IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 142

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

We will get back today to the parables of Jesus which we left for a bit to explore Faith and Hope as we were inspired to do by the last parables we discussed, the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price and the Parable of the Drag-Net, all of which the Master told to His disciples alone. We looked at the ending of the last one as a separate parable within a parable which somehow took us onto our journey into Love and then into Faith and Hope and finally to believing. This part said: “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:52) and we gave this saying a bit of time (In the Words of Jesus parts 135 and 136); we found that “every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom” can be seen as saying every teacher who is a disciple of the Kingdom thereby putting us also into this equation. We interpreted the rest of the Master’s saying thus: we know that a householder is the master of a house, even the goodman of the house² and we should assume that as such he has treasure. Vincent tells us here that the words translated as bringeth forth are literally flingeth forth indicating his zeal in communicating instruction and the fullness out of which he speaks⁴. This brings us to the ideas then of new and old which are as they appear, new and old. So we have the teacher, Jew or Gentile, New Testament or Old, who is become a disciple of the Kingdom. These are the very disciples that he is talking to. And now this teacher, this disciple, who has a treasure of knowledge and of understanding from which he should bring forth those things that are of the Old, of the Law, in the light of his discipleship understanding plus all the New that the disciple is learning now and tomorrow from the Master. These things should he teach.

The importance here is in the effect of this saying on us. As disciples or aspiring disciples we are those scribes, those teachers and from our treasure of understanding and knowledge, both of the new and the old, we should communicate with zeal and with fullness. For what other purpose would we be or would the Master even need disciples?

We went through the chronology of these parables told to the disciples alone noting that Jesus public discourse in this segment ended with the Parable of the Tares. After this parable and before the Master’s dismissal of the multitudes, He spoke two additional parables to the people. Let us look now at these rather short narratives thereby completing our review of this chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. First is the Parable of the Mustard Seed; Jesus says: “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32). Again, the popular commentaries do not do justice to this saying by the Master and we will look at a couple in an abbreviated form to get a flavor for the thinking in the church.

• John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible⁸: This commentary starts by defining the Kingdom and then the seed saying The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: by “the kingdom of heaven” is meant, as before, the Gospel dispensation, or the Gospel church state, and the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances in it: by the grain of mustard seed, either the Gospel, or the people of God, or the grace of God in them; and by the man that took and sowed it, the Lord Jesus Christ; and by his field, in which he sowed it, the world, or his church throughout the world. Which indeed is the least of all seeds: So mustard with the Jews, is called (Myerz Nym) , “a kind of seeds”; and being very small, hence (ldrxk) , “as a grain of mustard”, is often used, proverbially, for the least thing, as it is by Christ, ( Matthew 17:20 ) ( Luke 17:6 ) . Not but there are seeds lesser than this; but the meaning is, that this is one of the least of all seeds; or was the least of seeds, which were commonly known in Judea; or the very least which grew to the size this sometimes did, and as here related. Now this is designed to express the small beginnings of the Gospel dispensation, of the ministry of the word, of the grace of God in the hearts of his people, and of the small number of them at first⁸. This goes on but you should get enough from this to understand the direction.
• The John Darby Synopsis of the New Testament⁸ takes a different approach saying: That which had been sown as a grain of mustard-seed becomes a great tree; a symbol that represents a great power in the earth. The Assyrian, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, are set before us in the word as great trees. Such would be the form of the kingdom, which began in littleness through the word sown by the Lord, and afterwards by His disciples. That which this seed produced would gradually assume the form of a great power, making itself prominent on the earth, so that others would shelter themselves under it, as birds under the branches of a tree. This has, indeed, been the case⁸. Again, this should be enough to see the direction of the commentary.

We should remember that this is a parable to the multitude; a saying that has within it a teaching of value to those that can hear it both then and now. What does this mean to us? First, we should see that the Master is speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven and likening it to the mustard seed; this smallest of seeds. All of His parables regarding comparisons to the Kingdom of God should be enough to tell us, by the very comparisons, that this Kingdom is not a place over which there is no control, a place to go after the death of the body or in the resurrection or after judgement dependent on one’s Christian belief. One could hardly compare this type of Kingdom to a seed that grows or a pearl or a treasure or to a man sowing seed. But the Kingdom that is within can be compared and so we have done throughout our posts and here is a clear depiction for those who can hear and can see. The Kingdom of God is as this tiny seed, it is planted in our hearts by our Soul, our Christ Within, and with the proper nourishment of the word of God and the ever greater attention and focus that we, as men, pay to that seed, it will grow to be a great tree. We could add here that it becomes a great tree firmly rooted in Love and Righteousness and bearing for us in this lifetime the fruit of the Spirit. This is the message to the multitude who could see this as being beyond the physical idea of a great tree from tiny seed; they could see it as an idea of the nature of the Kingdom of God. And for us too who can see the Kingdom within growing into this great tree from the smallest seed planted by the word of God given and by the Soul within. This tree with all its branches is the maturity of the Kingdom of God within us.

The next parable that the Master tells the people is the Parable of the Leaven which goes thus: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matthew 13:33). There is a certain disconnect here with the idea of leaven; some account this as yeast to rise the dough and other more rightly say that it is a sour dough. While there is a difference, the outcome is likely much the same. The commentaries on this are much like those seen above and hardly address the specifics of this parable at all. For a one sentence parable, this one leaves us with many questions. The disconnect on leaven is only from our perspective and is not in the telling of the story; Jesus knew what leaven meant but we have two other ideas of concern. First the word hid and second the ideas of the three measures. Let us address these and then our understanding of the whole parable. The idea of leaven in many cases carries a bad connotation; it was something to be avoided at times in the Old Testament and is used negatively by the Master as when He says: “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). From this we may assume that in its bad context the leaven is hidden but this is not likely the case here. While Vine’s tells us that hid, from the Greek word enkrupto, means to hide in anything⁶; both the lexicon and Strong’s paint it differently saying in Strong’s that enkrypto means to mix, put into³ and in the lexicon that it means to conceal in something; to mingle one thing with another². Now the idea of hiding would have little or nothing to do with the Kingdom of God but can only serve to confuse the issue we will opt to see this as the woman mixed the leaven or put the leaven into the meal purposefully and for its effect. The next idea is the three measures of meal which, it is suggested, is a basic Jewish quantity for making bread. We can take this to the idea that the Master was using these words to suggest something regarding Jewish history as where Abraham tells Sarah to prepare three measures of meal for his angelic guests. This however would have little use in a comparison to the Kingdom. We can look here at this being a total quantity of three measures or three separate measures but it is likely from the wording at the end that this is a total quantity; we should look at this as just being a large amount to be leavened by a little leaven.

Remember that the comparison is from the Kingdom of God to the leaven and not to the meal or the result and we can see here a similar intent as we discovered in the previous Parable of the Mustard Seed. The leaven is the small starter of the Kingdom of God placed into our hearts, our conscious personalities, which will in time affect the whole of our carnal lives changing them from the blandness and the flatness of the unleavened to the flavor and the fullness of the leavened. This is the working of the starter, the sour dough, in bread and it is the working of the Kingdom of God in our lives.

All of us who strive for the Kingdom, who seek the Kingdom and focus our attention upon it know the reality of these two parables. We experience and we know how the Kingdom of God and His Presence grow in us as we go from day to day attending to the things of God. We know too that when we take our attention away to deal with our carnal lives that the realization of the Peace of God wanes. Knowing these things, how could we interpret these parables in any other way?

Finishing now on the prayer by the Apostle Paul that we have been discussing, we come now to these words saying that we “May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God“. Here, after praying that we have in our conscious personality the strength of the Spirit from the Inner Man, the Soul, the Christ Within, Paul prays that the power of the Christ may dwell with us in our daily lives causing us to be rooted and grounded in that Love which is the Christ and which comes to us from our Inner Man, our Christ Within. And now, having done this, that we would be able to comprehend, with all those who have trodden this way before us, the magnitude of His Glory and of His Love and to know intimately the Love of the Christ, a Love that is beyond all knowledge but which can be known through Fullness of God in our lives. To be filled with all the fullness of God is to be in His Presence and in His Kingdom here and now.

The closing statement is one of Praise for the Lord, acknowledging His ability to do all that we ask. “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen“. There is a point here that we try to make throughout our posts regarding asking; the acknowledgment above is for sure a fundamentally true perspective and if we ask, believing we will receive while being in full forgiveness to all as noted by the Apostle Mark, we will receive. Note here however what Paul is asking and note too that he is not asking for himself. This is the Truth the Master’s saying of “…. Ask , and it shall be given you; seek , and ye shall find ; knock , and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9). And last, let us look at the final part of  Paul’s saying as regards our focus on the Lord and on His Kingdom and the fulfillment in our conscious lives of this very prayer; he says “according to the power that worketh in us”. He prays for the power of the Spirit and of the Inner Man to be manifest in our consciousness and that it bring the presence of the Christ Within into our daily living along with His Love and that we may come to know and understand that Love in the fullness of our Spiritual Lives; and, all this will all work out for us and in us according the the Power that we can bring to bear in our lives and this is, of course, dependent on the degree and the intensity of our focus on HIM.

Note on the Quote of the Day