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HOPE AND COMMITMENT (1)Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened (Luke 13:18-21).
The theocentric focus here is the kingdom of God, which in Matthew's Gospel is referred to as the kingdom of heaven. God extends His visible rule in history through the efforts of Christians. His kingdom replaces the kingdom of Satan. Because God is sovereign, His kingdom cannot fail in history. No matter how small it seems at any time, it will expand in history. Its invisibility today is in contrast with its visibility in the future.
Small Beginnings Jesus spoke these words to residents of a tiny nation which was under the rule of a great empire. His listeners were a captive people. Their nation had been under the rule of other empires for six centuries. Here was a limited audience indeed. Yet Jesus spoke to them in terms of great expectations.
The kingdom of God had been bottled up in Israel until the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Then it gained limited influence outside the borders of the Promised Land. But this influence had not transformed the empires that had ruled over Israel. A few kings had been impressed with the God of Israel, but this did not change the religious commitment of their empires.
The temple of Jesus' day was a great structure, but its rebuilding had begun over four decades earlier under a gentile king, Herod(2) -- the king who later sought to kill the infant Jesus. The sacrifices went on, but the world still did not come to Israel in supplication. The kingdom of God was visible to those who wanted to see it, but few did. The Old Testament was available on scrolls, but only a handful of people possessed copies. The kingdom of God in Jesus' day was a highly circumscribed phenomenon.
This was not to remain true much longer, but Jesus' listeners did not know this at the time. They had seen no victories. All they had seen was foreign tyranny. They longed for deliverance, but there was no evidence that deliverance was possible. Yet here was Jesus, preaching victory: the expansion of the kingdom of God. He spoke of small beginnings and large results. There was no doubt in His mind: the kingdom of God was not a small matter. Despite the fact that His was a day of small beginnings, He told His listeners that something significant was in their midst. They could become part of a great kingdom. He had previously told them, "But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you" (Luke 11:20).(3)
Jesus was telling them that a new period of kingdom growth was imminent.
This was very hard to believe. The nation had never been large. For centuries, Israel had been isolated, trodden down by gentiles. After all this time, would the nation of Israel now become a significant factor in world history? Or did Jesus mean something else? Was the kingdom about to be separated from the nation? What did Jesus really mean? Even His disciples were confused, which is why they came to Him in private for explanations of His kingdom parables.
The Mustard Seed The mustard seed is small. Its results are great. The disparity between what is visible at the beginning and what takes place at the end is the heart of this analogy. Elsewhere, Jesus made the same comparison with respect to men's faith. "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. 17:20). "And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you" (Luke 17:6).
The message was clear: that which is visibly small today can have important results in the future. Do not be fooled by the initial indications. What lies ahead is much greater than what is visible today. He who focuses solely on what is visible today will be misled by what he sees. That which is visible today is not representative of that which will be visible later. Without faith, the tyranny of the present will overwhelm the faithful. Rome looked large; the kingdom of God looked small. Rome had great power; the kingdom of God did not seem to. But this was an illusion, Jesus said. The mustard seed does not reveal its future results. Those who knew something of mustard seeds could understand what Jesus was saying. Those without this knowledge could not.
What is visible today should not paralyze faithful men by undermining their confidence in the future. The mustard seed today is not what is most important; what it will become is important. The same is true of God's kingdom. Jesus told His listeners of great things to come. The reality of these great things would have to be accepted on faith. But for those who took His words seriously, this new optimism would motivate them to work to extend God's kingdom in history.
The Transforming Effect of Leaven Another brief analogy continued the theme of growth. The kingdom is like leaven. Leaven is inserted into dough in order to make it rise. A small amount produces visible growth throughout the dough. The whole loaf rises because of the presence of the leaven. The leaven spreads through all of the dough, affecting all of it.
Previously, Jesus spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees. "In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1). At first, the disciples did not understand His meaning, but then they did. "Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" (Matt. 16:12). The doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees would produce a different kind of loaf. Jesus was setting forth the image of dough that would accept either form of leaven. The leaven of the kingdom is also doctrinal. It presents a specific view of God, man, law, sanctions, and the future. Rival kingdoms are based on rival views of these same covenantal doctrines.
Leaven can be either positive or negative, Jesus said. In the temple sacrifices, leaven was never offered on the altar (Lev. 2:11). But the firstfruits offering had to be leavened bread (Lev. 23:17). So, leaven was not a symbol of evil. It was a symbol of growth. The question is: Which leaven will raise the dough of history? Whose leaven will succeed in transforming the dough of civilization? God's or Satan's?
Jesus was arguing that the leaven of God's kingdom raises the dough of history to produce good bread. The leaven of the firstfruits is to be seen as representative of the final bread. The kingdom of God in history will be triumphant. The whole loaf is raised up, Jesus said. The loaf is a metaphor for history.
Eschatology and Hope These two analogies offer hope to God's people -- not just hope for eternity, but hope for history. The eschatology of these two analogies is clearly optimistic. It is based on the comprehensive transforming power of God's kingdom in history.
This hope is supposed to motivate God's people to extend His kingdom. The extension of God's kingdom is the essence of the dominion covenant. The whole world is to be subdued by God's people for the glory of God. The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) is the New Covenant's reaffirmation of the original dominion covenant given to Adam (Gen. 1:26-28).(4)
Hope undergirds action. He who is without earthly hope finds it costly to commit resources to projects that he believes cannot succeed. Jesus set forth a vision of the whole world transformed. He called His servants to participate in this endeavor. He told them of the world-transforming results of their earthly efforts. He did not tell them that their efforts would always be overshadowed by the leaven of rival kingdoms. He called them to replace the rival leavens with the leaven of God's kingdom.
Hope is a powerful motivation. Confidence in the future is a personally transforming force. The Communists once possessed this hope.(5) They saw themselves as the vanguard of the inevitable proletarian victory. Their efforts transformed one-third of the world's population in the twentieth century and influenced much of the remainder. But when they lost hope, they faltered. Russian Communism died an embarrassing death, August 19-21, 1991, in the failed Communist Party coup in the Soviet Union. The world laughed at the seemingly drunken bureaucrats who had attempted to reclaim leadership for the Communist Party. Laughter doomed Russian Communism -- laughter and an empty treasury. But before this was the loss of hope.
Hope for the future lowers the psychological cost of action in the present. A law of economics is that as costs of anything fall, more of it is demanded (other things remaining equal). Greater hope for the future produces greater sacrifice in the present. The investment of capital in the present finances the growth of the kingdom. By promising great things in the future, Jesus was presenting the case for an increased commitment of resources to build the kingdom.
Conclusion The top priority for every man is the extension of God's kingdom in history. This has been true ever since God told Adam to subdue the earth. Sin has made this task more difficult. Rival kingdoms now compete for control in history.
Jesus told His listeners that the kingdom of God would not always remain small. It would expand. He was inviting His listeners to participate in this expansion. They were not to despise the day of small beginnings. Instead, they were to commit themselves to a process that would transcend time and borders.
Jesus offered them legitimate hope. This hope was supposed to serve God's people as a motivation for their sacrificial commitment, generation after generation. Without this hope in the kingdom's earthly success over time, commitment to the dominion covenant becomes more expensive psychologically. Men are less likely to commit the resources necessary for victory if they do not expect victory. The cost is too high. They may commit resources to projects that they believe will lay up treasure in heaven for them individually. These projects do extend the kingdom in history. But the motivation is personal or familial, so there will be no joint plans among Christians to integrate their efforts into a world-transforming program. This retards the fulfillment of the dominion covenant.
Footnotes:
1. This is adapted from Chapter 28 of Gary North, Priorities and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Matthew, electronic edition (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 2000).
2. Herod was a major builder. See Dwayne W. Roller, The Building Program of Herod the Great (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
3. In Matthew's account, we read: "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matt. 12:28).
4. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Greatness of the Great Commission: The Christian Enterprise in a Fallen World (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990), ch. 1.
5. F. N. Lee, Communist Eschatology (Nutley, New Jersey: Craig Press, 1974).
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