The World Needs Wisdom
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Tony’s Overview Video
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Key Text: Matthew 13:33 –
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
Some things are just too difficult to describe in technical terms alone. How does one explain love, or pride, or an adrenaline rush?
When vocabulary and logic fail, stories come to the rescue. When Jesus tried to explain such difficult concepts as the Kingdom of God, he told stories that had the power to enlighten those who had the ears of faith and discernment to listen, while leaving hard-hearted or hard-headed people in the dark.
Today’s text finds us again in Matthew 13, where the author has strung together a series of parables about the kingdom of heaven. Part of Jesus’ task was to help his followers to unlearn some of their misguided ideas and to comprehend the true meaning of the God’s reign.
Many first century Jews imagined the kingdom as arriving with a divinely assisted victory over Rome, led by a messianic warrior who would then rule as a mighty king – someone like David, only better.
But when Jesus thought of the kingdom of God, he had in mind the rule of God in the minds and hearts and lives of those who followed him. It was not an external empire encompassing the earth’s population, but an internal relationship between God and those who follow God’s way. The kingdom had begun in Jesus and was growing through the disciples and others who followed Jesus, but it was not yet all that it would be. Thus, the kingdom was both a present reality and a promised fulfillment.
Parables of mustard seed and leaven (vv. 31-34)
The third parable in Matthew 13 is the first that is not given an interpretation. It appears in slightly different forms in Mark 4:30-32 and Luke 13:18-19. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field,” Jesus said. “It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
The story is not a botany lesson: mustard seeds are not in fact the smallest seeds (orchid seeds are smaller), but they were likely the smallest known in first century Palestine. [DD]
Jesus’ hearers were familiar with a plant known as black mustard (Brassica Nigra). When left alone, it could reach eight to ten feet tall. It was spindly and not technically a tree, but large enough to attract birds who might perch on its branches as well as eat the seeds.
The primary point seems fairly obvious. As the mustard plant began as a tiny seed but grew into a large bush, so the kingdom of God had a small beginning in Jesus and those who followed him, but it would come to an amazing fruition.
While the focus is on contrast and not allegory, many readers see in the birds an image of how the kingdom would grow to encompass people from every nation. [DD]
Matthew paired the mustard seed with another story of mysterious and surprising growth: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened” (v. 33, compare Luke 13:20-21). [DD]
Some interpreters try to find meaning in the idea that leaven was sometimes described in negative terms as a corrupting influence, as something Jews had to remove from their homes before Passover. But there are positive images to balance those. Jews ate leavened bread every other week of the year. Like leaven affecting bread, we have the ability to influence others, whether for good or bad.
“Yeast” is better translated as “leaven,” something like sourdough starter. Every day, when a woman finished kneading the dough and prepared to bake bread, she would put a small piece of dough aside in a covered bowl: the yeast in it would continue fermenting and serve as leaven for the next day’s bread.
The point of the story is again seen in the power of the leaven to spark amazing growth. Like a seed that grows underground and out of sight, the woman “hides” the leaven in the doughy mixture of flour and water. And what a mixture it is: three measures of flour would have been around 40-60 pounds. That would make enough bread for a party of 100 people or more.
God’s kingdom, still hidden in the lives of Jesus and his disciples, would grow beyond measure and instill a spirit of celebration to boot.
Parables of a treasure and a pearl (vv. 44-46)
After an interlude in which Jesus explained the purpose of parables (vv. 34-35) and the meaning of the parable of the wheat and the weeds (vv. 36-43), Matthew portrays Jesus as relating several other parables to the disciples alone.
Two parables are again paired. Both are found only in Matthew, and both emphasize not the surprising growth and size of the kingdom (as in the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven), but the kingdom’s surpassing value – something so desirable that it calls for total discipleship.
The first story concerns a treasure hidden in a field, “which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (v. 44). [DD]
The point of the story is not to raise ethical questions about buying a field without disclosing its hidden treasure, but to portray participation in God’s realm as so valuable that one should be willing to give up all else in order to find it. We do not possess the kingdom as we would a treasure. Rather, we are possessed by such a desire for relationship with God that we are willing to put God first in our lives.
The second story is similar: a certain merchant in search of fine pearls came across a single pearl so magnificent that he was determined to have it, so “on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it” (vv. 45-46). [DD]
Merchants were generally considered to be shady characters in scripture, but it was not unusual for Jesus to appreciate people that others did not. We should observe that, once the man sold all that he had to buy the wonderful pearl, he was effectively no longer a merchant. There is no indication that he planned to sell it for a profit: he had become just a man with a very valuable pearl.
We presume the man who bought the field would make use of the treasure to buy what he needed, but how could the former merchant eat and where would he sleep if he had sold everything to buy a pearl?
Practicality is not the point, which is that being a part of God’s kingdom is so valuable and so important that it calls for complete surrender. But, Jesus also recognized that we have human needs. We may recall his advice in Matt. 6:33, which encouraged people not to worry about material possessions: “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
A parable about good fish and bad fish (vv. 46-50)
The seventh parable in Matthew’s kingdom collection returns to the judgment theme of the parable of the weeds among the wheat. Here Jesus speaks of a net thrown into the sea that catches fish of every kind. The fishermen bring all the fish to shore, where they keep the good fish and throw out the bad – presumably inedible or non-kosher fish (vv. 47-48).
Using vocabulary and phrases similar to v. 42, Jesus (or Matthew) explained it as a parable of judgment in which angels would “separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (vv. 48-49).
The point is that a time of separation will come, and only the righteous will remain within God’s kingdom realm. For more on the symbolic language of judgment, see last week’s lesson.
A word about the wise (vv. 51-51)
Having drawn his kingdom teachings to a close, Jesus asked the disciples if they understood. Probably overstating the case, they claimed that they did (v. 51).
Jesus then reminded them of their ongoing responsibility as teachers: having such understanding, they would need to explain the gospel and its kingdom implications to others. Using an analogy that some consider to be an eighth parable, Jesus said “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (v. 52).
“Scribes” were the teachers of the law, rabbis who had been trained in understanding the written Torah as well as the oral law. They were the teachers of Israel. Jesus now speaks to the disciples as Christian scribes who could comprehend the great treasures of the Old Testament scriptures as well as the teachings of Jesus – and could relate the two. With the emphasis on the latter, they could bring out “what is new and what is old.” Matthew, no doubt, also had in mind Christian pastors and teachers of future generations. [DD]
As the church experienced kingdom growth, it would need trained teachers to help believers understand how the love of God stretched from creation to eternity in an ongoing tension of judgment and grace, and with a desire to encompass all people.
We teach by both word and example. Who can you bless by bringing out treasures, both new and old?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Youth Teaching Resources
Social Media Challenge
Find a picture that represents each parable that is part of this lesson and post it across your social media platforms. Post the picture and the scripture and use the hashtag #parables.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Finding the Entrance” from National Treasure: Book of Secrets
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