JESUS speaks in parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. With the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus shows us that the Kingdom of God must be a sign, or has to be something very noticeably in the world.
Any spiritual aspiration, cultural innovation or revolutionary movement must be expressed concretely, through one or several institutions, to make it a clearer and more visible entity.
Likewise, Jesus projects his Church as the bearer (not the owner) of the Kingdom of God. Church means: “Assembly of those called together”. Two of the characteristics of the Church are indicated here:
First, it must be very visible and fruitful for the world, like a tree giving shades to the birds
Secondly, it must be immersed in human reality.
Believers are not to separate themselves from those who do not believe, for they are the yeast of the world.
Jesus does not want an “invisible Church”, that is an emotional fellowship and spiritual communion among all those on the whole world who believe in him. He wants a gigantic free (in another place Jesus says: a city built on a hill), so that everyone can recognize that the seed was good and full of life. We need organized Christian communities, and ties between these communities, a hierarchy…
Nevertheless, the believers are not to enclose themselves in their chapels or little communities or to spend all their energies working for “their” Church. They must be useful and fruitful in the world together with all people of goodwill.
Let them be yeast for the dough, not small separate and finer dough. The yeast transforms human history, not by bringing all people onto the Church, but by infusing into human activity the spirit that gives life to humankind.
Jesus taught all this to the crowds by means of parables. On reading Mathew 13:12, we might think that Jesus speaks in parables in order to hide his teaching. Here we find another explanation that corrects and completes the first. Jesus spoke in parables because that was the best method to convey a teaching relevant for all times.
I will speak in parables. These are the first words of Psalm 78, as adapted by the evangelist. He means that the secrets of the kingdom of God revealed by Jesus answer the most important questions of humankind.
From the beginning of civilization, people were confronted with problems and challenges they could not solve on their own, and Jesus offers the key to these contradictions. Science has discovered many elements of human destiny; we have still to discover who we are.
Jesus’ answer is not given as a theory and it upsets the “little intellectuals” who are used to the language of books. He gives us something much richer with these images or enigmas which require some creativity and to which we have to return. Each of us will have to ponder them as long as we live, and humankind as long as history. Only with time shall we discover all that they mean.
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