The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like… – Part 3
The Parables Of The Mustard Seed And The Leaven
Matthew 13:31-35
Before we begin today, I would like once again to make sure that we are all clear about what a parable is and what the difference is between a parable and an allegory.
Let’s go over our definitions once more, just to make sure we are all understanding this the same way:
A parable places earthly truths side by side with the heavenly truths that are to be understood. The earthly truths employed describe the characteristics of the heavenly thing be taught. As we have said, the starting point of Christ’s parables is that there is a God-ordained and God-created continuity between the human and the divine. The strength of Christ’s parables lies in the very real connection imprinted by the Creator on His creation, the physical characterizing and demonstrating the higher spiritual and moral world.
An allegory, on the other hand, is figurative and symbolic, not descriptive. An allegory is a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically express a deeper meaning, often spiritual or moral. In an allegory, the characters are usually personifications of abstract concepts such as greed, envy, courage and the like. An allegory is simply a word-picture, not a parallel explanation.
Okay, now that we are all on the same page once again, let’s read the first of the two parables that we are going to cover today. Both are found in Matthew 13. The first one, The Parable of the Mustard Seed, is found in Matthew 13:31-32. Let’s read that now, shall we?
Okay, so we have the kingdom of heaven once again being described by the Prince of Heaven, Jesus Christ. What is the kingdom of heaven again? The kingdom of heaven is the sure and steady advance of the rule and reign of Jesus Christ that began at His birth, grew through His life and ministry here on earth, was demonstrated by His power and authority over the forces of nature and the forces of darkness, was affirmed by God personally at Jesus’ baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration, was made sure by Christ’s crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension, and will be fully consummated when He returns on the Day of Judgment.
When He teaches, “the kingdom of heaven is like…,” He is describing for us something that He knows personally, intimately and fully. He takes the things of His kingdom and uses everyday things of this world to show us what that kingdom is like. The parables are easy to understand for those who love Him simply and unpretentiously.
In our last two parables, we saw some of the characteristics of how the kingdom operates and how it is opposed. Today we are going to be given two descriptions of how the kingdom will grow until it is fully realized.
Once again, I have to be clear about the dangers of allegorizing a parable. We saw last time that the subtle twist of what the word-picture is describing can lead us down the path of believing and teaching falsehood. We must always keep in mind that teaching falsehood is teaching rebellion.
This is a point where I am in disagreement with many men who are considered more knowledgeable, more learned and more credible than I am. On the other hand, there are several men of that caliber who hold to the same interpretation that I do. You will have to prayerfully read and reread these passages on your own and decide for yourself which interpretation you will believe.
The Parable of the Mustard seed begins with a description; “The kingdom of heaven is like…” That phrase, “is like,” tells us that a simile – a picture, an illustration, a likeness, a reflection – is before us. So, when Jesus says that, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,” how does He describe it? He says that the kingdom of heaven, just like the mustard seed (remember that a parable uses the characteristics of the earthly to describe the spiritual), begins as an infinitesimally small thing and grows to be the largest tree in the garden.
I am going to go through this parable and teach the straight, simple truth of it before we look at how it gets allegorized and distorts the message of what Jesus is trying to tell His disciples and us.
Jesus puts it this way, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES."
The mustard plant that is spoken of here is not like the mustard plant that we know today. The mustard plant that we know today always remains a small herb plant. But, in Palestine in Jesus’ day, the mustard tree was just that – a tree that people could actually climb. It began from a very, very tiny seed. In our part of the world and of history, Jesus might very well use the acorn and the oak tree as a parable to describe the kingdom of heaven. But the mustard seed truly is very, very tiny. You can line up 18 to 25 mustard seeds across the face of a dime. The growth from this tiny seed into a tree whose height rivals that of the mighty oak tree.
In “The Land and the Book,” vol. ii. p. 101, Dr. William MacClure Thomson says, “I have seen this plant on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and his rider. It has occurred to me on former visits that the mustard-tree of the parable probably grew at this spot, or possibly at Tabiga, near Capernaum, for the water in both is somewhat similar, and so are the vegetable productions. To furnish an adequate basis for the proverb, it is necessary to suppose that a variety of it was cultivated in the time of our Saviour, which grew to an enormous size, and shot forth large branches, so that the fowls of the air could lodge in the branches of it. It may have been perennial, and have grown to a considerable tree; and there are traditions in the country of such so large that a man could climb into them; and after having seen “red pepper” bushes grow on year after year, into tall shrubs, and the “castor-bean” line the brooks about Damascus like the willows and the poplars, I can readily credit the existence of mustard-trees large enough to meet all the demands of our Lord’s parable. “
What is this telling us? Simply that from those very small beginnings of Jesus and His Twelve Disciples, the advancing of the kingdom of heaven has grown and is growing into something immense – so immense that many can take refuge in it, many can find rest and comfort in it and the world has benefited from its existence and growth. Who would have expected this little band of wanderers to have had the impact on the world that they have had?
Did you know that if it was not for Christianity and its influence on the world since its beginning in that little nation known as Palestine, there would have been no orphanages, no hospitals, no societies for the preservation of anything or the saving of anything? There would have been no real drive to discover new worlds and spread the Gospel to every tribe and tongue, nor would there have been many of the wars that defeated some nations and elevated others. Medicine and the other sciences would not have developed and our world would be riddled with diseases we long ago found cures for.
There are myriad other changes that would never have taken place, including the Renaissance that brought the world out of the Dark Ages. We would not have the technology we have today, nor would we have the degree of knowledge we take for granted. Education would not be what it is, art and music would not be what they are, nor would things like architecture and design be what they are today.
These things – and much, much more – can be seen as the “birds of the air come nest in its branches.” The kingdom of heaven grows externally and visibly until it overshadows the rest of the garden, the other religions of the world.
Now, the allegorizers take this parable and say that the mustard seed is not supposed to grow into a tree and that one that does is an anomaly, a mutation of what God intended. That means that this mustard plant, which they say is the church, grows into something it was never intended to be. Well, if they think only of yellow mustard, they would be right. But, black mustard does grow into an enormous tree – by design.
From this basic misunderstanding and misinterpretation, they consequently teach that the birds of the air are all kinds of wicked, evil or hypocritical people who become members of the church and no one can get rid of them. They again allegorize the parable by taking the phrase, “which a man took and sowed in his field” to mean the church – but we know that the field is the world, right? They justify this allegorizing in part because of the allegorizing that they brought into that last parable. See what a slippery slope we start down when we misinterpret even one passage of Scripture?
Let’s take the next parable, The Parable of the Leaven, and see what happens with it. Matthew 13:33: “He spoke another parable to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.’
Very short, very straightforward. Again, Jesus uses the natural characteristics of something on earth to describe the spiritual. What is leaven? The technical definition of a leavening agent is one that reacts with moisture, heat, acidity, or other triggers to produce gas that becomes trapped as bubbles within the dough. When a dough or batter is baked, it "sets," and the holes left by the gas bubbles remain, giving breads, cakes and other baked goods their soft, sponge-like textures.
In Jesus’ day, people used yeast quite similar to what we use today. This biological leavening agent is living bacteria that create carbon dioxide during their life cycle, just as we do. In Bible times, leaven was usually a piece of fermented dough that was held onto from a previous batch of dough and used in the new dough mixture to cause it to rise, similar to what we call sourdough starter today.
Leaven, or yeast, works quietly and invisibly and only the effects of it are eventually seen. This is the same with the way that the kingdom of God works, both in individuals and in the world at large.
Now the three measures or pecks of flour could refer to finely ground wheat flour, not the coarser barley flour. Wheat flour was ground and made fine in the amount of three measures, while barley was done in four. There is a great deal of symbolism wrapped up in these three measures – if we want to allegorize the parable.
If we wanted to do that, we would say that leaven always represents sin and corruption (it does not). Jesus speaks very firmly against the “leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:6, 12). There is also the sanction of God against leavened bread on the night of the Passover and its subsequent celebration down the centuries that followed (Exodus 12:15, 19-20, 34, 39 ). Leaven was prohibited from being used in offerings dedicated to the Lord by fire (Leviticus 2:11). So, many say, leaven in this parable represents the unseen growth of sin and hypocrisy within the church. How do they get to that? They allegorize the parable and now it is the dough that is the church instead of the field – uh-oh; see where we’re going?
There are a couple of real problems with all of this, aside from allegorizing the parable. First of all, Jesus is describing the kingdom of heaven by using leaven as a picture. Is Jesus saying that the kingdom of heaven is like something corrupt? No – no more than He is saying that the kingdom of heaven was like something that mutated into a gross monstrosity that God never intended for it to become (the mustard tree).
Secondly, if we look at Leviticus 23:17 and Leviticus 7:13, we see that leavened bread was required by God to be offered for the peace offering and for the two wave offerings presented at the Feast of Weeks, which we know as Pentecost. The allegory breaks down here.
Thirdly, when the Lord and two of His angels visited Abraham the day before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham rushed to his wife and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes (Genesis 18:6)." With the running around that Abraham is doing in this section of Scripture, grabbing the best he has to present to his visitors, would he be giving something corrupt and foul to these distinguished guests? Of course not – so he specifically tells his wife to prepare leavened cakes for the visitors and to use the finest flour she has in order to make them.
Allegorizing these parables makes the kingdom of heaven out to be that which it is not, and it makes out the children of the kingdom to be what they are not. Instead of confidence and reassurance being taken from these very first teachings to the disciples on what they can expect of the development of the kingdom of God, uncertainty and fear grow out of them when they are mistreated and misrepresented.
I simply do not see that as the purpose of these parables. That would be inconsistent with the Jesus we see in the rest of the Gospels. Jesus made it a point in the explanations He provided for two of His parables that those who had the right heart about the things of the kingdom would understand and be reassured by what they learned. The allegories accomplish just the opposite.
I want to say again that there are those who disagree with me on these points. However, the most respected of the historical expositors and commentators on the Bible hold to the view that I have been sharing with you today and in the past few weeks.
In the last two verses of this subsection, we are told that Jesus spoke at this time only in parables and that He did so in order to reveal things that had been “hidden since the foundation of the world (Matthew 13:34-35).”
In Matthew’s statement, “so that what was spoken by the prophet may be fulfilled,” God tells us that even in what might seem clear in His Word – like Psalm 78, which appears to be a brief history of God dealing with His people – there is the ultimate purpose and plan of salvation working underneath and being moved toward. That purpose and plan came to light and burst into fulfillment in not just the life but also the very words of Jesus Christ. This is why reading the Old Testament can be as refreshing and instructive for our faith as reading the New Testament – all of it points to Jesus Christ, in whom we have our hope.
Beneath the history in the Old Testament are truths for all time that are not brought to light until Jesus Christ comes. But, when He comes, we can come to know all things that He has determined beforehand that we should know and walk in them (see Hosea 14:9).
The question now becomes: What does this mean in my life and how do I apply it in the everyday?
The Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Leaven both teach an essential quality of the kingdom of God that we are meant to understand and to bring to life in our lives: Growth. Both the mustard seed and the leaven begin quite small and seemingly insignificant. Both grow to the point where they penetrate and permeate their surroundings. Both maintain a constructive and helpful influence disproportionate to their size. Both provide for the needs of others. From seemingly meager beginnings, they become fully developed and fully mature so that God can use them to benefit the environment they are in.
Can we say the same of our own walk of faith? Can people look at how our lives have grown and are growing and say that we are having a positive, helpful influence on the world around us, beginning in our own homes?
You see, learning all of this stuff is just a bunch of stuff if it doesn’t do something to us, change something about us and enrich those around us. If we do not bear the kind of fruit that makes people more aware of Jesus Christ just because we’re around, then a mustard seed growing into a mustard tree is not what we are.
And, if our attitudes toward people and the circumstances that we find ourselves dealing with in our lives do not have the flavoring of the sweetness and holiness of the Savior, then we have not been leavened with the leaven of the kingdom.
Remember that Jesus told His disciples and those present that day at the Sermon on the Mount that, “(So then,) You will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16, 20). We can say what we want to about what we do and why we do it – but the world can just tell that there is a particular flavor that is distinctly from Jesus if it is there in what we do and how we carry ourselves and how we react and how we treat our enemies and how we deal with adversity and the kinds of things we allow and don’t allow to be part of our lives.
And, this is where we see our personal practical application. This is where we get on our knees and ask Him to show us how we are doing from His perspective and to change what needs to be change – ask Him to plant the right kind of seed, work-in the right kind of leaven.
When people say things to us that let us know that they see Christ-likeness in our treatment of others, that they hear Christ-likeness in what we say and how we say it, that they sense a Christ-like gentleness and servanthood about us as we interact with whoever we come into contact with, then we know that the seed has taken root and is producing the right kind of fruit; then we know that the right kind of leaven has been kneaded into our hearts and is permeating every aspect of our lives.
I don’t know where you are today anywhere near as well as I know where I am today. My guess is that, like me, you want your life to be more flavored by the Savior than it is. My guess is that, again like me, you desire healthier fruit in your life; fruit that demonstrates a mellowness, a sweetness and a ripeness that are obviously the result of being firmly rooted in a personal, intimate, moment-by-moment connection to Jesus Christ.
I am also guessing that, like me, you need some help with all of that. Let’s submit ourselves once again to the instruction of the Holy Spirit, the cleansing power of the Word of God, the loving yoke of our Redeemer, and let’s lift each other up to the Throne of Grace. Let’s really open ourselves up to being transformed by the renewing of our minds so that our lives become the gifts of living worship they were created to be.
Let’s pray.
