How the Kingdom Grows

Matthew 13:24-43

Immanuel – 7/28/24

Once again, we are in the middle of another of Matthew’s great discourses: these five prolonged teachings of Christ. Matthew 13 is called the Parable Discourse, because in it we find seven parables.

As I said last week, parables do not carry their meaning on the surface, but they beckon the listener to engage with the teaching, to wrestle with it, to think deeply about it. And because Jesus teaches in parables so prolifically, it tells us something about the type of person He is looking for: He wants people ready to engage, ready to think, and ready to be about the difficult work of following Him. He does not want people who are resistant or shallow or uncommitted.

But as Jesus teaches in the Parable of the Sower, there will be many who listen carelessly, or have a shallow understanding rooted only in emotions, or who allow what they hear from Jesus to get choked out by worldly anxieties and/or materialism. All such listeners have no place in the kingdom of God; and for their irresponsible listening, all that they have will be taken from them. But for those who listen to be changed, who truly treasure Christ’s words, to these Jesus will multiply blessings.

These were some of the lessons found in the Parable of the Sower, the first of seven parables in this Parable Discourse. Today we consider another three parables. The Parable of the Sower teaches how a person enters the kingdom of heaven: through obedient listening. In each of today’s parables, Jesus teaches how the kingdom of heaven grows upon earth. That means that each of today’s three parables are prophetic and eschatological.

Purpose

I want you to see how Jesus says His kingdom is to grow throughout history.

Read vs 24-30

Let me point out a few details from this parable. Jesus put a parable before “them.” We know from verse 34, that “them” means crowds. Jesus is teaching the crowds in parables.

In the last parable, Jesus talked about what happened to seed that fell into different types of bad soil. This parable talks only about what happens in the good soil. The Sower sows only good seed into only good soil.

Of course, the enemy comes along and sows bad seed into the good soil. In the last parable some soil was bad because it was filled with weeds. In this parable we have good soil filled with weeds. Here is a lesson in parables. Sometimes the imagery in parables overlaps and sometimes it does not. And so we are clear, there is no overlap with the weedy soil from the Parable of the Sower and the weedy soil in the Parable of the Weeds. The two images of weeds mean very different things.

You’ll notice in today’s parable, in verse 26, that the weeds are only identifiable as weeds by the time they have fully matured and born fruit. In all other stages of life they looked exactly like the wheat. In the part of the world where Jesus is speaking, there is a common weed that looks almost exactly like wheat until the full grain appears: darnel, often called “false wheat.” From the very earliest days of the church, the weeds in Jesus’ parable were recognized as darnel.

I stumbled across a fascinating article about darnel:

For many centuries, perhaps for as long as humans have cultivated cereal grains, wheat’s evil twin has insinuated itself into our crops. In a big enough dose, this grass, darnel, can kill a person, and farmers would have to take care to separate it out from their true harvest—unless they were planning to add darnel to beer or bread on purpose, in order to get high.

Darnel occupies a grey area in human agricultural history. It’s definitely not good for us. When people eat its seeds, they get dizzy, off-balance and nauseous, and its official name, Lolium temulentum, comes from a Latin word for “drunk.”

Darnel is a “mimic weed,” neither entirely tame or quite wild, that looks and behaves so much like wheat that it can’t live without human assistance. Darnel seeds are stowaways: the plant’s survival strategy requires its seeds to be harvested along with those of domesticated grasses, stored and replanted next season.

In his book Bread of Dreams, the Italian scholar Piero Camporesi argued that European peasantry lived in a state of semi-permanent hallucination from bread adulterated with more malign grains, which they may have sought as an escape from daily life. Certainly, people seemed to know what darnel did and how to use it.1

Interesting that darnel carries a nefarious history, associated with poisoning and drunkenness and hallucination. In fact, in the Middle Ages, darnel intoxication was often confused with demonic possession.

In Jesus’ parable, very much like in real life, the life-giving wheat and the dangerous weeds grow up together, indistinguishable. The workers want to tear it out right away. But the Farmer, exercising greater wisdom, knows it is best to wait. To pull the weeds is to certainly tear out some of the wheat. He will not tolerate a single destroyed wheat plant.

He knows the weeds can be more easily separated out after the harvest. And once they are, the wheat will be gathered together into the barn, but the weeds will be thrown immediately into the fire where they will have no poisoning effect.

This is a parable of the kingdom of heaven. Then, with no explanation and barely a transition, Jesus launches into another parable about the kingdom of heaven.

Read vs 31-32

Small Beginnings

Jesus says that the mustard seed is “the smallest of all seeds;” but He is not making a literal claim, like the mustard seed is earth’s smallest. Rather, it is a hyperbolic way of saying that the mustard seed is remarkably small. But even from such small beginnings, it grows into quite a large tree. Really, mustard trees are large bushes; small compared to our eastern hardwoods, but large for an arid Galilean garden.

Listen to the parallel account in the Gospel of Mark:

“[The kingdom of God] is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” -Mark 4:30-32

The mustard tree grows and fills the whole garden. It absolutely takes over.

Now, for this parable and the next, Jesus provides no explanation; so, let me explain these two. For just as the Parable of the Weeds is not merely a teaching, these parables also carry prophetic and eschatological weight.

The kingdom of heaven has the smallest of all beginnings: a single man, Jesus of Nazareth. But His disciples will make disciples, and those disciples will make more. And they will go to the ends of the earth so that the kingdom fills the whole garden – or the whole earth. (Or maybe the whole earth becomes a garden as the tree grows).

And what is this bit about birds landing in the tree’s branches? Jesus is pulling on an ancient symbol there. Numerous times in the Old Testament, a tree is used to symbolize a kingdom, especially great kingdoms, are compared to especially large trees. As these trees stretch out their vast canopies, birds come to nest in its branches. Certain places spell out what those birds symbolize. Take for example Assyria being compared to a great tree:

All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations.

-Ezekiel 31:6

The birds are nations. Birds that nest in the branches of the tree are nations being folded into the great kingdom. According to Jesus’ parable, the kingdom of heaven will grow so large upon earth that nations will fold into it.

It is critical to notice the progression. The kingdom of heaven does not come all at once. It starts small, grows slowly, and expands through time. As the kingdom gets progressively larger, more and more nations integrate themselves into the spreading influence of the kingdom.

The next parable is very similar to the Parable of the Mustard Seed, with one key difference.

Read vs 33

Just like the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the Parable of the Leaven has small and insignificant beginnings, but progressively, over time, through a process, has an effect on the whole lump – the whole earth.

But the key difference is that in the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the beginning is localized in a single individual and spreads out from that one point. In the Parable of the Leaven, the leaven mixes in with the whole lump; not starting in one place and expanding, but integrating into the whole, having its effect everywhere all at once. Everywhere that there is leaven, there is also transformation.

Now, 2,000 years later, does it seem like Jesus’ prophetic parables have been accurate? I believe it has. I believe that Jesus picked two parables that perfectly revealed how His kingdom would grow.

As it has been realized in the church and through the church’s influence, the kingdom of heaven has spread across planet earth. In terms of spread, it started with one man and a small band of disciples: Today there are an estimated 2.6 billion Christians. The influence of Christianity has founded nations and toppled others. Countless others have adopted Christian principles, intentionally or unintentionally.

In terms of transformation, Christianity has produced a worldview that has birthed hospitals, educational systems, scientific pursuit, the upholding of human rights, and the admiration of compassion – just to name a few. Never has there been a higher standard of living; with bountiful food, time for leisure, comfort from the elements, and human freedoms than there is in this moment of history, in large part because of the blessings wrought by the expanding kingdom of God.

Yes, what began in the obscurity of Galilee has spread across the globe, transforming it everywhere it has gone, like only the Son of God could have predicted. We, brothers and sisters, are its beneficiaries.

And not only are we its beneficiaries, we are also kingdom ambassadors. For truly, there is much work to be done. If there are 2.6 billion people who call themselves Christian, there are 5.5 billion who do not know Jesus. They need to hear the gospel. There are still thousands of people groups that remain unreached and unengaged by the gospel. Someone, some brave ambassadors, need to go to them! There is much work to be done!

What has started so small continues to grow, but it grows because God’s people are commanded to be faithfully obedient, bearing fruit 30, 60, 100-fold! How much fruit will your life produce?!

Let us now return to the Parable Discourse.

Read vs 34-35

The crowds expected a political, militaristic Messiah. But by using parables, soaked in images of farming, and kitchen work, and fishing; He distanced He and His kingdom from the expectations of the day. Jesus was teaching that His kingdom was altogether different.

Additionally, as we saw last week, Jesus taught in parables because parables have a powerful paradoxical effect. They simultaneously veil their meaning to some, and to others they enlighten and simplify spiritual truths. Parables paradoxically are a judgment to some and a blessing to others. Thus, with the dual purpose of subverting expectations and exerting the power of paradox, Jesus preferred the parabolic teaching method. Of course He taught in other ways, but He preferred parables when teaching crowds.

Finally, not only was this according to Jesus’ preferences, but it always was in accordance with ancient prophecies. Pointing this out, Matthew quotes Psalm 78:2. Let me read from the verses immediately surrounding that quotation.

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders that He has done. -Psalm 78:1-4

You can hear the paradoxical nature of parables in this prophesy. Parables reveal ancient things, hidden things; they speak of the glorious deeds of the Lord, the wonders He has done. And while for some these parabolic sayings are veiled, for others it brings knowledge and understanding.

It is interesting that the Psalmist, Asaph, starts his prophetic writing with, Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

Isn’t that so similar to Jesus saying, “He who has ears, let him hear”?

Again, we are reminded that hearing is key, hearing to understand, understanding to obey. Jesus is looking for the same type of people that God has always been looking for: people who are ready to engage, ready to think, and ready to be about the difficult work of following Him. He does not want people who are resistant or shallow or uncommitted.

And with that in mind, Jesus leaves the crowds and focuses on His disciples. He explains the Parable of the Weeds to them, and tells them four more parables (which we will see next week). But in the Gospel of Matthew, from this point forward, the vast majority of Jesus’ teachings will be geared for His disciples; those that are ready to be about the difficult work of following Him.

Read vs 36-43

The wheat sown into the world are the sons of the kingdom. And who sowed them into the world? The Son of Man. Jesus Christ. If you are a son or daughter of the kingdom of heaven, it is because Jesus Himself has made you so. You are His handiwork, His creation, His good seed.

But the devil has come along and prolifically sown His seed too, and weeds grow up all around us: the cowards, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, the sexually immoral, idolaters, and all liars. But they can flourish only for a limited time, for the harvest is coming.

The harvest, of course, is the end of history as we know it. It is the end of this age. It is the consummation, when judgment and salvation will finally and ultimately be dispensed upon all people who have ever lived. In this age they were allowed to live together, in the next age they will be eternally separated.

This, indeed, is an eschatological parable!

Jesus will send the angels to separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the weeds. Not only will they remove the sons of the evil one, but verse 41 says that they will also remove all causes of sin. All the things that so ensnare our flesh, the countless traps of temptation, and all deviant desires, all of these will be separated from the sons and daughters of the kingdom.

Listen again to what Jesus said will become of all evil things, and all evil doers: They will be thrown into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus is describing hell: a real place of eternal and conscious torment. Weeping is about grief and regret. Gnashing teeth connotes unrestrained hatred (towards God) or overwhelming remorse (in endless hopelessness) – or both.

This is an estate so horrible that we can hardly fathom it. This is the agonizing end for those who had little, even what they had was taken from them (Matthew 13:12). We cannot imagine, nor do we want to. How desperate the plight of those who do not know Jesus. We must sense the terrible urgency for the lost. The time is so short! Do not hesitate to speak the gospel!

But the righteous, they will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. They shine like the sun not because of the amazing things they have done in their life, not because they have earned such brilliant, meritorious, radiance. They shine because they have been given the radiant robes of Christ’s own righteousness.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:21

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. -Galatians 3:26-27

Because Christ became sin for us, dying in our place; by faith we are clothed in Christ, blazing with the very brilliance of God’s own righteousness. It’s a stunning promise. We shall shine like the Son. Not because we are brilliant in ourselves, but because we reflect the radiance of the Son of God; we are new creations in Christ!

And all this eschatological language of parabolic interpretation gets a powerful echo in Revelation.

And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and He will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” -Revelation 21:5-8

Judgment and salvation. Insiders and outsiders. Wheat and weeds. It’s no coincidence that Jesus’ parables paradoxically are a judgment to those who do not understand and salvation to those who do. These are truths woven into reality, woven even into Jesus’ preferred method of teaching.

Let’s now sum up how the kingdom of heaven grows upon earth elucidated from the three parables we consider today.

The kingdom of God has the smallest of beginnings, insignificant, obscure, unbelievably humble. But from there it will grow, and has grown, to spread across planet earth; both in terms of numbers and influence. The nations will embrace it. The world will benefit from it.

But the kingdom will not experience uncontested growth. There will be resistance. The evil one has sown in weeds. Evil will be done, and unbelievers will both sow discord and proliferate wickedness. It will go on until the end of the age and the final Judgment Day. But make no mistake, the kingdom will grow – weeds among the wheat – expanding, filling the planet, God’s unstoppable force of gospel transformation on earth. Behold, He is making all things new!

On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. -Matthew 16:18

For [Christ] must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

-1 Corinthians 15:25

1Laskow, S. (2016, March 22) Wheat’s Evil Twin Has Been Intoxicating Humans For Centuries. Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wheats-evil-twin-has-been-intoxicating-humans-for-centuries