Today we conclude a three-week series of readings from the thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel. This chapter is jam-packed with parables and their explanations. The section today has three short parables drawn from ordinary life – a treasure that is hidden in a field; a fine and valuable pearl that is found by a merchant, and a dragnet that gathers fish of every kind. Jesus concludes the section by praising the steward who brings out of the storeroom both new things and old things.
The chapter lies at the very centre of this Gospel, and it seems that we are being invited to be the scribes who draw out of our storeroom things both new and old. The new things are this brand new and magnificent vision that the kingdom of heaven is bringing; the old things are the centuries-old wisdom of the ages and the witness of the people of Israel and her stories and hopes. The way of the Gospel is about planting the new deep down within the old and allowing the ancient wisdom to come to fresh and exciting expressions in the new.
The shape of Matthew’s gospel is meant to remind the careful reader of the first five books of the Bible – the Torah, or the Books of Moses. The content, however, that Matthew gives us in this gospel is new and explosive. There is a decision that must be made urgently. It was fashionable then, as it remains fashionable now, to imagine that there were many different pearls or many kinds of treasures that you could collect in the various religions that are on offer. But Jesus says no – there is only one pearl and one treasure, which is the Gospel of the kingdom of God which Jesus was declaring and living out.
Besides all this Jesus declares that the world is not just going around in circles – but it has a clear direction and is heading in a straight line towards its goal in the final judgement. It continues to move towards that glorious day when God will remake the whole world in truth and justice, and of course, in love.
These parables continue to challenge us to both understand them and to place them into action as the wise scribes that we are urged to be. We are called in our thinking, speaking and living to be firmly rooted in the wisdom of the ages and also to be the bearers of the fresh new work that God is doing. For God is always doing a new work – but this work is always an evolution from the continuing work of God across the centuries.
Today we are invited to carefully reflect upon our lives to make sure that the fruit of our lives is both old and new.
