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.