"The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not
The Soils
esus' invitation "Come to Me. . . . Take My yoke upon you . . . and you shall find rest" (Matt. 11:28 – 30) signaled the end of one phase of His public teaching ministry and the beginning of a much broader, yet more personal, evangelistic emphasis.
Matthew 12 describes in detail what happened immediately after He spoke those words. That Sabbath day the religious leaders' festering hatred for Jesus finally erupted. The Pharisees, epitomizing the nation's response to their Messiah, accused Him of using Satan's power to cast out demons (Matt. 12:24). Israel had rejected their King and refused the kingdom He offered. It was a full and final renunciation.
From that day on, the tenor of Jesus' ministry changed. He no longer proclaimed to Israel that the kingdom was at hand. Now the call He issued was for individuals — Jews as well as Gentiles — to surrender in faith to the yoke of His lordship.
Even the style of Jesus' teaching changed. Beginning that very day (Matt. 13:1), He taught in parables — everyday stories that illustrated spiritual reality. Rather than openly proclaiming His message, He thus obscured the truth from those who had rejected it already (vv. 11 – 15). Those who hungered to understand — the genuine believers — found Him eager to explain every detail (cf. Mark 4:34). Those who hated the truth didn't bother to ask.
The parables that begin in Matthew 13 describe "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (v. 11). Our Lord was revealing a dimension of His kingdom heretofore undisclosed. The kingdom envisioned by the Jews was hardly mysterious. It was a permanent, earthly political regime that would bring the whole world under the rule of Israel's Messiah. After all, that is how they saw the kingdom described in the Old Testament.1 Up to this point, Jesus had
1. Th e Jewish concept of the kingdom was rooted in such Old Testament promises as Daniel 2:44, "Th e God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever."