Three Further Parables of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (13:24-33).
The parable of the Sower having been explained, We now have three further parables introduced, the parable of the tares (or bearded darnel, which to begin with looks like wheat but matures to have a dark head), the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. Each introduces us to a different aspect of the Kingly Rule of Heaven as it spreads outwards, and in the light of the parable of the sower we would expect their ideas to be in terms of how the Kingly Rule of Heaven would progress, which is in fact what we find. Indeed the three parables contrast with the three types of failure in the parable of the sower. The spreading of the Kingly Rule of Heaven will be interfered with by the Enemy sowing false wheat (just as he had earlier snatched away the seed), but he will be unable to touch the children of the Kingly Rule; it will grow strong until it becomes a tree, (rather than withering in the sun like the seed in little depth of earth); and it will grow by the activity within it of the power of God working secretly within it, (rather than its members succumbing to the cares and temptations of life, that also work secretly within them).
But as well as connecting back with the parable of the sower, the three parables now introduced have a further three different emphases, this time looking forward to the three parables that follow. Thus the whole series of seven parables interconnects.
* The first parable has to do with the false introduced among the true, who cannot easily be differentiated. And the result is that it ends in judgment and the separation of the bad from among the good.
* The second parable has to do with the tiny seed that becomes the largest herb of all,
* The third parable has to do with leaven which is secreted within the meal until it reacts throughout the whole batch of meal.
These will then be followed by a further three parables in parallel which contain similar emphases in reverse order.
* The first will have to do with treasure secreted in a field which is such that a man will give anything in order to obtain it, parallel with the leaven hid in the meal.
* The second has to do with a man who will give all that he has for the largest, most expensive pearl of all, parallel with the largest herb of all.
* The third has to do with the dragnet that brings all into judgment and results in the separating of the bad from among the good, paralleling the harvesting of the wheat and the false wheat.
Note especially the deliberate parallels between the parable of the wheat and darnel and that of the dragnet. Both speak of the separating of the evil from among the good (Matthew 13:41; Matthew 13:49). Both speak of what will happen at the end of the age (Matthew 13:40; Matthew 13:49). Both involve the angels separating off the evil so as to cast them into a furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:41-42; Matthew 13:49-50). Nevertheless one ends with the righteous shining forth under the Kingly Rule of their Father (compare Matthew 7:21) while the other ends with the weeping and gnashing of teeth (compare Matthew 24:51).
These three parables in Matthew 13:24-33 are also in the form of a small chiasmus. Thus:
a Jesus expounds a parable affecting all the sons of the Kingly Rule - the good seed (Matthew 13:24-30).
b Jesus expounds a parable revealing how all that is to happen will grow out of small beginning until it is surprisingly large (Matthew 13:31-32).
a Jesus expounds a parable affecting all the sons of the Kingly Rule - the meal that is leavened (Matthew 13:33).