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Then He said, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches."
And again He said, "To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened."
And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."
- Luke 13:18-30
Yesterday, we read that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. There was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, "There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day." The Lord then answered him and said, "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound -- think of it -- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
Then He said, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches." Luke gives us the powerful parable of the mustard seed. My study bible tells us, "The mustard seed is tiny, but the plant grows to a height of about 10 feet in Palestine." I think that in the gospels, the juxtaposition or placement of verses near one another tells us something, shines light on another facet of meaning. Here, this teaching comes right after the healing of the woman bent over for eighteen years! In this sense, we can call it a reference to the good work of the Sabbath. One act of the heart to lift another's burden may truly be a seed that grows extraordinarily. When we act to bring the Kingdom into this world, we should never scoff at how small we think our contribution is; the mustard seed holds the power of an act in His name.
And again He said, "To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." My study bible tells us, "A small amount of leaven inevitably penetrates the entire dough. Such is the power of the Kingdom." Leaven is quite often a negative reference in Scripture, such as Jesus' earlier warning (in the last chapter) to His disciples to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." But in posing these two sayings together, about the mustard seed and the leaven, we get a tremendous sense of the Kingdom; that is, its growth can't be limited, and exists in many dimensions. The mustard seed grows into a tall and broad tree, while the leaven penetrates and permeates from within. It transforms the entire composition of the whole. That Jesus says the woman "hid" the leaven in the mixture tells us something; the word is the same word for that which is "secret" -- as "your Father who is in the secret place" and "who sees in secret."
And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able." My study bible notes that "the narrow gate is a path to salvation marked by Jesus' teaching on discipleship and its cost." I think it goes deeply into the teaching on the mustard seed and the leaven: that without the involvement of both inner and outer self, acts that come from the heart, we miss that "narrow gate" of communion with Him.
"When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'" A note tells us here: "Jesus says I do not know you because they are workers of iniquity. If a person is not abiding in Christ, neither verbal confessions ("Lord, Lord") nor previous experiences with Christ will be of any avail at the Judgment." What is it to abide in Christ? The mustard seed and the leaven don't just tell us about outward acts or previous good works, but the leaven speaks to the inner nature of this "abiding" and its power of transformation in us and among us. He has earlier taught that "he who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters."
"There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last." My study bible says here, "People of humble faith from all parts of the earth will join together in God's consummated Kingdom. Those who vainly think themselves secure because of honored status will be last." What we take from these verses is another sense of the breadth and height and depth and completeness of this Kingdom: people come from the east and the west, from the north and the south -- and there are the last who will be first, and there are the first who will be last.
We often think of ways in which community is created in our modern world. Is it on Facebook and other forms of social media? (I use this blog and its software and also reprint on Facebook and through Twitter and email.) How do we come together? Jesus speaks of the great assembly of the Day of "God's consummated Kingdom." How do we get through the narrow door to be a part of this Kingdom? What does He mean there will be those to whom He says that He never knew them? Gathering is important, community is essential, but to my mind Jesus' words also tell us about the inner person and how and why we come together -- even how acts of community take shape within this dialogue of faith, of the heart. God knows the number of hairs on our head, and remembers every little sparrow. So each of us comes, as members of the flock, in assembly, as individuals who are deeply known and loved. We can think of great humanitarian efforts, great contributions of money and might and power, to help community. But in the economy of this Kingdom, it's not those of stupendous privilege who are allotted the place of greatest contribution. In the field of the heart, in the place where we abide, and from which an act of compassion can come -- no matter what that might be -- we are all equals, we start on a level playing field. Therefore the great sacrifice of the heart becomes the one thing necessary, the true thing God really wants from us. And every other good thing flows from there. How do we enter into this Kingdom? From what comes our citizenship? How will God "know" us? Think about the mustard seed and the leaven, and it will give us great hints about how we participate, and how we abide. That there are the last who shall be first and the first who shall be last tells us something about the true place where we all come together.
