Title: Heaven and Daily Life, July 24
Matthew 13:44-51
Heaven and daily life
Jesus’ teachings can be divided into ‘aphorism’ and ‘parable’. Aphorism is a brief aphorism, for example, “Treat others as you would like them to be treated.” It is a teaching in the same form, and a parable is a teaching in the form of a story. If aphorism is a teaching that penetrates the inner side of human life, parables are mainly teachings about the kingdom of God that cannot be directly explained. Why is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, impossible to explain directly? The answer is that our human cognition is limited. Because the kingdom of God is an absolute world, we cannot directly experience it, and therefore cannot directly explain it. In today's text, Matthew continues to deliver three parables about the kingdom of heaven that Jesus taught.
treasure
Let's read verse 44. “The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a treasure buried in a field. Whoever finds the treasure buries it again, goes back in joy, sells everything that he has, and buys the field.” What does it mean that the kingdom of heaven, which should be in heaven, is buried in the field? First of all, if you are looking for a simple answer, you would be saying that the kingdom of heaven is not something that you just see. Today's text does not explain how this treasure was discovered. Was it the peasant who found the treasure? Or was it someone who wandered through the fields to find a treasure that was buried somewhere, like the theme of a fairy tale called <Treasure Island>? Although we cannot know exactly from the text itself, if we look at the parable of the pearl merchant in verses 45 and 46, it seems that this man also struggled to find the treasure. The hidden kingdom of heaven is not seen by anyone, but it can be seen that it is opened to those who seek it, like a person who struggles to find a treasure.
It is said that the person who found this treasure buried it again, went home, sold all his possessions, and bought the field. It seems like the right thing to do if you find a treasure and return it to the original owner of the field or share it with each other, but this person bought the field without telling the owner about the treasure. If so, then this person must be seen as dishonest. But the Bible is not concerned with whether a person is moral or industrious, but whether he is focused on the absolute world. It explains the joy of the person who found the treasure. The man who found the treasure was overjoyed and sold all his possessions to buy the field where the treasure was buried. The key to this parable is here. For those who have discovered the absolute world, everything else becomes relative.
merchant
The second parable is the pearl merchant. Let's read verses 45 and 46. “Also, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes back and sells everything he has and buys it.” If the previous story is the relationship between the land and the farmer, this story is the relationship between the pearl and the merchant. This merchant was far more blatantly looking for fine pearls. He eventually found the Pearl of Great Price. Where the hell was the pearl he found? Others may have seen the pearl, but did not seem to know that it was a pearl of such price. Only the merchant, the main character of today's text, recognized the expensive pearl. Why is this possible?
Just as the treasure was buried in a field in the previous parable of the treasure, the Pearl of Great Price was also open to the public on the outside, but its reality was still hidden. Again, that is the nature of the absolute world. Look. Although we all do our best in this way, it is not easy to be conscious of the essence of life. How many people in this universe live with the only life-filled Earth at the center of their lives? How many people realize how enchanting it is that we are living as a part of this phenomenon of life? Most of us spend our whole life just following the standards of living that this society demands of us. Of course, all such lives are equally valuable, but those who discover the absolute situation and those who do not have to live completely differently. Being different here means giving up things that are not for the sake of an absolute life.
net
The third parable is the 'net'. Let's read verses 47 and 48. “Also, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to casting a net in the sea and pulling everything up. When the nets are full, the fishermen pull them ashore, sit down, sift the good things into a bowl, and throw away the bad ones.” A fisherman's net catches not only the fish the fisherman wants, but all kinds of fish and, in some cases, all sorts of junk. The selection of fish caught in the net was very important because the Jews strictly distinguished between edible and non-edible fish. If it was a competent fisherman, it would have been selected at once, but if it was an incompetent fisherman, it would have taken a lot of time.
Anyway, the key to this metaphor of the net is that the fisherman distinguishes it from the fact that the net contains all kinds of fish. So, after all, the parable of the net is saying the same thing as the previous parable. Treasures buried in the field were hidden at first, and just as pearls were hidden, so in the net good and bad fish are mixed together. The treasure buried in the field was revealed to the farmers, and just as the truth of Jinju Island was revealed by the merchant, the fish in the net was also revealed by the fisherman.
What do these three parables about the kingdom of heaven tell us today? I don't know if the important part has already been mentioned before. I skimmed over how happy the heart of the man who found the hidden treasure was, the fact that he sold all he had to get it, and the spiritual insight to tell them apart. However, this parable of Jesus does not end with such teachings. To build upon such a teaching, or to catch up with its deeper meaning, we need another spiritual perspective.
depth of everyday life
The parables of the kingdom of heaven we read today are stories that take place in our daily lives, such as farming, business, and fishing. Jesus did not explain the kingdom of heaven through any theological logic, but using parables of events that could happen in our daily lives. This means that the kingdom of heaven is directly connected with our daily life. However, the daily life is not just a superficial world, but a deep and spiritual dimension.
If anyone wants to know the kingdom of heaven, he must go into the depths of everyday life. The God who created this world, who preserves it, and who will complete it in the future, enters into this daily life in a hidden way. The hidden depth of everyday life here refers to the mystery of everyday life. Since God's way of being is always a mystery, those who experience the mystery in their daily life have experienced God.
Let's consider this issue a little more concretely. We now drink water and eat rice. Water and rice enter our bodies and not only keep our bodies alive, but also make our thoughts possible. Isn't this strange? The surface water or groundwater we drink does not stay there forever, but evaporates to form clouds and then falls back to the ground as rain. The water enters the body of plants, animals, and humans, goes back into the ground, and then again turns into a cloud. Water, which spins and spins in the Earth to sustain life, is a mysterious substance.
Not only these physical phenomena are mysterious, but our daily life itself is mysterious. People think that having a lot of money makes them happy, but in reality, it's not. Of course, you need money to stay cool on a hot day like this and eat delicious food, but even if you don't live like that, you can be happy. We usually think that we need to study a lot to become a wise person, but this is not always the case. Rather, knowledge can prevent human wisdom. As such, human life has such a depth and mystery that it cannot be machined.
Christian faith is an attitude of life that enters into these daily mysteries through Jesus Christ. The cross and resurrection of Jesus allow us to encounter the daily mystery of God's presence. However, many Christians fall into a kind of 'magic' or 'sentimentalism' because they do not understand this mystery correctly, or because they do not dialectically combine the mysteries of faith with the mysteries of everyday life. This belief is a distortion of the Christian faith that manifests itself in those who fail to grasp the mysteries of everyday life.
The distortion of the mysteries of the Christian faith also occurs in ‘sentimentalism’. Those who are immersed in this kind of faith mechanically shed tears and runny noses just thinking about the cross of Jesus. Of course, people in the love of Jesus can express their faith in this passionate way, and while this passion is an essential part of the Christian life, it has a mechanical problem. Christian faith is a decision to entrust one's future to the events of Jesus Christ, not the repeated affirmation of one's religious feelings. Trying to base your faith on emotions is like trying to read a love letter to keep your relationship hot. Although it is clear that a couple cannot always live with romantic feelings, such naive groups try to feel satisfied by forcing themselves to have such romantic feelings and immerse themselves in them.
It is not only the witchcraft and sentimentalism that distort the mysteries of faith. Conversely, the life that absolutizes the sensuous daily life also destroys our lives. The vulgar secularism that we usually find in this society really destroys the mysteries of everyday life because it gives all meaning to self-fulfillment in this world.
Where does the Christian enter into the depths of everyday life? There is no royal road here. I can only point out one direction. Only when the events of Jesus Christ and our daily life are combined will the depth of our daily life be revealed to us. To do this, we need to re-understand the events of Jesus Christ not only as doctrines, but also in the depths of life, and penetrate the everyday realities we face. The former is theological insight, the latter is the humanistic insight. Through this process, we will see treasures, pearls, and fish, and we will taste the joy of the person who found them.