Parables of the Kingdom

Sunday 26th July 2026 | Sermon by Canon Jo

I don’t know how many of you remember the old description of a parable as: ‘an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.’ You may have heard this at school or Sunday school. We had 5 parables in the Gospel today, and it seems a good opportunity to reflect on how parables are used in the Gospels by Jesus – and how we might hear and respond to these parables today. How do these stories, often so simple and yet so pointed, help us understand the ways of God today? (As Solomon prayed for wisdom, and it was given to him by God – so parables can be for us a path to insight and wisdom also.)

In all four Gospels it is obvious that Jesus was a storyteller. In a few words he could sketch a storyline which everyone listening could follow and understand. Parables like The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, The Vineyard and Tenants are little stories in their own right, but Jesus also uses similes: ‘the kingdom of heaven is like…like a wedding feast, like that a great banquet…’ and short little comparisons like ‘the man who built his house upon the rock’ and ‘the man who built his house on sand’.

These are all vivid forms of speech - they spark a picture in the minds of the hearers so you remember the point even on a single hearing. This is how Jesus taught and this is why his teaching captured people’s attention - and this is why we can be sure that the parables of Jesus are an authentic part of the Gospel record.

Many parables begin as similes. Let me remind you of today’s: The ‘Kingdom of heaven is like…’. Eight of Matthew’s parables begin in this way – and we have five of them in a row in our Gospel reading today. The mustard seed, the leaven (or yeast), the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and the dragnet… these all reflect the everyday life of the farming and fishing folk that Jesus lived among and talked to about God.

There is a book called ‘The Parables of the Kingdom’ which I first read a while ago, but which has stayed with me. The writer, C. H. Dodd, has suggested that most if not all of Jesus’ parables help to illustrate and teach us about the Kingdom of God. And Dodd’s book shows how the wisdom of the parables helps us grasp and take to heart an important part of Jesus’ own insight into what the Kingdom of God represents and conveys.

In Jewish tradition, the idea of the kingdom of God, or the kingly rule of God, is both about a present fact and a future hope. God’s rule and reign is effective now, and it is also something yet to be revealed, when all people will be gathered in and God’s kingdom extends to all. So in Jesus’ teaching, it is distinctive that he speaks of the kingdom particularly in the present and immediate sense: ‘the kingdom of heaven is near at hand’ or ‘the kingdom has come upon you’. Jesus proclaims the kingdom as something not for the future, even the near future – but as a matter of present experience. So in a significant way, the Gospels show how the Kingdom of God, the hope of many generations, has come with Jesus himself.

The Kingdom that Jesus preaches – and it is a central part of his teaching - is not simply about future blessing; instead, the traditional images of judgement and bliss that we might associate with ideas of heaven, are about Jesus’ own life and ministry, Jesus’ death and resurrection and how people respond to him.

God’s eternal reality has entered into time and space - and Jesus declares that the timeless Kingdom of God has come into history. He in himself fulfils the predictions and expectations of the Kingdom, and so judgement and blessedness come now into human experience. The imagery of the parables is about the eternal reality of the kingdom, symbolised as both immediate and inexhaustible.

Two of the shortest of our parables today help to illustrate this: the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price. In each of them we are given a picture of someone suddenly confronted with a treasure of inestimable worth – and the person acquires this treasure at the cost of all that they possess. In terms of human choice, it might seem foolish for anyone to sell everything to buy a single field; it might seem rash for a merchant to realise all his assets to buy a single pearl. But Jesus is helping his hearers to respond: if they agree that the Kingdom of God is the highest good - either of present blessing or future fulfilment – it is within their power to possess it here and now. If, like the treasure-finder and the pearl-merchant, they will take that step – even if it means throwing caution to the winds - they can answer his invitation and find that Kingdom: “Come, follow me!”

Some parables seem to hint at a time of growth and development, of faith taking root and maturing – but the impact of the Kingdom is a present reality. The mustard seed is quick-growing: once it has been sown, once someone responds in faith to the Kingdom that Jesus proclaims, then the potential is astonishing: the biggest of all shrubs may grow from that single small seed and many will find shelter and refuge through it. But the seed first has to be planted. Or the small amount of yeast that can leaven and transform a vast amount of flour, to nourish and sustain: but that first step must be taken - to add the yeast - if it is to do its work. This opportunity is offered to all: the drag-net will bring in a huge catch of fish, of every kind. The Kingdom of God is open to all, and all are invited in. There is testing and there is challenge, but there is also blessing and fulfilment, here and now as well as hereafter.

It is the conviction and assurance about the Kingdom of God as a present reality, available to all that gives Paul the confidence in Romans to claim: ‘in all these things we are more than conquerors. For neither life nor death… nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God’.

For Jesus went about the towns and villages of Galilee seeking the lost, and that was how the Kingdom of God came: we are the treasure of untold value, the pearl of great price, that he paid the cost of the cross to redeem us. Jesus put out into the deep, and fish of every kind came to his net. The poor and despised flocked into the Kingdom of God, like birds flying to roost in the shelter of a strong tree (which not long ago was an almost invisible seed).

And for those who accept the Kingdom of God there is pure happiness like the joy of a wedding feast. And the power at work within us, like leaven in dough, is renewed each time we share in communion – when the promises of the Kingdom are held out to us once again: when once again, for all of us, the Kingdom of heaven is close at hand.