Matthew 13:27

The servants] i.e. the apostles and those in authority or having influence in the Church.

31, 32. Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30; Luke 13:18). This parable, and that which immediately follows, the leaven, are more hopeful and cheerful in tone than those that went before, in which most of the seed sown failed to bear fruit, and tares sprang up among the wheat. Both parables describe an enormous extension of the Kingdom of God from small beginnings, but there is this difference. In the parable of the mustard seed the growth of the Kingdom as a visible and powerful organisation is described, in that of the leaven its hidden and secret influence, spreading wider and wider until the whole of society is leavened with Christian ideas.