Matthew 13:33-35; Mark 4:33-34
When we lived in the United
States, a friend once gave us a piece of dough to make what she called “Amish
Friendship Bread”. The idea is to use this “starter” in the making of your own
bread while passing on a small piece to another friend. As such it is a
substitute for yeast. Women in ancient Israel used this method to make bread
except during Passover when all leaven was removed from the home and everything
had to start from a new batch of yeast-filled dough.
What is interesting about this
parable is that in rabbinical theology, leaven or yeast was often used to
illustrate sin or some form of evil desires that would permeate one’s life
should it gain entrance.[1]
Jesus loved to redeem things and to turn the upside-down the right side up, and
so He dared to use this image to demonstrate the growth of the kingdom in the
world. As with the previous parable, the starter is small and seemingly
insignificant, but it eventually permeates the whole loaf.
Osborne points out that the
amount is rather unusual. “Three measures (an “ephah” in the Old Testament)
equals 39.4 litres or 14.75 gallons, about fifty pounds of flour. Thus this is
not a daily event but a banquet; that much would feed 100-150 people.”[2]
While it is possible that the eschatological Messianic banquet is in view here,
the main point of the parable is as the former: out of a little comes a lot.
The kingdom begins small but will end large. So too disciple making movements
may begin with only one or two, but as the principle of multiplication is
applied, one disciple trained to make another disciple who would be trained to
make another disciple and so on, it grows exponentially as two become four and
four become eight and eight become sixteen and sixteen become thirty-two etc.
Both Matthew and Mark refer to
Jesus’ use of parables when addressing the crowds. In Matthew 13:12-13 and Mark
4:11-12 it seems that the use of parables was intended to deliberately keep
things hidden from “outsiders” as He would leave the crowds and then explain
the meaning of the parables to the “insiders”. Why would Jesus do something
like that? Matthew indicates that this is a fulfilment of prophecy, quoting Psalm
78.
“O my people, listen to my
instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a
parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past – stories we have heard
and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these
truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious
deeds of the Lord, about His power and His mighty wonders.” [3]
The Psalm traces the history of God’s
continued graciousness toward the people of Israel in spite of their
unwillingness to respond to His word in a positive manner. This seems to
indicate that the parables were intended to separate the wheat from the weeds,
so to speak. Those in the crowds who were willing to open their ears to hear
Jesus’ teaching would be given the ability to understand “things hidden since
the creation of the world” as these parables were stories from their chequered
past.
There appears to be a turning
point in our Lord’s ministry here as He intentionally turns away from the
people and begins to spend more time making sure the disciples understand the
deeper principles of the Kingdom. As disciple makers who follow the model given
to us by Jesus, we too ought to spend more time going deeper with a few rather
than with the crowds as we seek to bring immature believers to a point of
maturity so that they might duplicate what we have done with them with others.
[1] The
Expositor’s Greek Testament, Volume One: Gospels and St John, Ed. W. Robertson
Nicoll, Matthew, Alexander Balmain Bruce, Hendrickson, 2002, 201.
[2] Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew, Grant R. Osborne, Zondervan, Grand
Rapids, MI, 2010, 526-527.
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