Read Matthew 13:1-58
In order to understand the relevance of the Parables of Matthew 13 an overview of the chapter is essential, as the parables are each a small part of a greater whole that Jesus was trying to get across. A particular Bible translation may divide the chapter into only seven parables, but there are eight parables in Matthew 13. These eight parables can be divided into three sections. The first consists of the first four parables: the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the Parable of the Leaven. The second section consists of the next three parables: the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price, and the Parable of the Dragnet. The third section is the last parable, the Parable of the Householder, who takes out of his treasury both old and new.
The titles of these three sections give an idea of what Jesus emphasizes in Matthew 13. We could title the first section "Satan's Plan to Corrupt His Kingdom". The second section can be titled "Combatting Satan's Plan to Corrupt His Kingdom," Matthew 13:34 says: "All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." The words spoken of by the prophet to which Matthew refers appear in Psalm 78;2, however, as is often the case with Matthew, his quotation of the prophesy is not word for word accurate. In Psalm 78:2, it does not say, "I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." Instead, it says: "I will utter dark sayings of old." Thus what Matthew 13:34 refers to in respect to the first four parables was not so much hidden, but dark as in having a negative connotation. Jesus is speaking of dark, negative things, therefore these parables were meant as a warning.
What Jesus said up until verse 34 is primarily negative, not positive, and these negative things have been thus since the foundation of the world. What happened at the foundation of the world? Adam and Eve were led astray, and in so doing, were robbed of their relationship with God and place in the Kingdom of Heaven. So, in the first half of this chapter, Jesus is saying, "Look, My disciples, Satan is going to infiltrate the Kingdom and derail it. If you understand what is in these parables, you will have a pretty good idea of what my Kingdom is all about and be aware of how the enemy will try to render it powerless."
Matthew 13 contains Christ's explanation of His use of parables as a way of teaching. They act as a prophetic summary of the historical development of the Kingdom. The first seven in fact line up perfectly with the seven Letters To The Churches in the Book of Revelation. The chapter contains eight parables. Jesus gave the first four to the mixed multitude, while He told the last four to the twelve disciples in private. After the first series of four parables, Matthew writes, "All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them" (verse 34). These four parables describe the outward characteristics of the kingdom, the working of spiritual darkness against the kingdom, and the extent to which the Evil One will oppose it and reduce its effectiveness. The remaining four parables illustrate the outcome as a result of the first four.
The Sower (verse 3) illustrates the various responses and outcomes that will occur by those who come in contact with and become part of the Kingdom
The Tares (verse 24) illustrates that the enemy will sow a counterfeit seed that will only be revealed as counterfeit at harvest time.
The Mustard Seed (verse 31) illustrates the effects of corruption by the enemy will change the form of the kingdom into a mutation of the seed broadcast by The Sower
The Leaven (verse 33) illustrates how the enemy will corrupt the Kingdom in its formative years by adding poisonous seeds to the seeds sowed by The Sower
The Treasure (verse 44) illustrates the price that will be paid by those who discover the true value of the words of the kingdom and what they must to to preserve it
The Pearl (verse 45) illustrates the true value of the words of the Kingdom
The Dragnet (verse 47) illustrates that the Kingdom will attract all manner of persons, necessitating a sorting out process into those who make the grade and those who don't
The Householder: When Jesus finished the first seven parables, He asked His disciples, "Have you understood all these things?" That they understood made it possible for Jesus to conclude with a final parable that reveals the responsibility of the disciples as "scribes" in the Kingdom, "instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven" (verse 52). The apostles, and the Kingdom Jesus would build, would bring forth a treasure of knowledge and understanding, "things new and old."
The eighth, The Householder, and the first, The Sower, are the key, the first introducing and anticipating all of the parables, and the last concluding and reflecting back on the whole, stating the Kingdom's purpose and duty under the authority of Jesus Christ.
The shortness of His parables illustrate the simplicity and directness of The Kingdom and its message. Jesus gave clear and precise illustrations to which His audience could relate. Farmers listened to pictures of agricultural life. Wives could grasp His word pictures from home life. Merchants could relate to illustrations from the business world that translated into spiritual principles. Jesus also spoke of common civic duties and social events. Portrayals of nature scenes provided Him with analogies with which to express spiritual truth. Jesus used pictures that fit the occasion in a way that preserved their naturalness.
Only Christ's true disciples can really understand the deep spiritual principles involved in the parables, "because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (verse 11). The parables were inspired by His Father in heaven, "[for] all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15), therefore "blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:16).
Before looking in detail at the Parable of the Leaven, it shoud be beoming apparent by this, the the fourth of the eight parables, that there is some chronological order to them. The first introduces the sower and the ground into which he sows his seed, the second introduces to the sower's enemy who also sows seeds into the same field. The third parable explains how the kingdom will grow into a mutation of the original seed as a result of the sowing of the two different kinds of seed together. So what does the fouth parable tell us? The Parable of the Leaven shows how the corruption is introduced and by whom, and the effect it has on the food (the word of God) that is fed to those in the Kingdom. Most of the time, commentators interpret this parable just as they interpret the Parable of the Mustard Seed - that the Kingdom would grow big and eventually encompass the whole earth, and everything would be great. But is this correct? When Jesus told them that the Kingdom of God was like leaven in bread, that would not have sounded right to the Jews, because they knew what leaven represents in Scripture: the corruption of sin. How can the Kingdom be likened to leaven? It is almost unthinkable that the Kingdom of God would be full of leaven throughout. Is the Kingdom evil? Is it corrupted by sin? The Kingdom is supposed to be glorious and pure, and Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom is full of leaven. How can this be? This parable not only tells us that it will be like that, it tells us how it will happen and when and what effect it will have on the Kingdom.
In the bread making process, a little bit of yeast in the dough will make the bread rise because the yeast ferments and spreads throughout the entire lump of dough. Since leaven ferments, in its most basic sense, leaven is used as a symbol of corruption, which has a tendency to multiply and spread like yeast, changing the whole texture of the final product. Everywhere else in the Bible where the word "leaven" or "unleavened" appears, "leaven" carries with it a negative implication. Yet, according to some commentators, this one case is the exception! In 87 out of 88 times, it means something bad, but here in Matthew 13, leaven is positive. Why? It does not make sense for a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Leaven must still be negative here. The commentators are uncomfortable with the idea that the Kingdom of God in its present form can have leaven in it, that it could be full of sin. But we need to remember that Jesus was seeing what would happen after He had left the Kingdom in the hands of his followers, and these parables were warnings to them of what to expect.
It is important at this juncture to remember that this parable is part of a cycle of parables that begins with the sowing of seeds, therefore the grain to which the leaven is being added would have to be from the good seed sown by the good Sower. Throughout the Bible, the word of God is depicted as bread - the staff of life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is portrayed as the Word, and one of His titles is "the Bread of life." The church's teachings come from the Word of God, which is our daily bread. Fine meal is the major component of bread. In the first of the eight parables, Jesus calls the seed the word of the Kingdom (the seed sowed by the good Sower, Matt 13: 19). The leaven must therefore be a corruptive ingredient added to the word of the kingdom that corrupts the word of God as a whole, turning it into something with a totally different texture and nature that it was intended to have.
Jesus therefore warns in this parable that false doctrines would be infused by stealth into the Kingdom, and these evil beliefs would corrupt, erode, and destroy. The phrase "till all was leavened" is a sobering indication that the Kingdom would be plagued by insensitive, uncaring, self-absorbed, self-centered attitudes that would spread through the whole Kingdom with not one part left unaffacted, just as leaven spreads through bread dough. Down through the ages, greed, pride, control and worldly desires has been like leaven from those who have distorted doctrine.
Now let's look at the person who introduces the leaven; it is a woman. What is "a woman" in Scripture? In Revelation 12, a woman is symbolic of the nation of Israel, and in Revelation 17 and 18 she represents the false system of Babylon. In Isaiah 47, a woman is again symbolic of Babylon (whether the nation or the system of Babylon). In Ezekiel 16, God uses a woman to symbolize Israel: "Aholah" is the kingdom of Israel and "Aholibah" is the kingdom of Judah. What can we understand from this? Every time a woman is used as a symbol in The Bible, the common denominator is the idea of a mother figure, be it a kingdom, or a human authoritive body, a religion system of beliefs and practices that acts as a covering over the people under its authority and/or influence. As this parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven, we must now ask what is the human authoritive body and its religion system of beliefs and practices that oversees the subjects of the kingdom of Heaven? It is the church. Thus, Jesus is saying that the church or someone in it will plant seeds of leaven in with the words of the Kingdom.
What are the characteristics of this mother figure in the parable? She hid the leaven. The verb "hid" (Greek, enkrupto) means "to cover, to conceal, to keep secret." Enkrupto is the same word from which we get our word "encrypt." A general tells his lieutenant, "Encrypt this message and take it to the colonel at the front line." The lieutenant mixes up the letters according to a code, and only the lieutenant or a person with the key to the encryption knows what the message is saying. In this parable, the one who put the leaven in the mix slipped it in during the very first stage of the bread-making process without anyone else knowing. It's a devious act by a devious person.
In Luke 12:1, Jesus identifies the Pharasees as having adding leaven in their day. In Mark 8:15, He speaks of "the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." Then, in Matthew 16:5-6, 11, Jesus says that the leaven He spoke about was the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Leaven is symbolic of things that disintegrate, break up, and corrupt. The leaven of the Pharisees was hypocritical formality. That of the Sadducees was skepticism. Herod's was of shameful self-indulgence in worldly desires.
This person hides the leaven "in three measures of meal." That Jesus uses the very phrase "three measures of meal" is quite interesting - and it is a key to knowing what the leaven is. It would have told His Jewish audience something that did not require explanation, as they were familiar with it. They would have recognized the three measures of meal as being an ephah, which was the meal or grain offering (Leviticus 2), as opposed to a burnt offering. The burnt offering was as an expression of remorse for sin; the grain offering was an expression of love and gratitude. This offering was never allowed to contain leaven (Leviticus 2:5). The meal offering represents the offerer's service and loyalty and was offering to both God and mankind. It is typified in how Jesus Christ offered Himself in service to mankind (Matthew 20:25-28) and signifies the nature of Christ's sacrifice for us, not as an atonement for sin but as an expression of love and service. It portrays the first great commandments of Matthew 22:36-39: love of God and our fellow human beings, the keeping of which, Jesus says, is akin to keeping the whole Law. With this in mind, we can understand that Christ's Jewish listeners would have had no doubt as to the ramifications of someone putting leaven in a meal offering! That was not kosher! It simply was not done! It was an an insult to God and to those we express love and loyalty to. those who heard this would have understood immediately that the Kingdom of Heaven would be subverted. The outworking of godliness within the Kingdom was going to be corrupted.
If "three measures of meal" represents our love, service, and devotion to God and to our fellow man, then this parable is a warning that the word of the Kindom will be corrupted through added false doctrine, resulting in a change in how we treat each other. It will lunge directly at the Kingdom's jugular and strike at the very heart of Jesus' teaching, which is that we should have love towards each other; that we should treat others as we would have them treat us were they in our shoes; that we would treat every man, woman and child as an equal; that we should not elevate one person above another, or laud anything over another, but rather act as servants to each other as Christ taught us to do by his example. In order for it to go undetected, it seems reasonable to expect that the one who adds this leaven to the words of the Kingdom will teach this corrupt doctrine as though it were God's will. Thus he might teach that it is God's will and design that people are not equal and should not be treated thus, that women should be treated in a different manner to men; that slavery should be permitted to exist, or that God has placed some to be in authority over others, and those under that authority should submit to it. Is that what happened? Does that kind of teaching appear anywhere in the New Testament? Yes it does - in Paul's letters.
The loaf by which the people in the Kingdom of Heaven are feed the words of the Kingdom could only be a reference to what we refer to as the word of God, which is the means through which those in the Kingdom of Heaven are fed on spiritual truths. The Bible, but more specifically, that part of The Bible we call The New Testament is what contains the message of the gospel of the Kingdom of God and it is from it we receive our spiritual food. If this is so, then the loaf in its final form must therefore be The New Testament in its final form - the 27 books that were settled on as New Testament canon in the 3rd century.
Now that we know what the loaf is, what the leaven is, what effect it will have on the loaf and the nature of the one who hides the leaven in the loaf, let us now look at when the leaven is introduced. Once that is done, the evidence can be assimilated and then we can see if a culprit can be identified. In the example given in this parable, the leaven is added at the earliest stages of the bread-making process when the ingredients are first being brought together, long before the loaf has gone through the baking process (the assimilation of all the indredients into a single unit of uniform texture) which brings it to its final form. As the leaven is one of the loaf's ingredients, it must have been added when the New Testament was being compiled.
We know that the canon of The Bible was set during the early 4th century, which is the period of church history covered by the fourth letter to the churches of Asia, the fourthy trumpet, the fouth seal and the fourth bowl; the fourth parable fits the timeframe of this study perfectly. We also have a "woman" - the Roman Catholic Church or one of its officers - who was responsible for the selection and input of its ingredients. What are the characteristics of this mother figure in the parable? She hid the leaven. The verb "hid" (Greek, enkrupto) means "to cover, to conceal, to keep secret." Enkrupto is the same word from which we get our word "encrypt." A general tells his lieutenant, "Encrypt this message and take it to the colonel at the front line." The lieutenant mixes up the letters according to a code, and only the lieutenant or a person with the key to the encryption knows what the message is saying. In this parable, the one who put the leaven in the mix slipped it in during the very first stage of the bread-making process without anyone else knowing. It's a devious act by a devious person.
The big mystery before us is, what part of the ingredients is the leaven that corrupted the whole loaf (The New Testament) once it had been baked (compiled in its final, complete form)? The New Testament's ingredients consist of four gospels, the historic record of the early church that is Book of Acts, the prophet Book of Revelation and 21 epististles, 14 of which are credited to Paul; one to James, two to the Aposle Peter, three to the Apostle John and one to Jude. Of these, the gospels tell only of Christ's teachings, and Acts simply records what happened within the early church, so we won't find any false doctrine there. The Book of Revelation was dictated to its author, John, by Jesus, so the leaven must be in one or more of the epistles. Read the letters of the Apostles Peter and John, and you will find they simply reiterate the words and teachings of Jesus. The books of James and Jude also reiterate the words and teachings of Jesus, but in a manner suggesting they are rebuffing false doctrine introduced into the first century church. That only leaves the letters of Paul. It is significant that 1) Paul's letters are the earliest of all the writings that made it into the New Testament; 2) the book of James is a step by step renunciation of key doctrines of salvation presented by Paul in his letters - James even uses the same Old Testament scriptures that Paul uses to discredit Paul's doctrine of salvation by faith; 3) Paul was a Pharasee; 4) Paul was by his own admission a devious person and a liar; 5) it was Paul who the church at Ephesus put on trial and found guilty of being a teacher of doctrine different to that taught by Jesus, of claming to be an apostle but wasn't, and of being a liar. For this the church at Ephesus was commeded by God in his letter to them in Revelation 2! See separate study
The first significant move toward the creation of a new Christian canon was initiated by Marcion, a ship owner and merchant, the son of a bishop of the church at Sinope in Asia Minor. Marcion proposed that the church reject the Jewish scriptures and embrace a new canon of its own. Why did Marcion want the church to dump the Old Testament and adopt a "New Testament" dominated by Paul's teachings? Marcion was leader of the Marcionite sect, which rejected the deity described in the Jewish Scriptures as inferior or subjugated to the God proclaimed in the Christian gospel, resulting in Marcion being denounced by the Church Fathers and excommunicated. Marcion affirmed Jesus to be the saviour sent by the Heavenly Father, and Paul as His chief apostle. Marcion did not claim that the Jewish Scriptures were false. Instead, Marcion asserted that they were to be read in an absolutely literal manner, thereby developing an understanding that YHVH was not the same god spoken of by Jesus. According to Marcion, the god of the Old Testament, whom he called the Demiurge, the creator of the material universe, is a jealous tribal deity of the Jews, whose law represents legalistic reciprocal justice and who punishes mankind for its sins through suffering and death. Contrastingly, the god that Jesus professed is an altogether different being, a universal god of compassion and love who looks upon humanity with benevolence and mercy. Marcion used Paul epistles to support his beliefs.
The development of the Biblical Canon took centuries and appears to have been finally settled in the 4th century, specifically at the Council of Carthage in 397 and 419. When the canon was finally established, it followed Marcion's recommendations closely, even though by then he had been excommunicated from the Church for his heretical teachings.
Where has the church shown its greatest weakness? In the area of control over its congregations and in personal relationships, which is a reflection of the leaven within the lump. What do we hear about among and within church congregations? Distrust, offense, marriage problems, disunity, selfishness, gossip, rumour, tale-bearing, judging and condemning, comparing one to another and running down the other, giving place to wrath, etc. These are how we treat one another, which God sees as how we treat him. These are our the meal offering - our offering of service and devotion to God and to each other. It is in these areas that those in the Kingdom will be judged, and those practice this form of lawlessness will be ejected from the Kingdom (Matt 7: 15-29; Matt 25: 34-46).
The purpose of Jesus telling this parable wasn't so much to identify who it was who added this leaven to the words of the Kingdom (though that does help us identify the leaven), but to warn both his followers at that time and those of generations to come that leaven would be added to the loaf, and it would be added at such an early stage that it would be impossible to remove (this is also part of the message of the parable of the wheat and tares). However it will eventually be eradicated by the banishment from the Kingdom of those who practice it. He told them how they could recognise the leaven and those who propagated it (Matt 7: 15-27). Jesus made it clear to his disciples before he left them that everything they needed they had already received from him (John 14:6-29), thus they should not heed the words of anyone who added to his teaching (Matt 24: 5, 11, 23-28), only those who expounded it. The Holy Spirit was the only one we were told to listen to for guidance - He would lead us into all truth. And how would He do this? Not by teaching us new things but by bringing to our remembrance those things Jesus has already told us (John 14:26).
In order for us to identify what is wheat and what is tares, what is pure grain and what is leaven, it is imperative that we get the true words of the Kingdom, which are the teachings of Jesus himself, planted deep in our hearts and minds, to feed on nothing else, and to get to know the voice of the Holy Spirit. Test every word from another source against what Jesus taught , even and especially those words within the food of the Kingdom, the so-called word of God, for into that food, warned Jesus, the enemy in the guise of 'a woman' (a spiritual covering) has hidden some leaven which has corrupted the whole.
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