Windows & Doors - Week Two : 09 Feb 2017

In Matthew 13, after five parables describing how God enables one to receive the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus tells two small “treasure” parables illustrating the life of one God has given eyes to see, ears to hear and heart to respond to Jesus message to, “Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

 Matthew 13:44-46 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. 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, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

 Here we discover in the words of Dutch Theologian Edward Schillebeeckx, “Christianity is not a message which has to be believed, but an experience of faith that becomes a message.”

 Through His parables, Jesus describes what it means to be a Christian, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven: it is to discover what we do not have, to decide we must have it, and then to experience the difference it makes to have what we did not have.