Jesus asks these two questions to open a parable and draw His hearers in. Gill notes, on the same words in Mark 4:30, that "It was usual with the Jewish doctors, when about to illustrate anything in a parabolical way to begin with such like questions." Matthew Henry explains why Jesus uses pictures at all: "when we would describe a thing to those that are strangers to it, we choose to do it by similitudes." The first question asks what the kingdom is like. The second asks what picture will best show it.

Jesus answers His own questions with a parable: "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" (Luke 13:19). He then asks a similar question and adds the parable of the leaven (Luke 13:20-21).

"The kingdom of God" is God's rule, which Jesus announced and brought. Gill notes that it is the same as the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13:31, where Matthew records the same parable.

The word "resemble" in the KJV means to compare or liken. The second question, "whereunto shall I resemble it?", is Jesus asking aloud which comparison to use, a common way teachers of His day introduced a parable, as Gill notes.

This question shows the patient, teaching heart of Jesus. He does not overwhelm people with a definition. He takes ordinary things, a seed and a garden, and helps them see God's kingdom.

The answer also corrects expectations. Matthew Henry writes that people expected the kingdom to "appear great" all at once, but "it is like a grain of mustard-seed," "a little thing, takes up but little room, makes but a little figure, and promises but little" and yet grows into a great tree. Right after a small scene in one synagogue, where one woman was healed (Luke 13:10-17), Jesus says God's kingdom grows from small beginnings.