The week's Gospel texts relay a series of "the kingdom of heaven is like" parables that were so crucial to Jesus' message. Our "kingdom" texts are from Matthew, whose overwhelming preference is to refer to the "kingdom of heaven" (literally the "kingdom of the heavens") instead of the "kingdom of God" (Luke and Mark's favorite designation). The two terms are essentially synonymous, however, and actually reveal more about the individual Gospel writers than Jesus' intentions. The "kingdom of heaven" phrase preferred by Matthew is a far more Jewish term. Scholars suggest that Matthew's use of "heavens" either testifies to his own Jewishness or to his use of the Semitic idiom that Jesus himself might have used.

The first two parables from this week's text (vv.31-32 and v.33) are also transmitt…