Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Matthew 13:12

One sad thing I see in the interpretation of Matthew 13 is a large branch of thinking that rationalizes that Jesus was saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is somehow corrupt, not holy, or not pure.  Because of lack of understanding, or partial revelation (which we all must deal with — 1 Corinthians 13:9), many have assumed the Jesus meant somehow that the Kingdom of Heaven was itself divided.

In the case of Matthew 13, most of the parables start with the phrase “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”.  The Kingdom is likened to 7 things.  Some see believe that because they cannot find a species of mustard plant that grows from a very small seed into a large tree, that Jesus must have been implying some abnormal growth.  In addition, with parables such as the leaven which a woman hid, they assume that because in MOST of the references to the leaven in the Old Covenant are a reference to sin, and that sin was outlawed in most of the sacrifices, that Jesus obviously couldn’t be saying that the Kingdom was like leaven.  However, Jesus also plainly said in John’s gospel that unless you ate His flesh and drank His blood, you would have no life in you (John 6:53), a highly detestable practice in Jewish custom.  In the course of Jesus’ teachings, the fact that the image was abhorrent because of misunderstanding did not seem to matter to Jesus.

But, through the Gospels, a new way was presented.  If all that was meant by the passages in Matthew 13 were the internal, external, and abnormal growth of the Kingdom, this requires no real level of insight to see.  Yes, you could say that this is how it bears out over church history, but it is plainly not what Jesus meant.  As John 3:3-5 point out, if you can see it or enter it without being born again, it is not the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was very specific about what the Kingdom was.  He wasn’t writing to try to explain how the Jewish and Gentile church would fail to receive his message, any more than his words recorded in the Gospels were only for the Jews of that time, or that He was trying to prove that they needed Him.  Jesus didn’t need to bring a higher law to show they were failing the first one, because a new, higher standard would have no legal basis of claim against the first one.  Obviously, He meant something New.  He didn’t need to come to give a message just for the “transitional Jews” to become believers in Him, any more than when He prayed in John 17, He prayed for his disciples then AND for those who would believe later through them.  He didn’t need to catalogue how non-believing believers would fail, He had already written that book, and sealed it with the coming of John the Baptist (Luke 16:16).

Yet, the Father hid it from the wise and prudent, and revealed it to those as babes (Matthew 11:25).  Perhaps, if you were a great expositor of scripture, you could come with many great insights through parabolic interpretations of events in the life of Jesus, but, when it comes to the Kingdom, Jesus Himself said that unless we change and become as children, we would not enter it (Matthew 18:3).  When we think of yeast, we think of something invisible, that grows, spreads, and changes the thing it is in.  So it is with the Kingdom.  When we think of a seed, we see something small, that contains it all, that spreads, and covers the Earth.  So it is with the Kingdom.  It doesn’t need a doctor of theology to interpret the parables of Jesus, it needs the heart of a child.

The Kingdom is not of this world.  If it was, Jesus wouldn’t have been able to make the claims that He did.  The Kingdom is of such a superior quality, that to see it and rightly value it, one immediately wants to rid themselves of everything to obtain it.  And, what is this Kingdom?  Among many other things, it is right fellowship with God.  It is akin to what Adam had in Eden.  It is pure, unbroken fellowship.

Jesus said to Nathanael he would see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51).  It is the invisible, spiritual reign of God, ruled by its creator and rightful sovereign, Jesus Christ.  It is the power that has conquered all the powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).  It is the meekest, strongest, purest, and unstoppable Kingdom in all of Eternity.

In fact, the dialogue to Nicodemus in John 3 is most revealing.  In John 3:12, Jesus asks Nicodemus, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”  Jesus was talking about the New Birth, and he couldn’t believe Him.  Today too, failing to even believe the simple Earthly parables of Jesus, we become blinded to their true intent, the Kingdom of the heavenlies, a true and real place, that is for us today (Matthew 5:3, 10, and elsewhere).

The Kingdom of Heaven is a Kingdom replete with angels, power, access, miracles, signs, wonders, and demonstrations of God’s goodness, the very acts of the Father Himself!  There is no Kingdom apart from His power demonstrated through righteousness and justice, and there is no true power apart from His Kingdom.  Salvation is simply the greatest and most important part, without with, none of the rest will work, and to which all the others both point and lead.  The road points to Christ and His Cross, but it is the power of God all the way, both coming and going!

How do we get more?  Acknowledge what we have, and continue to grow in faith, see and exercise and enter the Kingdom.  We grow like the mustard seed, or like the leaven.  How do we get less?  Ignore and deny the very aspects of the Kingdom, that while they often are the subtle leadings of the Holy Spirit, are there to lead us, by His grace, into all truth.