The Kingly Rule of God Will Grow From Small Beginnings Just as A Mustard Seed Becomes a Great Bush And A Little Leaven Leavens The Whole Lump (13:18-21).
Having revealed how Jesus can loose men from Satan's power, and can make the crooked straight, Luke now gives us two parables of Jesus which illustrate how that is going to come into effect by the spread of the Kingly Rule of God, not by a sudden eruption of force, but by the gradual spreading of its growth and influence. They bring home a slightly different message from the parable of the fig tree which illustrated the fact that men will be judged by the fruit they bear. Both, however, connect with fruitbearing. They are in parallel in the chiasmus for the section. Note here how Luke, in his typical way, introduces one example where a man is involved, and one where a woman is involved. All, both men and women, are to be involved in the spreading of the Kingly Rule of God. But they represent two slightly differing angles. The mustard seed growing to become a large bush emphasises its gradual growth to large proportions. The leaven working throughout the flour emphasises the influence that spreads from man to man and woman to woman until all are reached.
Analysis.
a He said therefore, “To what is the Kingly Rule of God like? and to what shall I liken it?” (Luke 13:18).
b “It is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his own garden, and it grew, and became a tree, and the birds of the heaven lodged in its branches” (Luke 13:19).
c And again he said, “To what shall I liken the Kingly Rule of God?” (Luke 13:20).
b “It is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened” (Luke 13:21).
a And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and journeying on to Jerusalem (Luke 13:22).
Note how in ‘a' he asks what the Kingly Rule of God is like and in the parallel describes how it progresses. In ‘b' He says it is like a grain of mustard seed and in the parallel says that it is like leaven. Central to all in ‘c' is the question, what is the likeness of the Kingly Rule of God? That was the question of the hour.