Bible Study series: Matthew 13:31-33. The kingdom of God expands slowly, as it rescues people from the kingdom of darkness. Each redeemed life represents kingdom expansion.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
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Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 13:31-33
31 He presented to them another parable, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man takes and sows in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but which grows up bigger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.”
33 He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman takes and hides in three measures of flour until it leavens the whole lump.” (Matt. 13:31-33)
Comments:
31-33:
See v. 3 for further comment on the meaning of “parable.”
These two short parables are similes or “like” or “similar.” This is like that. He is about to compare the kingdom to two ordinary items in everyday life in first-century Israel.
The comparisons or similes are revealing.
First, the kingdom is compared to a mustard seed, which in his culture, was the smallest seed. Then a person takes it and sows it in his garden. It grows into a tree-like plant. It is not a literal tree, so here it is rhetoric, but the mustard plant could grow to a height of 10-25 ft (3-7.5m). So what is the point of the short parable? It is that the kingdom has a small beginning and is seemingly insignificant to the undiscerning. The mustard seed is a symbol for what is tiny; it was the smallest seed. This is the mystery of the kingdom, for it will have a large ending. Jesus is one God-man, so the beginning of the kingdom at first seems small and even lonely, despite the large number of disciples following him. Now, thankfully, it is going around the globe. But this does not mean the parable teaches the kingdom’s political dominance, as Dan. 2:44 teaches, which wipes out all other kingdoms. Instead, the kingdom that Jesus taught enters quietly into the world, but more specifically into a person’s heart.
“Although not literally the smallest of seeds and yielding a shrub rather than a ‘tree’ in the technical botanical sense, the mustard plant hyperbolically conveyed Jesus’ point (the inconspicuous becomes mighty) better than any other” (Keener, p. 388). Hyperbole means a rhetorical exaggeration for effective speaking. “This is not an error on Jesus’ part, though some have claimed it as such. Jesus is using rabbinic hyperbole to stress the great difference between miniscule size (it can barely be seen in the palm of a hand) and a great tree it produces (nine to ten feet high) [3m], and at the same time this was the smallest seed known to his Palestinian audience” (Osborne, comment on 13:32).
Another way of looking at the issue of the “smallest”: Some critics choke on the smallest of all seeds in Jesus’s culture because it is not the smallest seed in the world (evidently, orchid seeds are smaller). Yet Jesus uses the superlative “smallest.” He was wrong! (So say the critics.) No, we have to accommodate the biblical authors and persons inside the story to their culture. Let’s not impose demands on them to know things they did not have access to (e.g. the speed of light or airplanes or cars). Reasonable readers read the text reasonably and charitably.
The Greek noun “earth” (gē) can also be translated as “soil” or “ground” in agricultural settings, as here, which BDAG recommends for these verses (p. 196). So Jesus is not saying that it is the smallest seed that ever existed on the whole globe, including Australia and North America. It is the smallest seed in Galilean agriculture, at that time.
Second, the kingdom is compared to a small amount of yeast or leaven. A woman puts it in 47 lbs. (21 kg) (literally “three measures” where one measure = 16 lbs. or 7 kg) of wheat dough, and the whole, massive lump of dough rises or leavens. It could feed one hundred people. “Thus this is not a daily event but a banquet … So Jesus is saying that an insignificant amount of yeast-dough could permeate an entire village. Often yeast occurs as a negative image, describing the spreading of evil (Matt 16:6 par; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor 5:6-7; Gal 5:9), but here it is positive, speaking of the spread of the kingdom in history, more eschatological success than the messianic banquet” (Osborne, comment on 13:33).
The point of this simile-parable is the same as the previous simile. The kingdom starts out small, so small that the lump of dough can hide it. The leaven is unobservable. The kingdom is not one a fireworks and great glory, as we see in Dan. 2:44, as noted. In that OT passage the kingdom levels every worldly kingdom in its path. The kingdom that Jesus proclaimed is small and starts invisibly. Then it grows to be massively influential, globally powerful, but only when people surrender to it.
So does this power and influence mean that Christians should take over governments? Not necessarily. The kingdom does not so permeate the world’s political systems that outward righteousness is achieved. Rather, it is better, in my view, to preach the gospel, train the new converts to live righteously and lovingly in Christ, and together, in unity, their righteous lives and deeds will transform society.
“man”: see v. 24 for more comments.
GrowApp for Matt. 13:31-33
1. God starts out small in your life: your initial conversion. Have been impatient with this process?
2. How have you learned to wait patiently for kingdom growth to happen?
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14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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