the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Matthew 13:31-43
In the six "parables of the kingdom" which follow that of the Sower, the Lord sets out what is to be the outcome of His sowing in this world. The parable of the mustard seed becoming a great tree describes the outward form which the kingdom of heaven has developed into after the rejection of the King, while that of the leaven hidden in the measures of meal emphasizes the secret working which undermines its character. It is the period of the responsible Church. After a very small beginning (a few disciples), Christianity has had the great development which we know so well. But its success and its spreading throughout the world are in no way the proof of the blessing and approval of God and do not safeguard it – very much to the contrary – from the attacks of Satan. It has from the earliest times been infiltrated by evil (the birds – cf. vv. 4, 19 – and the leaven).
The mixture which characterises professing Christendom is illustrated in another way by the parable of the tares of the field which the Lord expounds to us here. We know that the name of Christian is assumed today by all those who are baptised, whether or not they are true children of God. The Lord bears with this state of things up to the day of the harvest (Revelation 14:15-16). He will then show by the final destiny of the wheat and the tares what He thinks of each of them.
