Matthew 13:24-43: The Weeds, the Seed, and the Yeast

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 13 starting in verse 31. We will end up going through verse 35.

Now, you may notice that I am skipping some verses from where we stopped last week. That is because I am going to do something I have never done before in my short time as a pastor. I am going to split up a sermon. I just came to understand this necessity this morning as I looked over my sermon and realized I had at least an hour’s worth of material. So, I decided to split it up after I had already printed and prepared all the bulletins and the title slide.

Do not fear, we will get those 7 verses that come before this passage next week.

So, last week we started into the parables of Jesus with the parable of the Sower and the Soils and why people respond to Jesus in different ways.

This week, Jesus continues to hit on agricultural themes, first with the parable of the weeds, which we will discuss more next week, and then with the parable of the mustard seed.

Let’s quickly recap on our primary questions about parables from last week.

What is a parable?

A practical story that communicates a spiritual truth

Usually framed as a simile (“this thing is like this thing”, “the kingdom of Heaven is like...”)

How should we read parables?

Listen as if you were one of the original hearers

Look for the main point

Let the truth change your own perspective

Why did Jesus speak in Parables?

Jesus was revealing truth to those who were willing to believe him - evidence of God’s mercy

He also was concealing truth to those who denied the obvious - evidence of God’s judgement

We saw both of these to be true when Jesus explained his reasoning for speaking in parables in verses 10-17.

His parables are for the purpose of helping those who want to see the Kingdom of Heaven see and know the will of God all the more clearly.

They also are to keep closed the eyes and ears of those who want to fight for their own expectations of the kingdom instead of listening to Jesus!

What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

The redemptive rule and reign of God in Jesus

A present reality: the King is here and the kingdom is advancing!

A future realization: the King is coming back, and His Kingdom will one day be complete!

Teaching and Application

Now, this is an interesting section because Jesus begins by telling one parable that is making one point

then tells two more that seem to make a different point

Matthew then makes a quick aside to point out how Jesus fulfills a prophecy from Psalm 78

and then Jesus explains the original parable to his disciples after they leave the crowds.

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast (31-33)

Matthew 13:31–33 ESV

31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

These are two parables that are making the same major point

The Mustard Seed

Jesus continues the agricultural theme by bringing in a new kind of seed: A Mustard Seed

A mustard seed is the smallest seed they would have had access to in ancient Palestine, barely able to be seen in the palm of the hand.

Yet it grows into a mighty bush that is essentially a small tree (9-10 feet tall), greater than all other garden plants.

In fact, there were warnings to avoid planting mustard seeds in your garden, because they would grow so big, there wouldn’t be room for everything else!

The big idea is that though you might doubt the truth about Jesus being the Messiah and ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven because it comes from an unimpressive man and he isn’t acting with great flash and desire for attention, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true! The Kingdom looks unimpressive to begin with, but grows mightily when you least expect it!

Jesus says in verse 32 it grows so big that birds will come to build their nests in its branches!

And this likely has even more significance than simply talking about the homemaking habits of sparrows!

In Ezekiel 17:23, Ezek 31:6, Dan 4:9-12, and Dan 4:20-22 God similarly speaks of birds coming to rest in trees, but as a symbol for all the nations coming to worship YHWH, the One True God!

This kingdom may look insignificant in it’s beginning, Jesus may not look like someone who would rule a kingdom, but it doesn’t take long for it to explode with growth until even the gentiles come to be part of it.

It didn’t take long for exactly that to happen. Less than 400 years later Christianity would become the official religion of the Roman empire.

Where there were many who claimed to be the messiah and led political and martial uprisings against Rome, they all failed.

In fact, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed as a result of one of these uprisings.

But which one carried on and conquered, though not in the way anyone expected? The one built on Christ and his love and teachings. Though the kingdom appears small and insignificant as a mustard seed, it grows into a great tree that calls the people from throughout the nations to come and rest.

And we will see this fulfilled at the end of time. Revelation grants us a picture of this in chapter 7, where a great multitude that no one can number gathers before the throne in worship.

Revelation 7:9–10 ESV

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The Yeast

So then, Jesus continues this theme by stating that “the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower until it all was leavened.”

This should lead us to a couple of contextual questions so that we can hear this like the original hearers.

What is leaven?

It’s not a word we use much today. But it essentially is just yeast that is used to make bread dough rise.

Yeast is an incredible little single celled organism that is all over the place. It is what causes fermentation to happen in anything that requires fermentation, like yogurt, sour cream, or even beer and wine, and yes, if you want fluffy bread you need yeast (otherwise you will get a pita or tortilla).

Yeast will eat sugars and use them to create two things: alcohol and carbon dioxide.

This is how alcoholic drinks were bubbly before we learned to carbonate. The yeast made that happen.

This is also how bread rises and why there are air bubbles in our bread when we bake it. The yeast goes around eating the sugars and creating air pockets that fluffs up the dough.

But yeast also has the ability to reproduce indefinitely so long as they have a food source and an environment suitable for their life.

So women would take some of their bread dough each batch and set it to the side to be added to more flour later to let the yeast reproduce and they can keep making bread forever without having to start from scratch every time.

I know we have some bread makers here, Jesus is essentially referring to the sourdough starter that can live for generations! You feed it a little flour for food and the yeast continues reproducing and you can use it for decades and even pass it down to your children as an inheritance.

In case you can’t tell, I think yeast is pretty cool.

So this leaven Jesus is talking about is simply an old piece of bread dough that already has yeast in it and this hypothetical woman takes it and adds it to three measures of flour.

So, then, what is a measure of flour?

One measure of flour was nearly five gallons - Not pounds, gallons

So, three measures was fifty pounds of flour or basically three 5 gallon buckets from Lowe’s full of flour.

That’s a LOT of flour! This could feed between 100-150 people!

I’m sure some of the original hearers eyebrows shot up in surprise when Jesus said this number!

And yet, this small amount of yeast in an insignificant piece of dough can spread to all of the flour and make it all ready to rise and be baked to feed a large celebration.

So both parables are really making the same point, but using different perspectives to make it clear

The Kingdom of Heaven may look like it is starting small, but it actually will grow far faster and stronger than what anyone can imagine

The kingdom now seems small and insignificant among the other religions, but its future is unlimited and will far surpass the other religions of the Greco-Roman world.

These are parables of contrast between the present experience of Jesus and his followers (the reality of the insignificant seed) and the expected future (the hope of the great tree), with the future grand hope finding its origin in the seemingly insignificant beginning.

The kingdom for the present seems unimpressive, but it will spread throughout the world.

Application

And brothers and sisters, how often we are like the crowds and Pharisees?

We are not impressed with the things of God that appear small and insignificant. We don’t care about the small mustard seed and the small amount of leaven. We want change and we want it now.

We end up fighting against the ordinary means of grace where God engages with us in what seem to be such ordinary ways

We want more than what God has given us.

We want a bigger church, so we’re willing to bend on certain things in order to welcome people in.

We make a profession of faith and a baptism the only necessity of joining the church and we don’t ever do any sort of follow up.

We don’t require regular attendance to remain a member, and so we let our church membership numbers get so out of hand but it makes our church look bigger.

This is the primary reason for the seeming mass exodus of SBC members. Many churches are simply updating their membership lists to reflect the people who are actually acting as members of the church. We’re just finally starting to get realistic numbers instead of our bloated ones from before.

So membership lists are being cut, sometimes in the hundreds of people! Because churches are starting to follow what the Bible says it takes to be a member of the church. Not their bylaws.

We want comfort, so we fight with anything that threatens that comfort - impeding the growth of the church and causing disunity.

We want what makes us happy instead of looking to what makes God happy, and we can be so blinded to our preferences, beliefs, and sin that we can think that they make God happy when really they are working against him!

When we make anything the root of our decision making except the Word of God, then we are making an idol out of something.

How are we going to structure the church?

How are we going to make decisions in the church?

How are we going to interact with one another in the church?

How are we going to do ministry?

How are we going to structure our lives?

How are we going to spend our money?

How are we going to raise our families?

How are we going to respond to difficult circumstances?

How are we going to respond to good circumstances?

And we want to say “the Word of God,” so many times our own cultural ideals will get mixed in and we don’t even notice it.

Our traditions dictate a lot of our decision making and that is a good thing when those traditions are actually birthed in and out of the Word of God, but it is a bad thing when they are based in our own cultural ideals.

The good old days are not good if they are actually holding us back from the kingdom of Heaven.

In a similar fashion, our desire for progress can dictate the way we make decisions. Again, it is a good thing when that progress is a progress that is committed to the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is a bad thing when it is based in our own cultural ideals.

Moving forward is not progress if we are facing the wrong direction.

The Kingdom of Heaven must be our focus, and we must be willing to sacrifice both traditions and progress where they do not align with Christ’s Kingdom.

The small things:

like making church membership matter

singing songs that teach

preaching directly from the Word of God verse by verse

praying more and in different ways

reading the Bible more

having a better understanding of and emphasis on the Ordinances of Christ (baptism and the Lord’s Supper)

engaging more with one another as brothers and sisters

These things are seemingly insignificant and unneeded, but they are the very means by which the Kingdom of Heaven permeates our lives and our community.

To despise these things is to look with contempt on the mustard seed that grows into a great tree.

These parables teach us that God is working and growing his kingdom even when things seem insignificant and small.

Like yeast it will grow and grow until it permeates everything.

They also point us to the fact that the Kingdom is only present where Jesus has made it so.

Trust him.

Don’t get in such a rush to see everything change that you trample the seeds.

But also don’t get so comfortable with waiting that you are unprepared and upset when the tree starts growing.

Matthew ends this little aside within the parable of the weeds with something he just loved to do.

He shows how Jesus fulfills the prophetic promises of God.

But instead of drawing from Isaiah like he usually does, he draws from a collection of songs about God, the Psalms.

The Fulfillment of Prophecy (34-35)

Matthew 13:34–35 ESV

34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

This prophecy is taken from Psalm 78, a psalm of Asaph, who was said to be a prophet in first and second Chronicles.

And again, this simply ties to the idea of parables being a way to reveal truth to those with open eyes, ears, and hearts while concealing truth from those who close themselves off to God.

Matthew Explanation of the Text

For those in the crowds who have turned against Jesus, parables confirm their rejection; but for those open to Jesus’ truths, they reveal hidden secrets regarding the reality of the kingdom. Parables are kingdom centered and as such reveal new truths and are proof that the final kingdom has arrived.

Jesus continues to speak in such a way today.

So, those who are attempting to seek if Jesus really is worth giving everything for, those who have a mental agreement and yet their heart leads them astray, you’re playing games that have eternal consequences.

You are like the crowds of Jesus’ day, always interested but never committed.

It is not easy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus never intended for it to be easy, in spite of some of the shallow preaching of our American church history.

Jesus demands full commitment, radical discipleship that will follow him no matter what the personal cost is - count the cost and then never look back! Jesus leaves no room for wishy-washy discipleship.

Following Jesus is not easy now, nor will it ever be. His truths require time, dedication, patience, and work to understand. There are hidden realities that can only be known through serious study of the Bible and complete commitment to Christ. If you seek ease, Jesus does not offer that to you. But Jesus does offer you a peace that can only come through him.

Microwave Christianity is an oxymoron. We cannot quickly be "warmed up” with little effort. If we try to do things to quickly draw in members, if we think we can quickly grow in righteousness by following certain methods and tricks, that will produce weak false Christians who will not endure when trials come.

But if we trust in the ordinary, seemingly insignificant, means that God gives us to experience his grace, we will find that over time, he will produce mighty fruit in us and in our church.

Let’s Pray

Matthew (3. Jesus’ Ongoing Ministry)

3. Jesus’ Ongoing Ministry

Jesus continues to speak in an enigmatic fashion today, and seekers had better beware of playing games with their eternal destiny. The crowds in the gospels are like seekers in our day, amazed and interested in this Jesus but unwilling to take the final step of belief. Jesus does not intend to make it easy to enter the kingdom (in spite of some shallow preachers in our day who try to water down the gospel). He demands full commitment, a radical discipleship that does not leave room for wishy-washy “Christians.”

Being a devoted follower of Christ has never been easy, nor will it ever be. You cannot “have your cake and eat it too” in following Christ. His truths, like parables, take time and effort to unlock. There are hidden realities that can only be known by serious Bible study and absolute commitment to Christ. This is the problem with the popular church movement of our time: it demands microwave Christianity that can be warmed up with little effort. Such an approach produces weak quasi-Christians who do not know how to “walk the walk” or “talk the talk.