Scripture Daily

Context No. 4150 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 13:29-33: in context

29“But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” 31He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took, and sowed in his field, 32which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” 33He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.”

Jesus gives two short parables to describe how God's kingdom grows. It is like a mustard seed, he says, a very small seed, which a man plants, and which grows into a tree so large that birds nest in its branches. And it is like leaven, which a woman hides in a large batch of dough, until it is all leavened.

Both parables make the same point in different ways. Two truths shine here. The kingdom of God begins small. Like a tiny mustard seed, its beginnings are unimpressive, easily overlooked, seemingly insignificant; a wandering teacher and a handful of followers, or a small work of grace in one heart. But from those small beginnings, God's kingdom grows into something vast, far beyond what its beginnings suggested. And the kingdom works in a hidden, pervasive way. Like leaven worked silently through the dough, God's kingdom spreads quietly, unseen, transforming from within. There is encouragement here not to despise small beginnings or hidden work.

Do I trust the way God's kingdom grows, not despising small beginnings or hidden work, but believing that, like the mustard seed and the leaven, God brings vast growth and pervasive transformation from what seems small and unseen?

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