Evolución de la economía del Valle del Cauca y de Colombia

If one loses a theocentric focus, God’s election and the human search for God become readily dichotomised. The three short parables recorded in Matthew Mt 13:44-50 consider the

kingdom of heaven from three different perspectives.1 The kingdom of heaven is represented firstly from a human perspective, as a passive treasure to be discovered and actively appropriated with joy, secondly from God’s perspective, as an active merchant seeking a passive pearl at great cost with no mention of joy, and thirdly from a Kingdom perspective, as a net cast, an instrument or institution that draws in many fish that will need sorting. This threefold perspective, from the believer’s point of view, from God’s point of view, and from the point of view of the kingdom as an institution, is dynamic. If the kingdom of God is viewed as a static concept, paradoxes and false dichotomies arise. Such dichotomies are “based on a simple mistake – namely, the idea that whatever God does, we do not do, and vice versa. Life (thank God!) is more complicated than that.”2 If participation in the Kingdom is seen to involve dynamic relationships, then one can recognize a strong synergy between these three perspectives rather than a paradox. This matter will be discussed further in Chapters four and five.

Only the first of these short parables speaks of human joy. The treasure is hidden in a field, waiting to be found. The treasure is passive and hidden, but accessible. A treasure is not a wage or reward. Rather it is discovered, stumbled across. At first it is reburied, so it can be claimed with integrity. The treasure remains hidden while the discoverer of the treasure goes and buys the land. In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. If there is joy in selling all that he has, the treasure is deemed worth more than all he currently owns. The person who finds the kingdom of God is joyfully willing to metaphorically sell all he or she has: one gives up self-definition to the extent that what one owns defines who one is. The finding of the kingdom of heaven changes a person's life; it has profound effects on

1

The commentators I have consulted conflate the first two parables. They do not comment that joy is omitted in the second parable. God is seeking a holy nation to populate his kingdom. Does this omission of joy in Matthew relate to Jesus’ words on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

the one who discovers it. The exchange is welcomed joyfully, and it requires initiative and persistence on the part of the finder to engage in the process of appropriating the kingdom.

Luke records parables of God seeking out the lost. He places the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15: 1-7, cf. Mt 18:12-14) in the context of the grumbling of the scribes, that “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (v2). Kenneth Bailey gives some background to how shepherding is practised in Aramaic villages.3 For a large flock there would be two people looking after the sheep, the owner and a hireling. The hireling would have no interest in finding the lost sheep. So the 99 sheep are left in the wilderness with the hireling. The owner finds and carries the sheep – quite a burden – but rejoices nevertheless. He invites his friends and neighbours to rejoice with him. “Just so there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Here the understanding of joy is communal. As Christians worship the triune God, God's joy is always communal as the holy Trinity, and Christians are drawn into the fellowship of the Trinity. The Christian community also rejoices over every sinner who repents.

The parable of the treasure and the parable of the lost sheep seem to be mutually exclusive. The action of the shepherd is determinative – the sheep is passive in being found. Either entering the kingdom4 happens because God chooses to rescue the lost sheep with no participation from the sheep – it is found and carried – or the one who enters the kingdom participates in the process by reburying the treasure, selling all he has, and he claims the treasure with integrity. One can either claim that Matthew and Luke had different theologies, and their views of Jesus are in conflict, or one can recognise these parables as different

3 _{Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet and Peasant and Through Peasants’ Eyes (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), Book}

I, 142-156. Bailey grew up in Palestine. His parents were missionaries in remote Aramaic villages. This has given him a greater cultural understanding of the background to the Gospels and Psalms, hence I heavily rely on his insights.

4 _{John does not speak of entering the kingdom of God. Instead it is a matter of entering and remaining in}

fellowship with the Father and the Son, of being born again (John 3), of worshipping in Spirit and in truth (John 4), and of abiding in the vine (John 15).

perspectives on the one reign of God presented by Jesus. The shepherd-sheep metaphor is traditional from the time of King David (Psalm 23). The divine perspective rightly disposes over the creature. The parable of the treasure preserves a theocentric perspective in the fact that the treasure comes from outside the actions and intentions of the finder. There is divine joy in rescuing the sinner (as sheep), and there is human joy in responding to the rescue (appropriating the treasure). Finding the treasure invites participation, namely, to inhabit the new status of being rescued, of having “this treasure in an earthen vessel” (2 Cor 4:7). As we shall see, this is in stark contrast to the unforgiving servant who does not take up residence in his status of being a forgiven debtor.

Luke has a second parable of delight in finding the lost (Luke 15:8-10). Jesus addressed it to the sinners and tax-collectors as well as the grumbling Pharisees and scribes. A woman who had ten silver coins lost one. After a spring clean she found the coin and invited her friends and neighbours to celebrate with her. Joy on earth over a found coin once again comes to expression, not in isolation but in community, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.” Again the coin is passive, because the parable is told from the divine perspective.5 Again, the joy in heaven is communal. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” For joy to be joy in the Jewish sense, it requires a celebration: “a blessing, a visitation”.6 _{Joy is anchored in relationship and a}

transaction. It has a meeting ground which must be entered, and on that meeting ground the apparent dichotomy is resolved, God and rescued sinners rejoice together in community.

5

In an anthropocentric society, Jesus provocatively uses a woman as the agent representing God.

6 _{As mentioned in Chapter 2, “Happiness is for the Declaration of Independence, a political condition, and also}

for the ending of movies. Joy, by contrast, is an illumination, as in Blake and Wordsworth and Rilke, a benediction, a visitation.” See Potkay, The Story of Joy, 22.