Sermon Bible Commentary
Matthew 13:33
In the mustard seed we saw the kingdom growing great by its inherent vitality; in the leaven we see it growing great by a contagious influence. There the increase was obtained by development from within; here, by acquisitions from without. The kingdom grows great by permeating in secret through the masses, changing them gradually into its own nature, and appropriating them to itself.
I. Christ, the Son of God, became man and dwelt among us. Behold the piece of leaven that has been plunged into the dead mass of the world. The whole is not leavened yet, but the germ has been introduced.
II. Converted men, women, and children are let into openings of corrupt humanity and hidden in its heart. There they cannot lie still; they stir and effervesce, and inoculate the portions with which they are in closest contact. In this respect the lesson is the same with that which is taught in those of the short parables of Jesus: "Ye are the light of the world. Ye are the salt of the earth."
III. The light of faith, when it is hidden in the heart, spreads like leaven through the man, occupying and assimilating all the faculties of his nature and all the course of his life. The whole lump of" the individual must be leavened, as well as the whole lump of the world. Christ will not be satisfied until He gets every man in the world for His own and every part of each. In the new creature, as in the new world, "dwelleth righteousness." That which is now laid on the consciences of Christians as a law will yet emerge from their life as a fact: "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
W. Arnot, The Parables of our Lord,p. 111.
The Leaven.
We may understand our Lord as describing in this parable either the influence of the Gospel on the world and its final universal manifestation, or the influence and operation of Divine grace on those in whose hearts the Spirit of God has lodged it. The parable may be applied either way, but we prefer the latter.
I. The woman takes the leaven to lay it not on, but in, the meal, where, working from within outwards, it changes the whole substance from the centre to the surface. It is through a corresponding change that the man goes to whom the Spirit of God communicates His grace. It is hidden in the heart. The change begins there; the outward reformation not preparing the way for regeneration, but springing from it, growing out of it as a tree grows out of its seed, or a stream flows out of its spring.
II. Suppose that the woman, taking, instead of leaven, a stone, a piece of granite, a common pebble, or even a precious jewel, any metal such as gold or silver, or any like inert and inactive substance, had placed that in the heart of the meal, the meal had remained the same, changing neither to stone nor metal. But so soon as leaven is embedded in its substance, a change immediately ensues, a process of fermentation is set agoing, and, extending from within outwards, goes on till, by a law of nature, the whole lump is leavened. Neither art nor nature could supply a better simile of the grace of God than this. An active element, so soon as it is lodged in the heart it begins to work; nor ceases to extend its holy influence over the affections and habits, the inward and outward character, till it has moved and changed the whole man.
III. It is said of the meal in which the woman hid the leaven, that "the whole," not a portion of it, large or small, "was leavened." The apostle bring out the same diffusive character of this element when he says, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Even so, teaching us not to despise the day of small things, a little grace lodged in the heart spreads till it sanctifies the whole man. These three characters of grace form three excellent tests of character and of the genuineness of our religion.
T. Guthrie, The Parables read in the Light of the Present Day,p. 12.
I. The power which is to raise man must come from without.
II. The leaven must be lodged and work within.
III. The leaven has a penetrative and diffusive power.
E. Mellor, The Hem of Christ's Garment,p. 152.
(with Luke 13:20)
The Leaven.
This parable, like that of the mustard seed, relates to the marvellous increase of the kingdom of God; but while the last sets forth its outward visible manifestation, this declares its hidden working, its mysterious influence on that world which on all sides it touches.
I. By the leaven we are to understand the word of the kingdom, which word, in its highest sense, Christ Himself was. As the mustard seed, out of which a mighty tree should unfold itself, was the least of all seeds, so, too, the leaven is something apparently of slight account, but at the same time mighty in operation.
II. The leaven which is mingled with the lump, which acts on and coalesces with it, is at the same time different from it, for the woman took it from elsewhere to mingle it therein; and even such is the Gospel a kingdom not of this world, not the unfolding of any powers which already existed therein, a kingdom not rising, as the secular kingdoms out "of the earth" (Daniel 7:17), but a new power brought into the world from above; not a philosophy, which men have imagined, but a revelation which God has revealed. The Gospel of Christ was a new and quickening power, cast into the midst of an old and dying world; a centre of life, round which all the moral energies which still survived, and all which itself should awaken, might form and gather, by the help of which the world might constitute itself anew. This leaven is not merely mingled with, but hiddenin, the mass which it renewed. For the true renovation, that which God effects, is ever from the inward to the outward; it begins in the inner spiritual world, though it does not end there; for it fails not to bring about, in good time, a mighty change also in the outward and visible world.
III. The promise of the parable has hitherto been realized only in a very imperfect measure; nor can we consider these words, "till the whole was leavened," as less than a prophecy of the final complete triumph of the Gospel, that it will diffuse itself through all nations and purify and ennoble all life.
R. C. Trench, Notes on the Parables,p. 114.
References: Matthew 13:33. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 340; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 64; J. R. Macduff, Parables of the Lake,p. 121; R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions,p. 133; Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 264.Matthew 13:38. H. Allon, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiv., p. 227.