Commentary - Matthew 13:31-35

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent section of Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus gives us two parables that are designed to go together, like a matched set of bookends. They are the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. Both are given to the crowds, and both teach the same fundamental truth about the kingdom of heaven, but from two different angles. The central lesson is this: the kingdom of God starts from a beginning that is contemptibly small in the eyes of the world, but it grows with an inexorable, organic power until it becomes a world-defining reality. The first parable illustrates the extensive, outward growth of the kingdom, while the second illustrates its intensive, internal influence. Jesus then concludes this section of public teaching by explaining, through a quotation from Psalm 78, that this very method of teaching in parables is a fulfillment of prophecy. He is unveiling secrets that have been hidden since the world began, but He is doing so in a way that reveals them to the hungry while concealing them from the proud.

These parables are a direct assault on every form of triumphalism that depends on worldly metrics of power and prestige. The kingdom does not arrive with the pomp and circumstance that men expect. It is not a political revolution with banners and armies. It is a mustard seed, a pinch of yeast. But this is the genius of God's plan. He chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things to shame the strong. The power is in the seed and in the leaven, not in the man who sows or the woman who bakes. This is God's kingdom, and its ultimate, globe-filling triumph is as certain as the growth of a seed in good soil.

Outline

Context In Matthew

These two parables are situated in the middle of the great parabolic discourse of Matthew 13. They follow the foundational parable of the Sower and the more troubling parable of the Wheat and the Tares. The parable of the Sower established that the kingdom's advance depends on the state of the human heart, the soil. The parable of the Wheat and the Tares taught the disciples not to be dismayed by the presence of evil within the visible church. Now, the parables of the mustard seed and leaven provide a necessary encouragement. Despite the varied soils and the presence of weeds, the kingdom itself possesses an unstoppable, inherent power to grow. These parables are given to the crowds, but their ultimate meaning is for the disciples, who were likely tempted to despair at the smallness of their beginnings. They had left everything to follow a carpenter from Nazareth, and the whole enterprise must have looked utterly insignificant. Jesus is arming them, and us, against the temptation to despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10).

Key Issues

Small Beginnings, Glorious Ends

The central theme of these twin parables is the stark contrast between the beginning and the end. The world, then and now, is impressed by size, spectacle, and speed. God's method is almost always the opposite. He starts with things that are small, hidden, and seemingly insignificant. He starts with a baby in a feed trough, a handful of fishermen, a word spoken on a hillside. The world scoffs at this. It looks for power in palaces and parliaments, in armies and assets. But the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It is alive. And because it is alive, it grows. It does not need our marketing plans or our strategic initiatives. It needs to be planted. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven. It is potent. It does not need to be the largest ingredient in the lump; it just needs to be present. Once hidden in the dough, it cannot help but do its work.

This is the great hope of the Christian faith. Our task is not to "build the kingdom" through our own strength and ingenuity, as though we were constructing some great building. Our task is to sow the seed of the gospel and to be the leaven of the gospel. The power for growth resides in the gospel itself, because it is the power of God unto salvation. These parables are, therefore, a profound statement of postmillennial confidence. The kingdom will grow, it will expand, it will permeate and transform the whole world, not because we are so clever, but because the seed is so potent.

Verse by Verse Commentary

31 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

Jesus puts forth another parable, another earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The kingdom of heaven, He says, is like a mustard seed. The kingdom is the seed. It is not just that the kingdom starts small; the very nature of the kingdom in its initial phase is that of a seed. It contains the entire DNA of the future tree within its tiny shell. A man, who here is representative of Christ and by extension His servants, takes this seed and sows it. The action is simple, deliberate, and an act of faith. He does not make the seed grow; he simply plants it in his field, which is the world.

32 and this is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is the largest of the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.”

Jesus employs a bit of proverbial hyperbole here. Botanically, the orchid seed is smaller, but in the common experience of a Galilean farmer, the mustard seed was the go-to example of something tiny. From this proverbially small beginning comes a disproportionately large result. It grows to be the "largest of the garden plants," becoming like a tree. The growth is not just incremental; it is transformative. The kingdom's influence will become so vast and established that it provides structure and shelter for the nations. Now, what about these birds? In the parable of the Sower, the birds of the air represented the evil one, snatching the seed away. We should be consistent. The answer key for the first parable should be used here. This great, visible, external structure of the kingdom, what we might call Christendom, becomes so large and influential that it provides a place for all sorts of people to roost, including those who are not true believers. Just as the wheat field contained tares, so the great mustard tree will have opportunistic birds nesting in its branches. This is not a sign of failure, but rather an inevitable consequence of massive, external success. The parable teaches us not to be surprised by the presence of evil and hypocrisy within the visible church.

33 He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sata of flour until it was all leavened.”

This parable is paired with the first. We move from a man in a field to a woman in a house. We move from extensive, outward growth to intensive, inward permeation. Now, many are troubled by this because leaven is often used in Scripture as a symbol for sin or false teaching, the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of malice and wickedness. But context is king. Jesus says plainly, "the kingdom of heaven is like leaven." He is the one defining the symbol in this story. Here, leaven represents the potent, pervasive, and transformative influence of the gospel. A woman takes just a small amount and "hides" it in a massive quantity of flour (three sata was a very large amount, perhaps 50 pounds). The leaven disappears, but it does not cease to work. It silently, secretly, and inexorably transforms the entire lump from the inside out. This is how the kingdom works. It changes hearts, then families, then communities, then cultures, not by external coercion, but by internal regeneration.

34 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He was not speaking to them without a parable

Matthew here summarizes Jesus' teaching method. To the great crowds, the multitudes, He spoke exclusively in parables. This was a judicial act. A parable is like a window. For those who genuinely want to see, it provides a clear view. But for those who are merely curious or hostile, who stand at the wrong angle, the window acts as a mirror, reflecting only their own prejudices back at them. The parables were a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 6, to make the heart of the people dull and their ears heavy, precisely because they had already hardened their own hearts.

35 so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, “I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.”

Matthew quotes from Psalm 78:2 to show that this parabolic method was not an accident, but part of God's eternal plan. Asaph, the psalmist, declared that he would utter dark sayings from of old, and what followed was a recounting of Israel's history. The lesson is that history itself is a parable. The story of Israel's rebellion and God's faithfulness was a foreshadowing of the story of the cross. Jesus, in His parables, is doing the same thing. He is unlocking the meaning of all of history. He is uttering things "hidden since the foundation of the world." The plan of redemption, the nature of the kingdom, the mystery of Christ and the Church, these were secrets God kept in His counsel from eternity past. Now, in the coming of His Son, the King, these secrets are being brought out into the open, not as abstract propositions, but in stories, in parables, that reveal the very heart of God's purpose for His world.

Application

These parables should fundamentally shape our expectations and our strategy as Christians. First, we must learn to see with God's eyes. We must not despise the small. A faithful Sunday School teacher planting the seed of the Word in the heart of a five-year-old is doing kingdom work of immeasurable significance. A mother patiently discipling her children, a small group praying for revival, a single Christian sharing his faith with a coworker, these are the mustard seeds. We must not be discouraged by the apparent insignificance of our faithfulness. The power is in the seed.

Second, we must understand the nature of the kingdom's influence. It works like leaven. We are not called to conquer the world through political force, but to permeate it with the gospel. The Christian life is to be a leavening influence in our vocations, our neighborhoods, and our civic life. We are to be salty salt and leavening leaven. This requires us to be in the lump of dough, not separated from it in some pietistic holy huddle. The woman hid the leaven in the flour. Our faith is not to be hidden under a bushel, but it is to be worked deeply into the fabric of the culture.

Finally, these parables are a promise of victory. The mustard seed becomes a tree. The leaven works until it was all leavened. The final triumph of the kingdom of God in history is not a matter of speculation; it is a matter of divine promise. The growth may be slow, it may be hidden, it may seem to go in fits and starts, but it is as certain as the sunrise. Therefore, we can work with great confidence and hope, knowing that our labor in the Lord, no matter how small it seems, is not in vain.