How Could He Explain to Us His Kingdom?

“I Will Open My Mouth in Parables”

(Matthew 13:24-43, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 30, 2007)

Matthew 13:24-43 ²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' ²⁸ He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' ²⁹ But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" 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." 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." ³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." ³⁷ He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Introduction – The King of Afghanistan

We are so used to hearing the parables of Jesus that we can easily lose sight of how surprising they were. His parables were largely about one subject, the kingdom of heaven. There is a great variety in these parables because the kingdom of heaven is a large topic, and also one that was hard for the people of Jesus’ day (and maybe for the people of any day) to understand.

When we think of a kingdom we think of a monarch ruling over a particular territory. Even among the kingdoms of this world, not all of them are easily understood. I was reading an account recently of the death of the king of Afghanistan. I was not aware that Afghanistan had any kind of king. He was removed in the early seventies, but managed to live relatively quietly during three very tumultuous decades. He came to his position of authority at about the same time that Franklin Roosevelt and Adolph Hitler came onto the world scene, and lived into his nineties. To live that long is always impressive, but to do so in a land where life expectancy is in the forties and where possible political leaders were being eliminated by the Russians and the Taliban is really shocking. In any case, to the people of Afghanistan he was known as a king and even honored with the title “Father.” When he died at such an old age he seemed to be a large-than-life hero to many, yet his detractors could also be found.

A kingdom like his is full of mysteries and seeming contradictions. To understand it requires serious consideration and investigation. While it may be difficult to sort through such matters among the kingdoms of this world, how much more difficult is it for us to understand the kingdom that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 13? Consider these facts. The Son of God became man in order to establish His reign in some way in what He refers to as the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. He came to Israel, His Old Testament nation which was at that time under the control of the Roman Empire. He spoke of His kingdom as being in some way already here, though He seemed to have no political power, and had no particular platform for establishing any civil regime. He came working miracles as signs of His kingdom, and teaching with authority about His reign. It was clear from His words that His kingdom would stretch far beyond the borders of Israel. It also seemed that His kingdom would last beyond His days somehow, and that He would continue to reign forever, certainly eclipsing the grandeur of any human empire, including the Romans. Is it any surprise, given all these amazing things that He taught in an unusual way about this unexpected thing called the kingdom of heaven? His message was beyond their understanding and expectations.

A Man and His Field (24-30)

Instead of a political manifesto, or a theological treatise, we are given here three brief stories about His kingdom. The first one is unusual, since all the details seem to have a meaning. Most of the parables are not that way, and we have to be careful not to over-analyze them by assigning speculative interpretations to specifics that may just be a part of a story. The first parable is an exception, since the Lord tells us what the details mean.

In this story we are given a farming parable from the common experience of His contemporaries. We have a man who is the master of the house, a field where he does his work (apparently through servants), good seed that he plants, and weeds that are planted by an enemy. Everything is growing and it becomes clear that in the place where we are expecting only good crops that there are plants that at least appear to be weeds growing up there as well. The question that the servants of the man ask is this: Should we gather the weeds now? The answer is no. The reason is that in gathering the weeds they might hurt the wheat. This must mean that either the workers might mistake some wheat for weeds, or that the process of pulling out the weeds before the appropriate time will disturb the growth of the wheat. The master of the house assures his servants that a harvest time is coming in due course. There will be appointed reapers at that time, the weeds will be burned, and the wheat will be safely gathered into the master’s barn. In the meantime, the best course is to let both the wheat and the weeds grow. The fact that there are both wheat and weeds in the place where we only expected crops is apparently known to the master, and we need to let that matter rest. Amazingly, this is a story about the kingdom of heaven! Before we get to hear the details about what it means, we hear two other brief parables about this great kingdom.

A Grain of Mustard Seed (31-32)

In the first of these we are directed to the mustard seed, which is very small, and to the bush that comes from that small seed which is very large – even a tree where birds can make their nests. We are told that this has something to do with the kingdom of heaven. Here we do not have to work through the details, but as with most parables, we are supposed to get the main point. That point is that though the kingdom of heaven may seem to have a very small beginning, when it is fully grown it will be larger than anyone might imagine. Certainly this is the case with Jesus’ ministry, which seemed to end with a king dying on a cross and His disciples scattered in fear. Yet from that small number of unlikely apostles, a kingdom was inaugurated based on the death, resurrection, and current reign of the very one who had been crucified.

Leaven in Three Measures of Flour (33)

The final story tells us more about God’s kingdom. Here we have a woman who hides a leavening agent in three measures of flour. Perhaps she mixed the leaven into the flour as we would expect if she were preparing dough in order to bake bread, or perhaps she just decided to hide the leaven in the flour storage area and then went away for some time. That possibility would have made some people who were listening smile, even if they did not understand the point of the parable. The flour barrel was a bad place to hide leaven. But as we smile, maybe we are able to let our hearts and minds be filled with something about the kingdom of heaven from this verse. The growth of this kingdom is mysterious. Somehow our hands are involved, but when all is done, we will be shocked about how some of the small ways that God used us had an amazing impact that we never counted on. Do not underestimate God, His great plan, and even your part in that plan as He builds His kingdom.

The Parable Teller (34-35, 36-43)

Before we come back to the more detailed parable about the weeds and the wheat, we are again brought to think about the reason that Jesus teaches in parables. Here we have a quote from a psalm that reassures us that this method was not some miscalculation on the part of the Lord, but was a sign of the Messiah coming which the Scriptures had foretold. Just as surely as He would open the eyes of the blind, He would come teaching in parables, and would somehow reveal things using not the language of an advertising campaign, but the mystery of speech that seems to conceal a point as much as reveal it. Yet he clearly revealed the meaning to His disciples.

Remember the man and His field? Jesus is the man, and He uses the Messianic title Son of Man to refer to Himself. The field is the world. This is where the kingdom of heaven is being planted and is growing. It is the environment within which the church is being built through the Lord’s good work. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. They are in the world and the church now. They will be in God’s kingdom forever. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. They also are in the world and even at times in the church. The devil is at work disturbing us through the placement of weeds that trouble the kingdom. We must not be too hasty today in identifying weeds, because it is not yet the time for that final judgment, and if we try to do today what is to be done by others at a future point, we may inadvertently trouble the church ourselves. A harvest time is coming. That will be the end of the age, and angels will do the harvesting perfectly on that day, according to the Lord’s eternal plan. Then the sons of the evil one will be cast into hell, and the children of the kingdom will be glorious in heaven.

Brothers and sisters, never dismiss Christ and His church as a failure. Do not be fooled as you see her divisions or as you face your own disappointments. Do not think that our king has abdicated his position, or gone into exile. He is alive. He has taught us about the nature and progress of His reign in parables. While His kingdom may be ridiculed and rejected by many, it will one day be both victorious and glorious. Prefer Him above every dazzling substitute. He is the Lord of heaven and earth; the Lord of the harvest today, and the Lord of the judgment to come.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Why would God permit an enemy to sow weeds in his field?

2. We know that the field is the world. Where is the church in the parable, since it is a parable of the kingdom of heaven and is teaching us about the church?

3. What are the lessons that we can learn from the two briefer parables in this passage?

4. What does it mean that “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father?”