The Reign of God in the Parables - Martin Little

The Reign of God in the Parables of Matthew 13

‘What shall we look for and what shall we see?’ asked Frodo, filled with awe.

‘Many things I can command the mirror to reveal’, she answered, ‘and to some I can show what they desire to see.  But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and these are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold.  What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell.  For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.  But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell.  Do you wish to look?’[1]

Interpreting the ‘kingdom’ parables of Jesus can feel like peering into Galadriel’s mirror.  Do we project onto them our own conception of the kingdom of God/heaven, seeing merely ‘what we desire to see’?  What timeframe can we discern - do we see past, present, future or something else?  This essay is one look into the mirror.  It hopes to suggest some unbidden-yet-profitable insights into Jesus’ message of the kingdom and our response to it.

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[1] J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring, (London: Grafton, 1990), 469.

Comments

[anny]

thank you Martin

for a truly blessed reflection
of the Blessed Truth.