Faith In The Midst Of Chaos: Jesus Calls Us To See The Bigger Picture

When you look at the world, what do you see? Maybe you see pain, injustice, or the overwhelming presence of evil. Maybe you ask, Why does God let bad things happen? If you've ever struggled with these questions, you're not alone.

Jesus' followers had the same concerns. They wanted to know why evil seemed to thrive while those faithful to God struggled. In one of His most powerful teachings, Jesus doesn’t give the answer they expected. Instead, He tells them where to put their focus.

Imagine being a Jewish Christian in the first century. Your entire faith had revolved around the temple in Jerusalem. Several times a year, you traveled to worship, sacrifice, and remain faithful to God. Then, suddenly, the temple was gone. Destroyed.

For many Jewish believers, this was more than a national tragedy. It was a faith crisis. Could they even follow God without the temple?

Matthew, writing his Gospel years after this destruction, includes Jesus’ teachings to help his audience see something new: The Kingdom of God wasn’t tied to a building. It wasn’t about preserving traditions. Living faithfully was about recognizing what God was doing around them and trusting the enduring goodness of God.

And Jesus had been telling them this all along.

In Matthew 13: 24-30, Jesus tells a story about a farmer who plants good seed in a field. But while he sleeps, an enemy sneaks in and plants weeds among the wheat. When the crops start growing, the weeds are everywhere. The servants ask, Should we pull out the weeds?
The farmer says, No, let them grow together. At the right time, the harvesters will sort them out.

Jesus later explains that the wheat represents His followers, and the weeds represent the people of the evil one. The enemy is the devil, and the harvesters are the angels at the end of the age.

For the disciples, this explanation raises a troubling question: How do we live this way, as wheat surrounded by weeds?

Jesus’ answer? Evil, the weeds, is not eternal. It will go away someday. Until then, your job is to focus on the Kingdom of God.

Instead of obsessing over evil, Jesus invites His followers to lean in and focus on the Kingdom. In Matthew 13: 44-50, Jesus says:

• The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure buried in a field. A man finds it, hides it again, and sells everything he owns to buy the field.
• The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant who finds one priceless pearl. The pearl is so valuable he sells everything for it.
• The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net catching all kinds of fish. God's Kingdom will endure.

The Kingdom of God is a treasure worth centering our attention and lives around.

At the end of His teaching, Jesus turns to His disciples and asks, Do you understand? They confidently reply, Yes! But Jesus immediately follows up with another lesson.

He tells them that a legal expert who focuses on the Kingdom is like the head of a household who brings out treasures—both old and new. (Matthew 13: 51-52)

In other words, Jesus doesn’t give his disciples permission to dehumanize the Jewish leaders or legal experts. He invites the legal experts to see and join what God is doing.

The same invitation applies today. Have we clung to religion and missed the teachings of Jesus? Are we open to the new things God is doing? We can turn our eyes and hearts upon Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus' teaching challenges us to wrestle and grow- to shift our focus.

• Instead of worrying about the evil around us, focus on the treasure of God’s Kingdom.
• Instead of focusing on the bad seed and soil, tend the soil of our hearts so it stays fresh, healthy, and pure for the seeds Jesus plants.
• Instead of assuming we have all the answers, stay open to what God is revealing.

The Kingdom of God is already growing. The treasure is already in the field. The pearl is already waiting to be found. The question is: Will you see it?