about it.
We don’t think of ourselves as creating the kingdom, that’s something way beyond us. God creates the kingdom, he’s the king, it’s his domain. We just have to make sure we’re inside the kingdom rather than outside, and then probably keep our heads down, and certainly don’t cause trouble or shake things up.
Today’s reading gives us a very different perspective. This is most apparent in the second one about the merchant. The kingdom isn’t the pearl – the kingdom is the merchant. Then we look back at the first story and there the kingdom isn’t actually the treasure, it’s the unburying of the treasure – the treasure is only valuable when it’s dug up – and who’s going to do the digging? Right… In the third it’s the task of fishing that Jesus focuses on, not the fishing net itself.
In our first reading we hear how Solomon asks God for wisdom (1 Kings 3:5, 7-12). This pairing points us in the same direction. Solomon was a king, he could certainly have asked for kingly things, most likely power or wealth – that would be completely to be expected. The reason he stands apart from all other kings is that he didn’t – he asked for help to do his job, the job of being a king. We also have a job – bringing about the kingdom, not sitting waiting for it to happen. We also have the opportunity to ask God for help, in whatever form our little contribution to that glorious endeavor of the saints may take.