Jesus said many things in parables. Most of these parables speak to the nature of the Kingdom of God, the very Kingdom Jesus taught us to pray for to “come on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The problem, if we’re honest, is that while these parables may make perfect sense in God’s Kingdom, many of them do not make sense in our earthly kingdoms. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). If it was at hand over 2,000 years ago, surely it is at hand now. The Kingdom of God is not some far away reality beyond the crystal sea. Perhaps what Jesus is offering us is not a “how-to manual” in building the Kingdom, but rather a new set of lenses through which to see God’s presence in our midst, here and now.

Let’s consider first this “Parable of the Soils,” as it is commonly called…