Christian Art | Parables Of Jesus | King James Audio Bible KJV
Luke 13: 18-21 | King James Audio Bible KJV | Week 30, Tuesday | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
18 ¶ Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
The two parables make it clear that Christ intended the newly inaugurated phase of the history of our salvation to be the work of ages. His second coming was not to be an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it in weeks, months or just a few years after that first Easter. The world’s faith would grow with time. Christ’s Church would grow, to encompass the whole world. Christ intended the Gospel be preached to everyone the world over and through all subsequent history.
Jesus teaches the disciples these parables to give them confidence. The beginnings of Christianity must have seemed very small, with just a little group of disciples to carry God’s word to the nations, but just as a little mustard seed grows to become a tree, or as a small lump of leaven causes the whole new dough to ferment and rise, so the disciples can believe that the Lord is with them and the preaching of the Gospel will spread despite everything.
The seed, cast into the ground, as it were dies and is buried, then the new life grows. The leaven is hidden in the flour, and the whole of the dough is leavened. The parables anticipate Christ’s death and resurrection. This is their hidden meaning, which will be fully revealed through the events of Easter.
Concluding Prayer | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
‘In the moments of struggle and tribulation, when perhaps “the good” fill your way with obstacles, lift up your apostolic heart: listen to Jesus as he speaks of the grain of mustard seed and of the leaven. And say to him: “Edissere nobis parabolam – explain the parable to me.” And you will feel the joy of contemplating the victory to come: the birds of the air under the shelter of your apostolate, now only in its beginnings, and the whole of the meal leavened.’ St Josemaria Escriva.
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes
The thought that in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus became small in his obedience to God the Father is a powerful and meaningful one. Through his humility and submission, Jesus demonstrated the ultimate expression of obedience, just as Mary did when she responded to the angel Gabriel with: ‘Be it done unto me according to thy will.’ (Luke 1:38 KJV)
In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God starts small but grows into something great. This can be seen as a metaphor for Jesus’ own humility and obedience, as he became small in his submission to the will of the Father. Through his obedience, he made it possible for the Kingdom of God to grow and expand, reaching far beyond what anyone could have imagined.
Similarly, the Parable of the Leaven teaches that a small amount of leaven can permeate and change an entire batch of dough. In the same way, Jesus’ message of love and salvation has spread throughout the world, changing the lives of countless people and transforming entire communities. His obedience and humility allowed the Kingdom of God to grow and change the world in profound ways.
In the words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.’ (Isaiah 53:2 KJV) Through his humility and obedience, Jesus became small in the eyes of the world, but through his sacrifice and resurrection, he became the saviour of the world.
The writings of Saint Paul also speak to this idea of humility and obedience. In Philippians 2:8, Paul writes: ‘And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.’ Through his death on the Cross, Jesus fulfilled the ultimate expression of obedience, making it possible for all people to be reconciled to God and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The First Letter of Clement is one of the earliest post-New Testament Christian writings, dating to around 95 A.D. Clement was the third successor of Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome, and his letter was written to address a crisis in the Corinthian church, where a group of younger Christians had ousted their elders from leadership. Clement’s primary aim was to restore harmony and proper ecclesial order. Against this background, his call for unity, humility, and order takes on profound urgency [ … ]
The passage, Matthew 19:16-22, recounts the encounter between Jesus and a wealthy young man who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. In response, Jesus told him to keep the commandments, to which the young man replied that he had done so since his youth. Jesus then told him to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow him. The young man went away sorrowful because he had great possessions, which he finds himself unable to relinquish [ … ]
One of the ways Jesus revealed his love was through healing miracles. In the Gospel of Matthew, we read, ‘Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.’ (Matthew 9:35, KJV) This verse shows us that Jesus was not only concerned with our spiritual well-being, but also our physical health [ … ]
