Matthew 13:33

THE POWER OF LEAVEN

‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.’

Matthew 13:33

This parable relates to the marvellous increase of the Kingdom of God, declaring its hidden working.

I. Mighty in operation.—By the leaven we are to understand the word of the kingdom, which word, in its highest sense, Christ Himself was. The leaven is something apparently of slight account, but at the same time mighty in operation.

II. The Gospel a new power.—The leaven which is mingled with the lump is different from it, for the woman took it from elsewhere to mingle it therein; and even such is the Gospel. It was a new and quickening power, cast into the midst of an old and dying world; a centre of life, by the help of which the world might constitute itself anew. This leaven is not merely mingled with, but hidden in, the mass which it renewed. For the true renovation, that which God effects, is ever from the inward to the outward.

III. A prophecy.—The promise of the parable has hitherto been realised only in a very imperfect measure; yet we must consider these words, ‘till the whole was leavened,’ as a prophecy of the final complete triumph of the Gospel, that it will diffuse itself through all nations and purify and ennoble all life.

—Archbishop Trench.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF THE GOSPEL

The Gospel like the leaven is—

I. An inward power.—The leaven had no power until the woman ‘hid’ it ‘in three measures of meal.’ So when God’s grace takes possession of a man, it begins to work in the heart; and little by little the thoughts, the feelings, the wishes, the habits, are changed.

II. Gradual in its operation.—The ‘ whole lump’ will be leavened, but it takes time. So with the work of grace. Old faults are not cured in a day; the new nature is not perfected at once; the fruits of the Spirit, like many other fruits, are slow in appearing and slow in ripening.

III. An assimilative power.—The leavened dough transforms the meal by making it like itself. The yeast plant causes fermentation by the rapid multiplication of itself. Leavened dough produces leavened dough. This process, in which one thing changes another by making it like itself, is called assimilation. The food we eat becomes assimilated, that is, a part of the body which receives it. So the Holy Spirit slowly and gradually but surely transforms the soul into His own likeness.

—W. Taylor.