In the lengthy passage from Matthew 13 that is our reading for this Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A of the Sunday Lectionary, I am always struck by Jesus' response to the question he is asked by his disciples. It is the question of why it is that he teaches "them," referring to those who gathered to hear him but were not, at least not yet, his followers, in parables.
The Lord's response to the question posed by his disciples is "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted." We mistakenly believe that Jesus' parables are a simple form of teaching. One of the reasons we think this is because we grasp them analogically. How else can they be understood?
Analogy indeed is the very nature of a parable. The Parable of the Sower is certainly analogical, as Jesus' unpacking of it clearly shows. Many of his parables, like that of Luke's Unjust Steward (see Luke 16:1-13), are not quite so straightforward. Because Jesus doesn't always provide us with a breakdown, we sometimes mess up the analogy.
My point is not so much to highlight the fact that parables are often more complex than they are simple, but to focus on the fact that, being Jesus' disciples, we are among those to whom "knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have been granted." We often take this for granted. It is also easy to misunderstand what this means.
What it does not mean to be granted knowledge of the mysteries of heaven is to possess secret knowledge. While it is gnosis, this knowledge is not to be handled gnostically. In other words, what Jesus reveals through his teaching is not a secret to be kept among the initiated. Rather, this knowledge is to form and inform how those of us to whom such knowledge has been granted live our lives.
To jump from our Gospel to our reading from Romans, the shape and form knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven gives to the lives of Jesus' followers is "the revelation of the children of God." It is for this revelation that the world "groans in labor pains" anxiously awaiting. Living according to the mysteries of God's kingdom is how we respond to our own groaning for the fulfillment of the work God has begun in us by grace. It is to live in expectation, anticipation, that is, in the hope of the redemption of our bodies.
Hope is what our reading from Isaiah is all about. This passage is from deutero- or second- Isaiah. As such, it was written during Israel's Babylonian exile. It is a promise, reassurance from God to his chosen people, who groan with longing for the land God promised to them, who long for home. In this passage, God, through his prophet, reassures them that his promise is true.
Perhaps the deepest mystery of the kingdom of heaven we can know is that God, sometimes despite all appearances to the contrary, is trustworthy. The various fates of the seed scattered by the sower, keeping in mind the analogies Jesus provides us, his disciples, shows, for the most part, how important human freedom and human agency are when it comes to responding to God's word.
Make no mistake, God's word will be fulfilled with or without you. This is good news but it can also be bad news. The full realization of God's kingdom is not child's play. It isn't something that is happening over and above the world, as it were. It comes into being through what happens in the world, good, bad, or otherwise. This is precisely the same way God accomplishes his will in your life- through the everyday things that happen to you. When conceived in this way, everything becomes an opportunity to respond to the word of God.
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