Last week we looked at the parable of the sower. And Jesus indicated in explaining that parable it provides the key to understanding all the parables. I think that is because Jesus uses some common symbols or figures in that parable which he interprets privately to his disciples, and so we can use that interpretation in other parables which use the same symbols or figures. That hermeneutic principle is called “expositional constancy.” It means that the meaning of symbols or figures used in one scripture tend to mean the same as similar symbols or figures in another scripture. I think it’s safe to say that this principle is generally true when it does not go against scripture. But it’s always best to interpret scripture by scripture.
So beginning in the fourth chapter of Mark, Jesus gives a series of parables in his teaching to the multitudes. And according to vs 34, it says that “He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”
Now we need to understand that Jesus wasn’t speaking in riddles. And He wasn’t telling morality tales, kind of like the folk tales that we tell our children. But He was speaking the truth about the kingdom of God, or you might even say proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God in such a way that it was veiled to the unbelieving heart.
Jesus speaks in this way to them because they had already rejected the truth. They had rejected the obvious truth that He was the Messiah, even the Son of God. They had attributed His words and His works to Satan. They had blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. And so they are now addressed in parables, so that “WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.”
However, for the disciples, those that have ears to hear, He helps them hear the truth of the parable. Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Those whose spiritual ears have been opened let them hear the spiritual truth which Jesus has instilled in the parable.
In the next parable Jesus actually addresses that point of spiritual truth being hidden to those that are spiritually blind. Jesus says in vs 21 And He was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not [brought] to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has [anything] been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Now unfortunately, we do not have the privilege that the disciples had in hearing Jesus explain this parable to them privately. But I think we can determine what Jesus is saying, by remembering what He has taught us thus far in the previous parable. But one advantage we do have is we have the complete scriptures and in particular what the Apostle Paul had to say in 2Co 4:3-4 where he says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Jesus said of Himself that He was the light of the world. John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” And the Apostle John, who introduced Jesus in his gospel as the word, then changes metaphors and says Jesus is the light. John 1:9-12 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name.”
So keeping all that in mind, let’s think about the parable again about hiding a lamp under a basket. If the Word is the lamp, if Jesus is the Word made flesh, the light shining in the darkness, then Jesus is speaking of Himself and His gospel. He was not manifested to be put under a basket or under a bed. In other words, Jesus did not come to be hidden, but to be revealed. He came that the truth of God would be manifested to the world. That the gospel of the kingdom would be proclaimed to the world.
“Nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret, but that it should come to light.” I think Jesus is speaking of His gospel, which on the one hand is being manifested to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, but on the other hand is being hidden to the unbelieving. Those Pharisees that thought that they could see, the truth had been veiled to them. As Paul said in 2Cor. 3:14-16 “But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” But there is coming a day when that which is hidden will be fully revealed from heaven in flaming fire. And then everyone in that day will confess that Jesus is Lord, and every knee will bow. But that confession will not be for their salvation, but for their condemnation, because they did not receive it by faith.
That’s why Jesus reiterates again the saying in vs 23 "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” If you are spiritually deaf, you are unable to hear. But if you have been given spiritual illumination then you can understand the gospel and be saved.
Jesus explains that principle further, perhaps alone with the disciples, by saying in vs 24, ”Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him [more] shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”
I think a more modern day paraphrase might say, “Listen carefully, because what you hear you will be judged by. You who were given the privilege of hearing the truth, if you do not understand it, but choose to reject it, then you will receive the full condemnation that you deserve because you had the opportunity, but you rejected it.
So what is this “standard of measure” that Jesus refers to by which you will be reciprocated? I think the standard of measure is your faith. Jesus often said to people, “O ye of little faith” or of another “What great faith.” By the standard of your faith you will be given. So whoever has, that is whoever has faith, more shall be given. More spiritual illumination. More spiritual truth by which we can grow and be useful to the kingdom. But to those who are unbelieving, who had not faith, then what they had will be taken away from him. They will lose everything, even lose their life. And especially for the Pharisees who were the main culprit in rejecting Jesus Christ, what they had was their religion, their system of laws and ceremonies and rituals and the temple service and all the trappings of Judaism. And because they rejected Christ, they would lose it all. The temple would be destroyed in 70AD. The sacrifices would be offered no more. The cult of the Pharisees and Sadducees would be destroyed and scattered to the four corners of the world.
The next parable the Lord gives is found starting in vs 26 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows--how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Well, let’s start to understand this parable by trying to find similar symbolism with others before it. And we can do so immediately by the picture of a man sowing seed. Jesus said in regards to the parable of the soils that the seed was the word of God. If that is the same here, then it helps us tremendously to understand the parable. I believe it is a simple illustration of a man who sows the word of God, and yet does not have any control over how it’s received, or whether or not someone becomes saved. We are given the mandate to take the gospel to the world, to proclaim the gospel, to preach the word, to sow the seed, but we are not given the responsibility for how it is received. That is the hearer’s responsibility to receive the truth, and the Lord’s responsibility for spiritual growth.
What Jesus seems to be teaching is that the Spirit of God is the active agent in salvation. He causes the seed to germinate, to grow into faith. He is the One who illuminates the spiritual heart of a man so that he can believe and be saved. But as Jesus said elsewhere, “you will know them by their fruits.” When you see the spiritual life that comes as a result of the sowing of the word, then you know that you have gained a harvest of souls. The emphasis is an extension of the previous parable, that what the Holy Spirit does in the heart to receive the word, the Holy Spirit does in the life as it grows in faith. As the King James reads in Eph.2:1, “and you hath He quickened, who were dead in your trespasses and sins.”
The third parable of the kingdom of God is given in vs 30 And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? "[It is] like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE."
So here Jesus tells us from the outset that this parable is a picture, or illustration of the kingdom of God. Once again, there is a seed involved. The seed we have already learned is a picture of the word of God. But now Jesus gives a more definitive seed. A mustard seed. One other thing we are also told is that the mustard seed is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil.
The only way to understand that is to consider that the proclamation of the gospel started out very small. John the Baptist, one man crying out in the wilderness, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” And then Jesus appears, as John disappears, and He began to preach the gospel of the kingdom, primarily in Galilee. Such humble beginnings. In light of the size and scope of the world, it was surely the smallest of seeds.
And yet, by the power of the Spirit, the tree grows and spreads throughout the earth. The gospel of the kingdom is taken unto the ends of the earth. And that would seem to be in line with most commentator’s interpretation of this parable. But Jesus doesn’t stop the parable at that point. He adds some more details which are not so easily understood.
The details he adds is that this mustard seed produces a large tree, and forms large branches. The problem with that is that normally a mustard seed produces a large bush, not a large tree with large branches. What Jesus seems to be describing here is something abnormal. You might even say monstrous. And that’s further illustrated by another troubling detail. That Jesus says the birds of the air come and nest under it’s shade.
The reason that is troubling is because in the previous parable of the sower, Jesus said that the birds of the air represented the devil and his angels. So if we stick with the principle of expositional constancy, then we have to wonder what the devil is doing in the kingdom of God.
The answer is that the mustard tree represents the church, which grows larger than is normal so that the devil and his angels nest in it’s branches. It’s a picture of the church that has abnormal growth, that is larger than it should be, that has actually become a haven for false teaching and demonic influence.
To substantiate that interpretation, I would ask you to consider Matthews account of the same parable in chapter 13. And what you find there in chapter 13 is that directly before the parable of the mustard seed is the parable of the wheat and the tares. And in that parable Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' "But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”'"
Now that parable should be easy to interpret. But to make it even easier, Jesus explained it for the disciples in Matthew 13: 37 And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and [as for] the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil [one;] and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. "So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
And then in Matthew 13, directly following the parable of the tares is the parable of the mustard seed, and then following that Jesus gives another parable about the church which is in the same vein as the others, showing that corruption will swell the ranks of the church. He gives the parable of the leaven. Matt. 13:33 He spoke another parable to them, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened." Expositional constancy in this case indicates that leaven is always a picture of sin in the Bible. Many commentators interpret this parable as the one instance in the Bible which pictures leaven as a good thing, as a picture of the church in a positive light. But I believe it should be understood to be a warning about corruption and false teaching in the church.
So in Matthew, there are three parables together that I believe Jesus was teaching the same principle, which is that the devil is going to infiltrate the church and cause it to grow larger in appearance than it actually is. But the Lord knows those that are His. These parables are really a warning to the church, to listen carefully, to take care what you listen to.
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes] nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter.] Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
Let us pray that God will give us ears to hear, and eyes to see, that we might believe the truth and be born again of the Spirit that we might be the children of God and that we might bear fruit.
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