Many educated and influential men had come to hear the Prophet of Galilee. Some of these looked with curious interest upon the multitude that had gathered about Christ as He taught by the sea. In this great throng all classes of society were represented. There were the poor, the illiterate, the ragged beggar, the robber with the seal of guilt upon his face, the maimed, the dissipated, the merchant and the man of leisure, high and low, rich and poor, all crowding upon one another for a place to stand and hear the words of Christ. As these cultured men gazed upon the strange assembly, they asked themselves, “Is the kingdom of God composed of such material as this?” Again the Saviour replied by a parable:
(COL 95.1)
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“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.
(COL 95.2)
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Among the Jews leaven was sometimes used as an emblem of sin. At the time of the Passover the people were directed to remove all the leaven from their houses as they were to put away sin from their hearts. Christ warned His disciples, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”Luke 12:1. And the apostle Paul speaks of the “leaven of malice and wickedness.”1 Corinthians 5:8. But in the Saviour’s parable, leaven is used to represent the kingdom of heaven. It illustrates the quickening, assimilating power of the grace of God.
(COL 95.3)
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