In Matthew 13 the first parable is the parable of the sower: “And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow” (v. 3). This parable does not mention the kingdom of the heavens, because at this time the kingdom of the heavens had not come yet. The sower is the Lord Himself, who comes to sow Himself into humanity as the seed of life. This was the preparation for the coming of the kingdom of the heavens.
The second parable begins in verse 24: “Another parable He set before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man sowing good seed in his field.” The kingdom of the heavens is mentioned in this second parable. The man sowing good seed in his field is the sower in the first parable, the Lord Jesus. “But while the men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat and went away” (v. 25). This happened just a little while after the day of Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost came, thousands of believers were added to the church. Among those believers there were some false ones, some tares, among the wheat. The second parable is a parable concerning the church as the beginning of the kingdom of the heavens.
The third parable is the parable of the mustard seed: “Another parable He set before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, and which is smaller than all the seeds; but when it has grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches” (vv. 31-32). The mustard is an herb for food. The real church coming out of the seed of life should be just like the mustard, good for food to others. The herb in this verse, however, becomes a great tree, and the birds of heaven lodge in its branches. In the first parable the birds (v. 4) signify the evil one, Satan, who came and snatched away the word of the kingdom sown in the hardened heart (v. 19). The bird is the devil, and the birds are the evil persons, spirits, and things out of the devil who lodge in this big tree. This happened when Constantine the Great mixed the church with the world in the first part of the fourth century. He brought thousands of false believers into the church, making it Christendom, no longer the church. Christianity became the national religion of the Roman Empire, and Constantine encouraged all the unbelievers to come into the church. Before this time the Roman Empire had persecuted Christianity, but during Constantine’s reign the Roman Empire welcomed it. From that time onward the church’s nature changed. It became deeply rooted and settled in the earth as a great tree, flourishing with its enterprises as the branches in which many evil persons and things are lodged. Today’s Christendom is a big tree with many branches, and many sinful persons and evil spirits are lodging in its branches.
Matthew 13:33 says, “Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.” This woman is a type of the Roman Catholic Church. In Revelation the Lord likens the Roman Catholic Church to a woman sitting on a scarlet beast (Rev. 17:3). The beast is the Roman Empire, and the woman on the beast is the Roman Catholic Church. This portrays religion joining with politics. After Constantine welcomed Christianity into the Roman Empire as the national religion, the church transmuted into something large and worldly and even became a worldly power. This worldly power became the Roman Catholic Church, typified by this woman in Matthew 13. The leaven which this woman took signifies evil things (1 Cor. 5:6, 8) and evil doctrines (Matt. 16:6, 11-12). Meal, for making the meal offering (Lev. 2:1), signifies Christ as food to both God and man. The Roman Catholic Church has something real, but it puts in something false. Today’s modernism, which is even among the Protestant churches, denies the deity of our Lord Jesus and the fact that He was born of the virgin Mary. The Roman Catholic Church, however, always recognizes that Christ is the Son of God, the very God, born of a virgin. This is the fine flour, the meal, but they added leaven into the fine flour (Lev. 2:4-5, 11). Many pagan practices and heresies were added into the fine flour.
The birth of Christ is a part of the fine flour, but Christmas is the leaven added to the fine flour. History tells us that December 25 was celebrated as the birthday of the sun god. When Christianity was accepted as the state religion by the Roman Empire in A.D. 313, many people in the church were not regenerated. Some of these unregenerated ones were accustomed to having a festival on December 25 to celebrate the birthday of the sun god. To accommodate these unbelievers, the apostate church declared December 25 to be the birthday of Christ. This is the source of Christmas. The apostate church has the fine flour, but within the flour there is leaven.
Christ is the fine flour, but the so-called pictures of Jesus are included in the leaven. Any picture of Jesus is false. The book of Isaiah tells us that when the Lord was on the earth, He had “no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, / Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him” (53:2). Isaiah 52:14 tells us that “His visage was marred more than that of any man, / And His form more than that of the sons of men.” Today’s pictures of Jesus always portray Him as a handsome man. This is not the true picture of Jesus, but the leaven. In 1937 when I was traveling in northern China, a case of demon possession was brought to my attention. A certain Christian sister had become possessed. When I was asked the reason for this, I said that, in principle, either sin or some idols or images in that sister’s home would give ground for the demon to possess her. This sister was a young Christian and did not know these things. She had bought a picture of the so-called Jesus and had put that picture in her room. Eventually, she was bowing down to it with respect. Later on she was possessed by a demon. I told her to burn the picture. From the moment she burned that picture, the demon departed.
Adding leaven to fine flour makes it easier for people to take. Unleavened bread is harder for people to eat. This is the principle operating in the Roman Catholic Church. They maintain that if the leaven is not put into the things concerning Christ, it will be hard for the people to take. If people were simply told that God is in Christ as the Spirit, they would not be able to take it. To put up an image of Christ or a statue of Christ at the entrance of the cathedral and tell people that this is Christ makes it easier for people to worship and realize Christ, according to the Roman Catholic Church. They maintain that the images, even though they are not really Christ, remind people of Christ. To them, the image of Christ makes it easier for people to contact Christ. This is the leaven within the fine flour.
When I was in Manila, I visited a Catholic cathedral. At the entrance of this cathedral was a statue of Mary. Noticing that one of the hands of the statue was almost completely worn out, I asked the people what had happened. They said that everyone who entered the cathedral first touched the hand of the statue and that, through the years, this had worn out the hand. When I asked them about the need for such a statue, they said, “If people do not have statues, they cannot understand what we are saying when we talk about the Bible. They need something solid to grasp.” This is their justification for having statues of Jesus and Mary. What subtlety! That is not Jesus or Mary—that is an idol. Apparently, they worshipped Jesus; actually, they worshipped an image of stone. This is the subtlety of the enemy.
Now we can see the evil of the apostate church—it absorbs pagan things and adds them to the fine flour. How wicked this is! The Roman Catholic Church preaches Christ with paganism, with heathenism, with idols, with images, and with sinful things and false things. The Lord likens the kingdom of the heavens to this practice; hence, this is the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens. This is not the real thing.