INTRODUCTION
The Guinness Book of World Records is one of the world’s best sellers. The reason is simple. People are fascinated by the fastest, biggest, and best. Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest human, ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds. Sultan Kösen, the tallest man, is 251 centimeters (8 ft 2.8 in). And so on. Success or fame frequently rests on being impressive.
But Christ’s parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 cause us to adjust our thinking. After His first parable about the sower, showing how the kingdom is given, Jesus tells three parables about how the kingdom operates. And He says nothing about the fastest, biggest, or best—in fact, just the opposite.
His second parable (Matt 13:24–30) concerns a farmer who sows wheat in his field. But an enemy then plants weeds among the wheat. Such people were the ancient equivalent of creators of computer viruses. In the parable, the wheat is now infested with bearded darnel—a plant indistinguishable from wheat in the early stages of development, but clearly observed later. Bearded darnel has a bitter, unpleasant taste, and usually harbors a poisonous fungus.
But what does this tell us about the kingdom of God? Well, just like the farm workers in the parable, our first instinct is to make quick judgments and act impulsively. And that is just what the enemy wants. He plants weeds among the wheat hoping that the farmer will be impatient, knowing that if he is too impatient to wait for the harvest, then there will be no harvest. The only way to trump the enemy is to allow matters to run their course. Let the wheat and weeds both grow and come to maturity. At harvest, any fool can tell the difference between wheat and bearded darnel. So what at first sight appears to be a crisis is solved by applying that most difficult of virtues: patience. For in the kingdom of heaven, the final judgment is God’s business, not ours. If we’re too quick to jump in and judge who is who, we’re likely to root up prize wheat thinking it is weeds. Before the harvest, the work of the kingdom is not to judge who should be uprooted but to plant the people of the kingdom in the world. Be patient.
Even when you have correctly identified bearded darnel in the field of wheat, as Jesus said, it isn’t best to pull it up immediately. If you do, you’ll uproot some wheat with it. If we are to be an agent for the kingdom of God, like the farmer in the parable, we must learn to be patient. Parables convey general truths. So, perhaps on occasions, more immediate action is necessary. But generally not. Be patient.
And Jesus told them yet another parable about sowing seeds (Matt 13:31–32). But in this parable, Jesus turns His attention to one individual seed: a mustard seed. The mustard seed Jesus identifies is indeed tiny. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of mustard seeds contains about 750,000 of them. Here, Christ’s main point is the contrast in size between the beginning and the ending. Starting from a tiny seed, it can grow by autumn into a plant standing up to four meters (13 feet) tall, with birds resting on its rigid stems.
But what does this tell us about the kingdom of heaven? In this parable Christ uses common Old Testament images. For example, in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of Daniel 2, the small rock, representing the kingdom of God, strikes the image and grows enormously until it fills the earth (Dan 2:35)— rather like the tiny mustard seed, representing the kingdom of God, becoming a “tree.”
Note that Jesus calls the mustard plant a “tree,” even though it isn’t a tree. Jesus calls it a tree because His eye is on the Old Testament. There, a tree is a common symbol for a kingdom. For example, King Nebuchadnezzar had another dream (Dan 4:10–12), in which the kingdom of Babylon is like a great tree with its top in the heavens and birds in its branches. The prophet Ezekiel likens the kingdom of Assyria to a tree, a mighty cedar, with its top in the heavens—and again, birds nesting in its branches (Ezek 31:3–9).
And Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard tree with birds in its branches. But the kingdom of heaven’s mustard tree seems insignificant next to Nebuchadnezzar’s tree that could be seen from the ends of the earth, or Assyria’s mighty cedar with its top in the heavens. That’s because Christ’s kingdom is surprising—not a mighty cedar, but a humble garden plant. For this is a kingdom based not on might nor on power but on faith in Jesus.
As agents for the kingdom of God, we must reject the standards which this world counts as greatness. Of course, we need to strive for excellence in all we do as a church. But our goal is not self-congratulation. Our primary goal is to be faithful to Christ, to model the principles of His kingdom—like the One who came to serve rather than to be served, content to be a humble mustard plant rather than a cedar of Lebanon.
And then Jesus gives one final illustration of how the kingdom of heaven operates (Matt 13:33). Here we meet a woman kneading dough, preparing leavened bread. And for this she needs to add yeast to the dough. But as with the other parables, a surprise awaits us here too. It concerns the amount of flour. This woman is kneading “three measures” of flour. That is, more than one hundred pounds (more than 45 kg) of flour. And there she is in the kitchen, kneading and kneading and kneading . . . Jesus is exaggerating. Just as He did when He called the mustard plant a tree. And His exaggeration makes His main point: a small amount of yeast raises a large amount of dough, just as the tiny mustard seed grows into a large plant.
But this parable does not simply repeat the mustard seed parable. What Jesus says literally is that the woman “hid” the leaven in the dough. That’s an odd way to put it. Consult any bread recipe you can find and I doubt if any would say, “Hide the yeast in the flour.” But Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a woman who “hides” leaven in a batch of dough. For this is a hidden kingdom and will reach its goal like yeast working in dough—in hidden ways. So, we can be agents for this kingdom not only through faithfully preaching the word in our church services, or by public evangelism, but also through witnessing for the kingdom in understated ways, like yeast in a batch of dough. People commit to the gospel not just because we change their minds but because they see the difference it makes. As Jesus said, the kingdom works within us. And it works in hidden and surprising ways, such as those times we meet people who tell us that something we said and have long forgotten changed their lives for the better. Our words were like yeast working in dough— secretly, silently, in hidden ways. And Jesus said, “This is the kingdom of God.”
As Ellen G. White wrote, “The leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul.”1
CONCLUSION
In a world hypnotized by size and power, Christ reminds us that His kingdom embraces the slow things, the small things, the seemingly insignificant and hidden things.
So, what counts as success in the kingdom of God? Christ calls us to be faithful rather than to be famous. And in the kingdom our best efforts will often be hidden in the lives of those we serve, where its influence can sometimes be seen only by faith, and often seems to produce insignificant results. But not by the measure of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom in which the harvest is coming; the seed is growing; the yeast is doing its work. Let us rejoice and be glad. Let us celebrate the slow and patient things, the apparently insignificant things, the hidden things. For Jesus says, this is the kingdom of God.
1 Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald, 1900), 98.
Laurence A. Turner, PhD, is a principal lecturer emeritus in Old Testament at Newbold College of Higher Education, Bracknell, UK, and adjunct external higher degree research supervisor at Avondale University, Cooranbong, NSW, Australia.
