Luke
13:18–21 What
we will study this time in Parable of the Kingdom…01. Why Jesus Taught in Parables (Luke 8:10); 02. The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Luke 13:18-19); and 03. The Parable of the Leaven (Luke 13:20-21).
01. Why Jesus Taught in Parables (Luke 8:10)
Back in Luke
8:10, Jesus tells the apostles why He spoke in parables. Before
Jesus answered the apostles in Luke 8:9 and told them the meaning of the
parable, He explained why He taught in parables to the people. He mentions here
in Luke 8:10 “to know the mysteries”, which in the Greek is γνῶναι
τὰ μυστήρια (gnōnai ta mustēria). The verb, used
here that is translated as “to know”
is G1097 γνῶναι (gnōnai) and is the aorist, active, infinitive version of γινώσκω (ginōskō), which means to know the will of the Master.[1] The
noun, used
here that is translated as “mysteries”
is G3466 μυστήρια (mustēria) in the aorist, active, infinitive version of μυστήριον (mustēriŏn) which means the unmanifested or private counsel of God,
(God’s) secret, the secret thoughts, plans, and dispensations of God.[2] To us today, when we hear the word
“mystery”, we tend to think of something dark and insidious. Maybe even some sort
of conspiracy theory, or something to be afraid of or cautious about. The
noun (G3466 μυστήριον
(mustēriŏn) is derived from the Greek word μύω (G3453 muō) which means
to shut the mouth, through the idea of silence imposed by
initiation into religious rites.[3] The
mystery religions in the east had all of the same types of secrets and signs as
many of the secret societies today have, and only the initiated knew the
secrets and signs. The false
teachers today often use this word to describe the inner secrets of their false
religions. Jesus is essentially saying here that His disciples have
been initiated into the secrets of the Kingdom of God. Paul freely talks about
this mystery now being revealed through Christ (Romans
16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7
and Colossians 2:2). The mystery that Paul refers to in
Colossians 2:2 is explained further in Ephesians 3:1-6. So
what is this mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament but now revealed by
the Holy Spirit through Paul? This mystery is that the
Gentiles, who once were excluded from the glory and riches of God’s grace, are
now no longer excluded! Look at what Paul says about this mystery in Philippians 4:12. The phrase “I have learned” in the Greek is one Greek verb
G3453 μεμύημαι (memyēmai) and is the perfect, passive, indicative, first
person, singular version of μυέω (muĕō), which means “to
initiate into the mysteries,”[4]
and it is from the noun form of (G3466) μυστήριον (mustēriŏn). So
what Paul is saying is that he learns the secrets of faith, i.e., he
experiences the power of Christ, in the everyday gifts and stresses of daily
life.[5] Paul
is saying is that he was initiated into the secrets of the Kingdom of God
through suffering! Once again, when you see the word “mystery” in the New Testament, it means that which was hidden in the past and is now
revealed by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
Luke 8:10 Before Jesus
told this Parable of the Sower, the Pharisees make the blasphemous accusation
that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the
demons, Satan (Matthew
12:22-37; Mark 3:19-30). In light of that, Jesus is telling
His apostles that the parables He uses are open to them, but shut to the
Pharisees with their antagonistic hearts. Depending on whether one is open to
hearing what Jesus teaches will reveal whether His words are revealed or
concealed by His hearers (cf. Luke 8:10). The unregenerate in heart cannot
discern what Jesus is teaching, because “the natural man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) “Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can
be.” (Romans 8:7) In
support of this, in Luke 8:10 Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9, “Seeing they may not see, And
hearing they may not understand.” By speaking in parables, Jesus was
actually being very gracious to His hearers. For if they rejected His claim as
the Messiah, the Son of God, then their judgment won’t be as bad if they had
understood more (Matthew 11:20–22; Luke 10:13–15; 1 Timothy 4:2). 1 Timothy 4:2 “seared with a hot iron,” G2743 καυτηριάζω kautēriazō; from a der. of 2545;
to brand (“cauterize”), i.e. (by impl.) to render
unsensitive (fig.):—sear with a hot iron.[6]
With that as our backdrop, we now
will study the parables of the Kingdom in Luke 3:18-21. Many feel that these two short parables about the Mustard Seed and the
Leaven (or the yeast) that Jesus was teaching about the growth of the Kingdom
of God, where the Leaven is a picture of the inward growth of the Kingdom of
God, while the Mustard Seed represents the outward growth of the Kingdom of
God, as the Mustard Tree, from a tiny seed to a tree! These two parables
of the Kingdom wrap up the section that began in Luke 12:1, but they are also the hinge for the next pericope when
Jesus teaches who is and who isn’t a member of His Kingdom in Luke 13:22-17:22.
In Luke 12:1, Jesus warns His disciples to “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Jesus warns His disciples to Beware (προσέχετε), which in the Greek is an imperative. Jesus
is commanding His disciples to Beware
or put your
mind for yourselves and avoid[7] the leaven
or the teachings of the Pharisees, which is
hypocrisy. In the Bible,
leaven or yeast is always used to refer to something that is evil (cf. Mark 8:15; 1 Corinthians 5:6–7). Referring to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees as leaven illustrates that
their hypocrisy
is like leaven,
which starts out small and spreads stealthily throughout. But just as the leaven is hidden in
bread and cannot be seen, so too is the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, hidden by a veneer of religion. We saw
this last time when Dr. Luke records for us that Jesus said, “Now you Pharisees make the outside
of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and
wickedness.” (Luke 11:39) We see this as well in Matthew 16:6–12 when His disciples
“understood that He
did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:12) By taking a contextual look at this pericope, with these two parables
of the Kingdom immediately following the leader of the synagogue’s rejection of
Jesus after He healed the woman of the demon influenced scoliosis (Luke 13:11),
we see that these two parables
of the Kingdom are more then likely two teachings on the sin and evil that will
enter the Church and the last days.
02. The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Luke 13:18-19)
This parable is also recorded
for us in Matthew
13:31-32 and Mark 4:30–32. It is interesting to point out
that in the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, where this parable is
also found, the chapter that Matthew compiled seven Kingdom Parables. Dr.
Luke mentions no change in the audience, so we are led to assume that those who
were in the synagogue in Luke 13:10 are those who hear these two
parables of the Kingdom in context with the woman being healed (Luke 13:11-13) and the sharp exchange
between Jesus and indignant ruler of the synagogue (Luke 13:14-16). In light
of that, Jesus then asks those in the synagogue, “What is the kingdom of God like?
And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and
put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the
air nested in its branches.” (Luke 13:18-19)
Luke 13:19 “It is like a mustard seed,” (κοκκῳ σιναπεως [kokkōi sinapeōs]). Either the white
mustard (Sinapis
alba) or the wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis), both of which grow anywhere from 8-36” of height. So
despite many well-intentioned Bible dictionaries that try to link this parable
to different mustard trees found throughout the Middle East, these mustard
plants cannot “became
a large tree, and hardly can
be a place where the birds of the air can nested in its branches.” Some misinformed
critics claim that Jesus’ statement in Matthew’s account of this parable that
the mustard seed “is the least of all the seeds”
(Matthew 13:32) is factually
incorrect, since there are other seeds that are smaller. “Seeds,” however,
translates the plural form of the noun sperma, which when used in the New
Testament literally (and not figuratively to speak of children or descendants),
always refers to familiar seeds sown to produce food crops (Matthew 13:24; Matthew 13:27; Matthew 13:37-38;
Mark 4:31; 1 Corinthians 15:35–38), not to
all seeds in the plant kingdom. And as botanist Dr. L.H. Shinners explains, The
mustard seed would indeed have been the smallest of those likely to have been
noticed by the people at the time of Christ. The principal field crops (such as
barley, wheat, lentils, beans) have much larger seeds, as do vetches and other
plants which might have been present as weeds (the biblical tares) among grain…There
are various weeds and wild flowers belonging to the mustard, amaranth, pigweed,
and chickweed families with seeds as small or smaller than mustard itself, but
they would not have been particularly known or noticed by the inhabitants…The
only modern crop plant of importance with smaller seeds than mustard is
tobacco, but this plant is of American origin and was not grown in the Old
World until the 16th century and later (cited in John A. Sproule, “The Problem
of the Mustard Seed,” Grace Theological Journal 1 [Spring 1980]: 40)[8] This parable of the mustard seed reminds us of The
Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15
cf. Matthew 13:3-23) when Jesus describes the seed that was
sown on the road in Luke 8:5 “was trampled down, and the birds of
the air devoured it.” And
then in Luke 8:12 Jesus explains that the birds of the air represent the devil who comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they
should believe and be saved. The
devil is strongly against and will do all that he can to keep the Word of God
from being heard, for when the
Word of God is implanted in our souls (James
1:21) “it is the power of God to
salvation for everyone who believes”
(Romans 1:16). The
seed is lying by the road, sitting on top of the hearts, and the devil takes it
away so that they will not be redeemed. In
its place, the devil sends the false teachers that continue to tread down the
Word of God with the doctrines of men.
03. The Parable of the Leaven (Luke 13:20-21)
Jesus now compares the Kingdom
to God, saying, “It is
like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was
all leavened.” (Luke 13:21) As was said earlier, in Matthew 13:33 as well as in our text today, some have misunderstood this
to mean that the Church will grow to encompass the whole earth, but leaven
always is negative and has a bad influence when it is present, so Jesus was
saying that there is a leavening influence in the Church.[9]
We have already looked at leaven in Luke
12:1 (cf. Matthew16:6)
where Jesus warns His disciples to “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Paul writing to the church at Galatia reminds them “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:9) Paul writing to the worldly church at Corinth
who was allowing an incestuous relationship (1
Corinthians 5:1) tells
them to “purge out the old leaven, that you may
be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover,
was sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7) In
the Old Testament, the children of Israel were commanded to never use leaven
(or yeast) as a part of their sacrifices offered on the altar (Leviticus 2:11; Leviticus 6:17; Leviticus 7:12; Leviticus 10:12).
Luke 13:21 “which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it
was all leavened.” Throughout Scripture, we see leaven representing
a type of evil and sin, because once leaven is exposed to the air, it rapidly deteriorates.
It overtakes the dough thoroughly and causes the dough the change in shape. And
that’s why leaven is used as a picture of sin throughout the Bible, for when
sin, left unchecked, has a way of completely consuming causing destruction and
ravaging one’s life. And we see here that leaven is a picture of the church,
even today: Now there are many churches that see no problem with women being
pastors (defying 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-13). Many
churches have no problem performing a marriage ceremony for sodomites (defying Hebrews 13:4 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–11).
And there are churches that ordain sodomites as pastors! We see churches
allowing new-age mysticism, along with yoga and other forms of demonic
influence into the church, causing the leaven to spread. Here the thought is
that evil doctrine has been introduced into the pure food of the people of God.
This evil doctrine is not static; it has an insidious power to spread.[10]
Many people in the church think
that the greatest danger for the church is the enemy from without, whether it
is Satan, his demons, the Communists or those who just hate Christians and go
out of their way to persecute and kill Christians. But what these two parables
show us that the greatest danger to the church is from within.
As Paul said, addressing the elders of the
Ephesian church in when Paul was trying to hurry to get to Jerusalem for
Pentecost, when he stopped in Miletus and sent for the elders of the church at
Ephesus (Acts
20:17-38), he declared that he was bold in proclaiming the Gospel of
God and gave them a warning about false teachers, telling the leaders of the
church that they are to teach God’s Word and be on guard (pay attention) for
the savage
wolves who will arise from inside of the church. Judas Iscariot is
an example of this, one who looked like a follower of Jesus, who performed
miracles and healings (Luke 9:1-2)
yet was not a true disciple of Jesus. Paul gives a warning in his letter to the
church at Rome to “note those who cause
divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid
them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own
belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the
simple.” (Romans 16:17-18)
That word “note”
in Romans
16:17 is the Greek word (G4648 σκοπέω) skopeo and it means to spy, to look at, observe, to mark, to fix one’s eyes upon, direct
one’s attention to.[11] So what Paul was saying in Romans 16:17-18 that we are to
scope out false teachers who teach what is against the Word of God and turn
away from them! Paul told the church at Corinth that false teachers are from
Satan, taking their cue of deceit from him by saying that they are sent from
God, but in all actuality they are false teachers (2 Corinthians 11:12-15). Paul
warned the church at Ephesus not to be immature like children and be easily
deceived “with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of
men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,”” (Ephesians 4:14).
Paul told Timothy that the times will get worse, and that false teachers will
become more relevant, but he wanted Timothy to continue in the teaching of the
Word of God (1
Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:13-17) because there will come a
time when the people will not endure sound doctrine and teaching (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Peter warned that false teachers will arise from the household of faith, and he
warned what their teachings will be about experiences and sensual (2 Peter 2:1-2).
John warned that false teachers (antichrists) will come, and that we are to
test or to scrutinize them to see whether they are genuine or not, to see if
they really are from God (1 John 2:18; 1 John 4:1). Paul warned Titus
about the dangers of allowing false teachers in and that false teachers are to
be publicly rebuked (Titus 1:10-16). Paul told Timothy that false
teaching spreads rapidly like gangrene (2 Timothy 2:17) which if not treated properly
can spread quickly and lead to amputation and even death! Paul mentioned false
teachers by name (1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:17), specifically
Hymenaeus who said that the resurrection at the end was already past (2 Timothy 2:16-18),
and Hymenaeus led Philetus astray. Alexander was
another false teacher that Paul mentioned, for Alexander stood up against Paul
and Timothy and the sound teaching of the Word (2 Timothy 4:14). This is why John wrote to “not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out
into the world” (1 John 4:1) to encourages us as Christians for
these false teachers “are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the
world hears them.” (1 John 4:5)
The Bible forbids Christians from listening to these
false teachers (Titus 3:10-11).
Notice that all of these passages that we just went over all deal with dangers
from within the church. Paul never told the Roman Christians to watch out for
Nero, but instead he told them to be submissive to those who are ruling, even
if they are depraved men like Nero (Romans 13:1–7;
cf. Matthew 22:15–21; 1 Timothy 2:1–4; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter
2:13–17)!
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 199). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
[2] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 662). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
[3] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 49). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[4] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.
(1985). Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament (p. 619). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[5] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.
(1985). Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament (p. 619). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[6] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 41). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[7] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 12:1). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[8] MacArthur, John F. (2013-03-26). Luke 11-17 MacArthur
New Testament Commentary (Macarthur New Testament Commentary Serie) (Kindle
Locations 3503-3515). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
[9]
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/smith_chuck/StudyGuides_Matthew/Matthew.cfm?a=942033
[10] MacDonald, William (1995-03-15). Believer's Bible
Commentary (p. 1410). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
[11] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 65). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
