The Rev. Dr. Brandon Perrine
Proper 12A
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
July 26, 2026
[Jesus] 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.” “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.”
~o~
For those of you who’ve been here the last two Sundays, you were likely beginning to wonder if Jesus would ever tire of talking about farming. I might hazard a guess and suggest you were getting tired of listening to Jesus talk about farming. And if I’m being honest, I was tired of preaching about Jesus talking about farming!
Today, Jesus talks about mustard shrubs, bread baking, buried treasure, prize pearls, and fishing. Does anyone else think it’s odd that Jesus didn’t talk more about carpentry and building stuff? After all, he was not a farmer or baker, a treasure hunter, pearl merchant, or fisher. He was a tektōn—a builder, someone who worked with wood or stone. And yet he almost never talked about building things. Instead, he filled his teaching with images from the everyday lives of the people around him.
He was a man of the people and his parables were intended for the largely agrarian inhabitants of first century Palestine. He spoke using images they could understand. As one commentator points out,
The mustard seed and the yeast (verses 31–33) speak to those who know the land and the kitchen. The hidden treasure and the pearl (verses 44–46) speak to those who understand acquisition, risk, and the marketplace. The dragnet full of fish (verses 47–50) speaks to those whose livelihood depends on the sea. Jesus moves from agrarian to domestic to commercial to maritime, and his logic is not repetition for repetition’s sake. His is the logic of a teacher who refuses to leave any pupil behind.1
He connected with his audience. Parables were meant to do that. While the disciples expressed a lack of understanding in our readings from last week and the week before, they were meant to be understood! Jesus wasn’t speaking in complex riddles meant to mystify the masses. He was speaking in the language of everyday life precisely so they would understand his meaning for them. And because of that, he rarely interpreted his parables. Or if he did, his interpretations weren’t passed down.
“The Gospel writers, in their wisdom, left most of the parables as open narratives in order to invite us into engagement with them.”2 The moment something is written down it becomes fixed—static. Jesus’ parables, by contrast, “speak to each generation and each individual anew, or they cease to be either scripture or literature and become only markings on a page.”3 I have a feeling that’s what he meant when he talked about bringing out of their “treasure what is new and what is old.” The words are old, but the interpretation will change with time and circumstance. And it should.
Think about this congregation. For more than 160 years, generation after generation has gathered here to hear these same stories. But they haven’t heard them in quite the same way. The people who built this church couldn’t have imagined livestreamed worship or smartphones. They lived through the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. They asked what it meant to follow Jesus in their own time. Today we ask what it means to follow Jesus in ours. The stories haven’t changed. But every generation has discovered treasures old and new within them.
And while every generation is tempted to believe it has finally figured Jesus out, he is remarkably uninterested in giving away too much. About himself. Or about the kingdom. Instead, he offers another story. And another. And another.
The kingdom is like a seed. Actually, it’s like yeast. Well, really it’s like treasure. Or like a pearl. And also like a net… Jesus seems to know that no image can hold something as alive as the kingdom—that no image can capture the whole of it.
Then he turns to his followers—and to us—and in effect says, “But keep trying. Show your faithfulness by bringing out the old and the new.” Keep wrestling. The old stories keep revealing new insights. Ancient wisdom yields fresh guidance for today. So carry both. And the kingdom will keep growing, keep being revealed, keep gradually emerging—from generation to generation—surprising us like a mustard seed, or yeast, a buried treasure, a prize pearl, or a net full of every kind of fish.
Ours is a living tradition. That’s why these parables still have the power to surprise us. Jesus didn’t explain them once and for all. He entrusted them to generations of disciples who would keep discovering treasures old and new. That isn’t a flaw in our faith. It may be one of its greatest gifts.
May we continue to discover treasures old and new as we make this faith our own.
Amen.
1 Chelsey Harmon. “Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Sermon Commentary,” CEPreaching.org, July 26, 2026: https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2026-07-20/matthew-1331-33-44-52-4/.
2 Amy-Jill Levine. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2015. Pg. 1.
3 Ibid., 17.
