We are looking at enormous lessons that we can learn from the smaller, lesser-known parables of Jesus. The first lesson in the series is titled, “A Well-told Tale.” Today’s parable is often called “The Parable of the Leaven.” In the short words of the parable, you can see the masterful way Jesus presents a well-told tale. You can find the parable in Matthew 13:33. Here is the Scripture in NIV version. Underneath the Scripture you can read the parable in several other versions.
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
| The NLT Version: Matthew 13:33 NLT | The Message Version: Matthew 13:33 MESSAGE |
| The NASB Version: Matthew 13:33 NASB | The ESV Version: Matthew 13:33 ESV |
We all like stories, don’t we? Our favorites were varied, but they had several similarities. We enjoy characters that are well-developed. We enjoy being swept away in an adventure. There is a sense that the tale has a hero – and a satisfying, if not happy, ending. Jesus loved to tell stories. He saw stories as an avenue to help people better understand a truth. As we begin our study of a few parables, let’s look at two important words to provide the foundation of our lessons.
A Parable is just a Well-told Tale
The word we use to describe the stories that Jesus told is a “parable.” Depending upon how you count, Jesus told a good number of parables. Jesus used over 100 metaphors and told at least 36 parables – 15 are found in Matthew, 6 are spotted in Mark (4 are repeats), and 35 appear in Luke (16 repeats, 19 unique). Some theologians count over 100 parables.
I grew up with an accepted definition of parable, did you? A parable is “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” That’s a clever, folksy definition. It provides some help, but falls a little short of the richness of the experience.
The Bible contains a number of different styles of writing called genres. In the New Testament, one of those genres is a parable. The term is a transliteration of the Greek word παραβολή (parabole, para-bow-lay). The word means “to throw alongside.” A parable throws one idea alongside another for the purpose of providing a better explanation. The story in a parable illustrates and illuminates basic ideas and is not meant to have an “item-by-item” explanation for each detail, but rather a larger picture painted on the canvas.
The word starts with the Greek preposition παρα (para). It literally means alongside, but it stresses a nearness, a closeness or a relationship that is often not expressed in translation. It implies an intimate relationship, something that actually changes the nature of the two when separate and individual.
Let me give you an example. I might bring your attention to “peanut butter alongside jelly.” We could be picturing a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly sitting next to one another on the kitchen cabinet. But if the word “para” was used to describe “alongside” we would not think of the peanut butter and the jelly as separate, but instead we would think of them as already intermingled, as in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We bring the word “para” straight into the English in so many occasions. We often speak of a parachute, paradigm, paragraph, paralegal, paralysis, parameter, or paradox.
The parables that Jesus told are really nothing more than simple, memorable stories. These “well-told” tales usually pointed out themes and truths. The stories encircle imagery to which most of the listeners would be familiar. The image helped focus the listener’s understanding.
The Kingdom of Heaven
Throughout the Old Testament, God taught Israel what it meant to be His people. They began to realize what it was to be people of a covenant, people of a promise. Israel was taught to understand that they were looking for a day when they would receive an ultimate promise. They were to live believing in a God who would keep that promise, they were to live by faith until they died. We need to think for a moment about the idea of the kingdom in Jesus’ day.
The kingdom that the people of the Mediterranean understood at the time of Jesus was the Roman Empire. It was powerful and pervasive. The kingdom was oppressive to the individual. The kingdom limited freedoms. The kingdom would force compliance and agreement.
But the Israelites longed for a different kind of kingdom. They anticipated the day when God would raise His Messiah to bring in a new kingdom. They assumed the kingdom of God would be like the times of the best kingdom of Israel. They looked forward to a new kingdom, like the kingdom of Israel during the days of David and Solomon. They believed that the Messiah would usher in that kind of kingdom.
In a sense, through events of history and the words of the prophets, God began to craft a “well-told tale.” God started to alter the shape of their understanding of the concept of kingdom. When Babylon came in and took the people of Israel captive, God’s people began to understand what it meant to be a kingdom without physical property. They realized they were to worship God without the luxury or convenience of a Temple. They learned that internal character preceded external blessings.
Later when Rome conquered the entire Mediterranean World, the people of faith began to understand what it meant to have the freedom to possess their land, but to actually be enslaved to another kingdom. Rome’s presence could be seen everywhere – in the marketplace, in the streets of their homes, and even inside the gates of their Temple.
In the midst of another kingdom and another king, John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah began to teach about God’s kingdom. Jesus uses many of the parables to begin to help the people understand the kind of kingdom that God was wanting to establish. Let’s face it – a political kingdom didn’t last very long because it doesn’t have the power to sustain. David’s sons rebelled against him, and by the time Solomon left office, the massive kingdom divided following two of his own sons.
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” 3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight!
From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:1-3 HCSB; Matthew 4:17 HCSB).
God wanted to establish a kingdom upon the hearts of people, not upon the boundaries of their lands. “The kingdom of heaven is like …” were often the words that Jesus used to begin a parable. This helped the followers know what the kingdom would be and how they should behave as citizens of this kingdom.