Explanation of the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast
Parables are what they are, parables. They are stories whose meaning is not in the story itself but together with them. The word “parable” comes from two Greek words, “para” meaning “beside, beside” and “ballein” meaning “throw.” In other words, the real meaning of the story is just to accompany the story, launch it, or put it together with the story.
How to get the meaning of a parable
Who then decides the meaning of the story in a parable? The obvious answer is the one who tells that story. So when the disciples asked Jesus the meaning of a parable, he readily agreed because he knew what the meaning of his parable was. He did not say: It is up to you to interpret my parable. Rather, his answer showed that he knew the meaning and wanted to express this meaning by explaining the parable he told.
In the same way when we want an explanation of the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, the only one who knows the true meaning of these parables is Jesus, the one who spoke them.
We cannot ask, therefore, what is the explanation of the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven? Jesus gave no explanation. There are none.
On the other hand there have been many explanations of these parables over the centuries. They are not the explanations of Jesus, but they are the explanations of men and women who profess some kind of relationship with him, a disciple, a minister, a leader in his church.
Two types of explanation
There are basically two kinds of explanation of these parables given by these men and women. One set of explanations says that they describe how the church had small and insignificant beginnings symbolized by the smallest seed known to the Jews, the mustard seed, and the indistinguishable leaven of dough, but grew into a great organization that dwarfed the world. Roman Empire and the governments of the nations.
The other set of explanations sees the parables as pointing to corruptions that would later enter the church, the birds on the mustard seed tree symbolizing corrupt church leaders, and the leaven symbolizing the corruption that, by Like yeast, it cannot be easily detected. in the church and could not be removed, since leaven is a symbol of corruption in the other passages of the Bible.
An Explanation According to the Spirit of Jesus
Now a question may be raised: Who can give an explanation of these parables according to the meaning that Jesus intended? The obvious answer is the Spirit of him that he continues to live with us. And when we ask this Spirit, the wonderful thing is that he gives different explanations to different people, according to his need.
Here, then, is my explanation according to the light that the Spirit of Jesus gave me. This is not the only valid explanation. You may have your own explanation and it may be just as correct as mine.
First of all, when explaining something, we have to give the context or circumstances surrounding a passage.
In the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven there are two different contexts. In the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark they are among a group of parables given while Jesus was teaching from a boat. However, in the Gospel of Mark the parable of the leaven is not given. In Luke’s narrative, these two parables are inserted into a story after Jesus healed a woman in a synagogue on a Sabbath. They are given by Luke after a demonstration of the power of the Kingdom of God in healing the woman who was bound by Satan for 18 years.
The contexts tell us that for Mark and Matthew these two parables are only part of the group of parables. Therefore, they must be understood within that group of parables. But for Luke these parables tell us about the functioning of the Kingdom of God.
Second, here Jesus is speaking of the Kingdom of God, not the church. Jesus did not say: The church is like a mustard seed. But he said: The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. The two, the Kingdom and the church, are different realities. So this parable does not refer to the church, its beginnings and expansion, but to the Kingdom of God.
Third, Jesus was talking about a seed. And in the previous explanation he said that the seed is the word of God. So we can also safely say that the mustard seed also represents the word of God that is sown in the hearts of people. It grows there. Then you follow this up with the parable of the leaven as the gospel writers arranged it that way. The leaven produces its effects on the three measures of flour.
There are commentators who point out the great quantity of these three measures of flour. How can a small leaf act on these three measures of flour? It’s too much for that small amount left. Why didn’t Jesus just say, “a measure of flour”? Why did he specify “three”?
Our explanation is that the license here still refers to the word of God. This word of God mixes with our total personality, influencing its three components: body, soul and spirit. We have here an indication that even Jesus knew that we are composed of body, soul, and spirit, in contrast to the teaching of Aristotle and his followers who taught that we are composed of only body and soul.
Fourth, Jesus was not referring to the rise of an organization or of Christianity. He said that the kingdom of God is within us. Thus these parables refer to the action of the Kingdom within us. The kingdom grows within us, so that others can find refuge through our love for them.
In summary, then, we can say that these parables of the mustard seed and the yeast refer to the seed of the Kingdom of God, which is the word of God planted in our hearts and grows within us and influences our entire personality, transforming our body, soul and spirit.
The Kingdom of God is like the mustard seed, an ever-increasing reality that makes us greater and greater in the eyes of God and is like an inadvertent but effective transforming agent, making us like God in all of our being: body, soul and spirit. spirit. .