Feb. 14, 2007

Feb 14, 2007

Luke 13
18 This led Him to say, What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?

19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the wild birds found shelter and roosted and nested in its branches.

20 And again He said, To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?

21 It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of wheat flour or meal until it was all leavened (fermented).

“Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible."

Jesus here was trying to explain to His followers what the kingdom of God was like. So many things that I have read suggest that He was trying to say that Jesus was saying here that the Kingdom would be like this huge tree grown from a small seed that all the birds (people) would be able to come to it. That does not mesh with the next thing he say, that the Kingdom would be like yeast in bread dough. Whenever Jesus mentioned leaven it usually was in connection with the religious leaders of the time. They took a pure religion that God had made and corrupted it with their own religion. They wanted to control the way that man would react to God, they wanted to inject their poison into what was good.

So what does man controlling things have to do with our idyllic mustard tree. A lot if you try to look back at what a mustard tree looked like in the times that Jesus lived. In those days it was more like a shrub than a tree. Shrubs can grow quite high, so it could be called a tree by many. There were many different types of mustard 'trees' but the one that was around in Jesus day was one that when planted it tried to take over the garden. It was much like the modern day plant in the SE United States, Kudzu. Once it got planted in a garden, it would try to take over and man would have to try and control it.

So what was Jesus really trying to say here? My guess: the kingdom of heaven is like something man is going to try to control, something that if he does get in and control it will be like a poison in the system that will spread throughout the whole thing and ruin it. Jesus was trying to say to his disciples to not let man's religion get into your relationship with God. If it does, poison will enter in and wreck your relationship with God.

In what ways do you try to control the Kingdom of God?