Conversation in Faith

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) advises his readers in The Introduction to the Devout Life to “gather together the essence of your devout meditations, as it were in a little nosegay, and keep it before you throughout the day.”¹

This week, the lectionary gives us several of the parables collected in Matthew chapter 13. Usually we explore them as individual parables. But Matthew (and maybe Jesus) offers us a collection of parables. I wonder if we keep them together, situated alongside each other what we might discover? Focusing on individual parables is important. We should do that. Yet, I wonder if these several parables are taken together, as a bouquet, what might be discovered? What fragrance, what essence is there to carry with us?

Parables, as scholar Amy-Jill Levine writes, contain a “surplus of meaning”. ² Different audiences hear different messages. Our understanding of a parable may change over our lifetime. What essence arises for us today?

Parables are often comparisons. “The kingdom of heaven is like…” The word “parable” comes from the Greek para “along side” and balo “to cast” or “to throw”.³ We compare the parable to “real” life and look for similarities and differences. What if we compare these parables to each other? What are the similarities and differences? Parables are, by design, often disruptive. A normal activity or situation is somehow altered and becomes unfamiliar and puzzling. Do these parables offer us a collective disruption of our expectations?

The author of the Gospel According to Matthew has organized his gospel so that Jesus has five “discourses” which are teachings or collections of statements by Jesus.⁴ Matthew collects Jesus’ parables into the middle (third) discourse which makes up chapter 13.

First, Jesus tells the parable of the Sower.⁵ Then there is discussion between Jesus and the disciples about parables and an explanation for the parable of the Sower. Then comes the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.⁶ And then Jesus continues:

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Matthew 13:31-33 NRSVue

Jesus leaves the crowds and explains the parable of the Weeds and Wheat to the disciples. Then Jesus continues:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Matthew 13:44-52 NRSVue

Several of these parables are very short and do not have much detail. Sometimes commentators (and others) have difficulty refraining from adding extra details or assumptions. So we may have some unlearning to do with the individual parables before we look at them as a group. In general, I want us to try to un- allegorize them. ( I may have made a new word here) Let’s try to not decide that, for example, “the birds of the air” are the nations or some other group.

You may have heard that yeast or leaven is “unclean” or in some way impure or bad. Yeast in the Bible sometimes is presented as “good” and sometimes as not good. We cannot automatically assume anything. Our English translations say the woman “mixed” the yeast into the flour. The Greek word is enkrypto which comes from the root meaning “hide”. The woman hid the yeast. Matthew and Jesus knew the difference between mixing and hiding something. So why say “hid’? They also knew that three measures of flour was a lot of flour- roughly 40-60 pounds of flour!

We don’t know anything about the man who found the treasure in the field. We don’t know if he owned the field or not. We don’t know if he was looking for treasure or not. We don’t know what he was doing in the field.

A merchant, for the original audience, would not necessarily be a positive figure. At best, merchants were viewed with ambivalence, but it is likely that people’s first impression would be negative. Notice the parable says “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.” The parable does not say the kingdom is a pearl, as we sometimes think. ⁷

With that very brief reset. What do these parables say to us? What is Jesus suggesting about the Kingdom of Heaven? Is there a bouquet to gather?

The parable of the mustard seed, follows two longer parables about seeds and sowing. In the mustard seed parable, a small seed is sown and turns into a tree. Mustard plants, where Jesus and his audience lived, were shrubs. Somehow this small seed grows unexpectedly, miraculously even, into a tree that provides a home for birds.

A woman hides some yeast into an impossibly large amount of flour and the yeast leavens it all. What will she do with enough bread for 100 people?

Seeds take time to grow. Leaven also takes time to work. The initial actions of both, seeds and leaven, are unseen by us. Eventually both the seed and the yeast result in unexpected hospitality. Shelter and food in abundance.

A man is in a field. We don’t know why he was in the field. He finds a treasure, hides it again and sells “all that he has” to buy the field. What was the treasure, and what does he do with it? Does he leave it in the field or take it out?

A merchant is looking for “fine pearls”- plural. Does he buy and sell jewels? He finds one particular pearl and sells all he has to buy it. What does he do with the pearl? Selling the pearl after using all he had to obtain it doesn’t make sense. But how will he survive, if all he has is one pearl?

Sometimes we know what we are looking for. Sometimes we stumble upon it. Is there anything we could discover that is worth everything we own?

The good and the bad fish lived together in the ocean. A net is thrown into the sea and catches fish of every kind. The good fish are put into baskets and the bad are thrown out. As with the parable of the weeds and wheat, angels separate the evil from the righteous and the evil are thrown into the furnace of fire. Sometimes we read these parables as a threat. But perhaps for the original hearers, this parable (as with the wheat and the weeds) is meant to reassure them. Evil will not prevail. Evil does not have the final word. God will protect the righteous in God’s good time.

The last statement by Jesus is that every scribe who becomes a disciple is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and old. The old is not discarded nor protected. The new is not dismissed nor privileged. Both remain treasure. But why is the master bringing out things from his treasure? What is he doing with them?

Mustard seed, yeast, treasure, merchant, net. What do all these images suggest? Mostly these are ordinary things. Small actions, ordinary acts such as planting, and baking- have surprisingly large and abundant results. Some people actively seek treasure, others find it. But treasure is there for those who notice and recognize it, and the treasure is worth everything. Amazing unexpected things happen in the Kingdom of Heaven.

We are not the ultimate judges. We live in a sea (or a field) where “good” and “bad” are mixed together, inseparable until the angels come.

Treasure may be new or it may be old, but disciples bring all they have to the Kingdom.

These parables, as parables do, are a mix of the familiar, plants, yeast, bread, and the unexpected, hidden treasure, an amazing pearl. Perhaps that is our bouquet- a bouquet of mixed flowers. The kingdom of heaven is unpredictable and yet familiar, wonderful and surprising, containing the old and the new. Everything, treasures that are old and new, familiar things and unexpected things, all have their place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

1. de Sales, Francis, Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, Tan Classics, 2010, page 24. Here’s a little introduction to de Sales ↩︎
2. Levine, Amy-Jill, Short Stories By Jesus, HarperOne, 2014, p 1-2. ↩︎
3. Levine, 7 ↩︎
4. The Five Discourses are: 1. The Sermon on the Mount, ch 5,6,7. 2. The Missionary discourse, ch 10. 3. A collection of parables, ch 13. 4. The Community discourse, ch 18 and 5. the Judgment discourse, chs 23.24.25 ↩︎
5. See “Sowers Together” https://conversationinfaith.com/2026/07/11/sowers-together/ ↩︎
6. See “Life with Weeds” https://conversationinfaith.com/2026/07/17/life-with-weeds/ ↩︎
7. Levine, 117-182. Dr Levine has three chapters in her book on these parables which are worth your while to read. ↩︎