It is like a grain of mustard [seed] which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew and became a great tree, and the birds of heaven lodged in its branches.
Jesus has just spoken of a fruitless nation under judgment, and now He asks what the kingdom of God is like. His answer is a tiny seed that turns into a tree, and commentators differ over whether that growth is the good news of the parable or its warning.
Matthew has the same parable. Luke sets it right after the barren fig tree, and that changes how it reads.
The parables of the mustard seed and the leaven appear in Luke in an entirely different setting than in Matthew. Here in Luke they connect closely with the parable of the barren fig tree. This shows that when Israel has failed and passed under the national judgment, the kingdom of God, as it rests in the hands of man, becomes like any other kingdom of the world. It shelters the unclean (the birds), and leaven corrupts it from the inside.
The crowd had just been rejoicing over what Jesus had done. The parable tells them not to expect a throne yet.
The kingdom of God was not yet coming in that power and glory in which all adversaries would be destroyed. Its essential feature was the power of God in lowliness, displayed in His own humiliation. Every eye that saw Christ, the actual witness of that kingdom, could see it. It was in no way a king governing with outward majesty. It was a man who takes a grain of mustard seed, a very little thing indeed, and casts it into his garden. People were premature in rejoicing over all the glorious things done by Him, if they counted on a mighty deliverance and kingdom just yet.
The seed goes into a garden — ground that already belonged to the sower.
It was not a kingdom set up in power among the people who were children of the kingdom, but a sower of seed. Still the Jewish people were God's own garden; He has His own right whatever men may have done there. It was "like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden," and it increased so that other powers and strangers came and lodged in the branches.
Writers have tried to name the actual plant behind the picture.
The one that best answers to the description is the sinapis nigra, a common mustard plant in Palestine. Its seeds are very small, and it grows into a tree about ten feet high, quite large enough for the smaller birds to lodge in its branches. The teaching of the parable is that the kingdom of God would be raised high in the earth. It would then be a fit place for agents of Satan to find protection under its shadow.
In the Old Testament a spreading tree pictures a great power on earth, and that is what the smallest of seeds became.
The symbol of a tree is taken, and of one that from a very little shot up to give shelter to the birds of the sky. So earthly rulers like the kings of Egypt and Assyria are described by Ezekiel, and the king of Babylon by Daniel; only here the stress falls on how out of keeping the original smallness was with its towering development in time. Nobody can deny either fact in Christendom. What a mighty factor on earth the little flock became!
Commentators differ over these birds. Some read them from the earlier parable of the sower, where birds snatch away the seed.
The Lord Himself tells us, in the earlier parable, who the "birds of the air" are, for it is the same word used in both places. As the sower sowed the seed, the birds came and devoured it. The Lord explains it: "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." So the birds of the air that devour the seed mean Satan and his angels. That is how the kingdom of heaven as it claims to be — nominal, national Christianity — becomes a vast and monstrous worldly system.
Others see only shelter in the picture, and no verdict.
The kingdom itself is like a little grain of mustard seed becoming a great tree. In the Old Testament that is a symbol of something raised high in the world, of a political power. We know well that this has happened. The birds nesting in its branches stand for the protection it gives. Compare Daniel 4:12. It is the public appearance of the kingdom system such as it has been for ages: here there is no judgment.
Size is not the harvest the Sower is after.
While the king is rejected and away, the kingdom is like a little seed thrown into the ground which springs up and becomes a great tree; just what we see in Christendom. This fills up the gap between Christ's rejection and His coming again. He does not come looking for a great tree, but for heavenly fruit. Instead of the fruit He expected, He will find the seed has become a great tree, with the birds of the air lodging in its branches. Pharaoh was a great tree. Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree. These were the high and great ones of the earth, the representatives of earthly power.
- Seed — the kingdom began in the smallest possible way, in Christ's lowliness, not in outward majesty.
- Garden — the seed went into ground God already owned. Israel was His, whatever men had done there.
- Tree — in the Old Testament a great tree pictures political power. The kingdom grew into one.
- Birds — some writers match them with the birds that snatched the seed in the sower's parable. Others see only shelter, and no judgment here.
- Fruit — the Sower returns looking for fruit, not for size. Growth is not what He came to find.
And again he said, To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.
The Lord has just compared God's kingdom to a mustard seed, and now to a woman hiding leaven in three measures of flour. Is the leaven the gospel winning the world, or something else spreading through it?
This parable covers the time while the King is away.
In verse 21 the kingdom is compared to leaven. And leaven is exactly what spreads through the whole mass that holds it. It also gives its character to the thing it is in. It is the profession of Christianity in name only, spread into a great mass — a great system. Looked at as a doctrine, it has leavened whole countries. Still, it is not what the Lord could own, since leaven in Scripture is never used in a good sense. The idea is the spreading of the doctrine while the king is away.
Darby also notes what this parable never mentions.
Notice that there is not a word here about the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with the spread of Christian doctrine. The Lord is simply describing the effect this produces in the world.
In the parable just before, a man plants; here a woman hides. The two figures stand for different things.
The man pictures the one who acts in public. The woman pictures the condition that results from what is done in secret... There is the spread of doctrine, of creed, of a mere spoken confession that does not imply faith. It is not only that something rises from the smallest beginning and becomes a great and towering power on earth. There is also a doctrinal system spread over a defined space — Christendom — and it affects people's minds and feelings.
The word "hid" carries weight, and so does what happens after it.
The Lord's word suggests secret dealing on the woman's part. She hid the small piece of leaven in the three measures of meal. And you know the effect of leaven is to spread itself throughout the whole mass in which it is present. The leaven spread through all three measures of meal. There was no further effort by the woman; the leavening process went on of itself.
Kelly points to Plutarch, an ancient biographer, and what he said about leaven:
"Leaven," says that old biographer, "both arises from corruption and itself corrupts the mass with which it is mixed."
Many have read this parable as the gospel gradually converting mankind. Commentators in this collection reject that reading outright.
Leaven, in Scripture, notice, is always a figure of evil. People have tried to make out that it means good, but that is twisting Scripture. In the parable in Matthew 13 the woman hides leaven in three measures of meal. That is not the gospel converting the world, as many teach. It is the solemn fact that professing Christianity, which God set up pure, has been completely corrupted. Leaven means what is evil there, as it does elsewhere in Scripture.
The measured quantity itself argues against a world-wide conversion:
It does not mean the whole world becoming Christian. That is a groundless conclusion, and many plain Scriptures that deal with this subject directly say the opposite. Only a very small part of the world is even Christian in name... We hear of "three measures." That is a certain definite space of the world which God has allowed doctrine that is Christian in name to influence — a witness even more than enough.
The writers say "meal" where the ESV says "flour". Either way, the detail is not neutral.
The "three measures of meal" refer to the fine flour of the meal offering, and no leaven was ever to go into it (Leviticus 2:11). The essential point is that the woman is doing the very thing that was forbidden... For the meal offering is Christ the bread of life, the food of God's priestly people. Mixing in the leaven means that the woman, the professing church, adulterates Christ in that very character.
Kelly draws the practical lesson from the rule the Jew lived by.
There might be new forms of evil besides those of old habits and associations. The Jew had to shut out all leaven. In the same way, the Christian has a solemn call to deal with evil in every shape, sparing none.
- Leaven corrupts. It comes from corruption, and it corrupts what it touches. Scripture never uses it as a picture of something good.
- Leaven hides. The woman conceals it, so the damage happens quietly, inside the mass, out of public view.
- Leaven spreads. The woman does nothing more. The leaven works through the whole measured quantity on its own.
- Leaven adulterates Christ. The three measures recall the offering that had to be free of leaven. So the pure food of God's priestly people is spoiled.
- Leaven must be judged. No one can purify the whole mass. Yet each Christian has a solemn call to deal with evil in every form, sparing none.