PARABLE, MIRACLE, AND SIGN
34
The Lord Jesus `needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man, for He knew what was in
man' (John 2:25). His words, addressed to those who had believed, exposed their inner selves. `They answered
Him, seed of Abraham are we ... our father is Abraham'. Here we have a link with the `offspring of vipers'
(Matt. 3:7), and this is used by the Lord in His reply, `Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your
father ye choose to be doing'. How soon the Lord's words divided the wheat from the tares! It is the same in
John 6:59-71 :
`Many of His disciples, therefore, when they heard, said, This is a hard saying, who can hear it? ... There are
some among you who do not believe; for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe,
and who it was would deliver Him up ... Did not I make choice of you, the twelve, and yet from among you
one is a devil' (Author's translation).
The servants could not distinguish the true from the false, but the Lord knew what was within before it
developed its fruit.
Satan's attempt to spoil the kingdom purpose will fail, as all else of creature craft must do if directed against
the Lord. The harvest time, however, has not yet taken place; that is reserved until the consummation of the
age. Matthew 24:30,31 gives us the commencement of this great harvest:
`And they will see the Son of man coming upon the clouds of heaven, with great power and glory. And He
will send forth His angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather together His chosen' (Author's
translation).
Much more could be said, but our space is limited. We believe that sufficient has been produced from
Scripture to assist the student in arriving at a true understanding of this parable. The reader should bear in mind
the opening words of the parable. `The kingdom of the heavens has become like, etc.'. The phase which the
kingdom had taken consequent upon Matthew 12 is here depicted. We shall deal with the closing words of the
interpretation when we consider the corresponding parable of the Drag Net.
May we be thankful for every exhibition of divine knowledge, wisdom and love, over-ruling and defeating
the enemy of truth, and may we ever seek to glorify the Lord our God by fruitful lives, shunning, as we would
poison, any approximation to the dissembling and hypocritical spirit which is set forth under the figure of the
`darnel'.
(4)
The Mustard Tree
Matthew 13:31,32
A great deal of controversy has taken place concerning the true meaning of the mustard plant mentioned in
this parable. Some maintain that it does not refer to the plant known to us as the mustard plant, but to another
which is, strictly speaking, a tree. We are quite unable to enter into this argument where learned men and
botanists disagree. For us, all that we need will be found in the Word itself, and to that we turn.
The statement of Matthew 13:31 `The kingdom of the heavens is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a
man took and sowed in his field', seems to indicate that we have brought before us a plant which would be
naturally sown in fields, and disposes of the idea that it refers to a tree and not to the mustard plant - a herb. The
difficulty which some have in the statement of verse 32, `which indeed is the least of all seeds', is easily
removed by supplying the ellipsis from verse 31. The seed is the least of all seeds which men sow in their
fields.
Before considering the bearing of this parable upon the subject of the `mysteries of the kingdom', we must
refer to parallel uses of the figures here employed, in order to be `thoroughly furnished'. The word sinapi
(mustard) occurs but five times in the New Testament. Matthew 13:31, Mark 4:31, and Luke 13:19 are the
passages wherein the parable of the mustard seed is found; the two other references are Matthew 17:20 and
Luke 17:6, where the reference is to `faith like unto a grain of mustard seed'. It would appear that this was a
proverbial saying. When, today, we speak of a very nominal rent, we sometimes say, `it is a mere peppercorn',
and in like manner the mustard seed was used to denote any thing very small. Let us then fix the first point.
The smallness of the seed must be remembered when considering the interpretation of the parable. The next
thing that we must do is to see whether the Lord alluded to any Old Testament prophecies, parables or
statements, for if He did the consideration of such passages must help greatly in the elucidation of the parable: