Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” (Luke 13:18-19)
There were two things supposed to happen once Jesus had ascended to His throne. One of them was His Kingdom would grow massively. To some degree, this was what happened at the start. We are told by Luke of numerous converts joining the church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:41) after Peter’s first recorded public sermon. We are later told of a persecution which arose and scattered the Messianic Jews across the local region (Acts 8:1-4). Of course, the natural result was the spreading of the gospel. After Paul’s conversion, the Word went all over the Mediterranean Basin. We also have solid evidence of the Church arising in the Mesopotamian Valley and circumstantial evidence the Apostle Thomas took the message as far as India.
This Kingdom was supposed to become massive in size, large enough to shelter those who were easy prey outside the shadow of its wings. There was a sense in which this came true. We know the hordes of Germanic barbarian tribes which swept across Europe in the AD 400s were eventually tamed and civilized by the Church, in spite of the Church having become fairly corrupt by that time. Soon there were missionaries in the British Isles, in the Nordic lands, all over Northern Africa, and so on. In every place, large numbers made at least some form of commitment to Christ.
We have no way of knowing how genuine these professions of faith were, and it doesn’t matter. Judging from the quality of the theology and message, in many cases we might be tempted to say almost none really came to Christ, but they did repent of their sins. Too often there were conversions at the point of a sword, which meant nothing. Today, we know a majority of those in the world claiming Christianity as their religion are, upon closer inspection, merely cultural adherents to something which is labeled “Christianity.” That’s good for a stable society, but not worth a great deal in terms of Kingdom growth as Jesus was referring to it. They are Christian in the sense of adopting a certain set of values, not in wholeheartedly following Jesus.
Ignoring, then, the official statistics, we can still say the Kingdom is massive. We know there are true believers all over the world, including places where admitting it means certain death, or at least expulsion from their homeland. It’s not because Jesus meant His parable as a prophecy, but as a description of its nature. The church by its nature grows in size. Periods of decline, persecution, even genocide cannot invalidate that teaching. Over the centuries, the number of true believers has increased. If you and I are doing our part to follow Jesus, it will grow even greater. If it fails to grow, you and I share the blame.
Jesus said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.” (Luke 13:20-21) This was no small batch of flour the woman was working. The Greek word for “measure” here is sata, about the same as Hebrew seah — around 6 quarts. Thus, her batch of meal was about 18 quarts. And all it took was just a pinch of yeasted dough from the previous batch, and a warm damp place to keep it for a few hours, and the whole thing would change.
It should be obvious He says the second thing we should expect is the Kingdom would makes its way into every corner of the world. While it was typical in Hebrew idioms to associate yeast or leaven with sin, in this case Jesus clearly says the Kingdom is like leaven itself, not leaven the symbol. Given time and the right conditions, the Kingdom will have a dramatic impact on all it touches.
There are some who assume that impact should be something measurable in terms of politics, social reform, and the like. Jesus never did any of that. More than once the Gospel narrative points out how He avoided it when people tried forcing that role upon Him. Our impact as a leavening agent, as living seeds of truth blossoming into something far bigger than ourselves, is not easily measured in human terms. Some of it would surely be obvious. If we embrace Christ, we are embracing His teachings, a high moral standard which finds many fans among those who aren’t moved to join themselves under that teaching. The impact is subtle, not overt. We have seen far too much of Christian organizations investing massive resources in things which are too easily measured in terms familiar to those who don’t love Jesus, changing the message of the gospel into something foreign to Christ Himself. His message is not a better version of this world, just a better life within it, reflecting life from somewhere completely outside this world.
Yes, we teach the Covenant of Noah is still active, and nations are still held accountable — to God, not to us. If we do not teach this, we doom every nation to continuing sin without any chance to hear the truth. Hebrews 1:13 pictures the Father saying to the Son, “Have a seat here at My right hand until I put all Your enemies under your feet.” How do you suppose He plans to do that, when it has nothing to do with conquering the human institutions of our world? The Law of Noah is not merely an excuse to impose some different secular laws painted with Western imagery of Jesus. It’s about power over us, conquering our own individual sinful impulses. His enemies, our enemies, are we.
So while we hold forth the Laws of Noah as applicable to human government, the issue is the message. Our mandate is to tell, not enforce. Jesus enforced His Father’s will by dying.
The nature of the Kingdom of Heaven is changing things by divine power, not by any human measures. Whatever it is spreading with the sword or any other human political activity, it’s not the Kingdom. We don’t get to see how plants grow or yeast invades flour, and we don’t get to see how God works in human hearts. We are involved in the process, but rely entirely on things we cannot comprehend for the results.
