February 28, 2021
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20 And again [Jesus] said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
– Luke 13:20-21
Have you ever heard the term “first world problems.” These aren’t really problems such as hunger, and poverty, racism and those things that actually need to change in the world. Instead, these the perceived problems of inconvenience. Problems like only 20% battery on my phone, and it’s only lunch time, we are running out of gadgets our iPhone’s can replace, I want to turn out the lights, but the bed is too comfortable for me to get up, I’m so hungry, but I don’t want to leave the house to get food, I’m caught up on all my TV shows and it’s another 2 months before the new season is released,…etc. There are thousands more like this, of the “problems” we face in our world today. These are the “problems” that come from us be overly consumed by what is going on in our own little space that we forget that there are real problems going on in the world.
Hopefully somewhere deep inside, someone has hidden a little yeast, a little of the kingdom of heaven. Turning flour into dough is a really cool chemical reaction. It takes only a little yeast, a little heat, and then something new and wonderful, bread, comes out of something very bland, flour. If we were going to make bread, we would probably spend some time kneading the yeast into the flour, working it into every part, and only giving it a little rest to rise. We would likely be active in the process.
However, as Jesus compares how the kingdom of heaven is working our lives, it’s a lot more passive than we might imagine. “It’s like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through the whole bushel.” This is the spiritual reaction of heaven working inside of us. It’s the tugging, the often unanswered desire to do something different than the world. It’s the opening of our eyes to see the world in a different light. It’s the idea that we might not want to be like the rest of the world.
The yeast works through the flour slowly and steadily changing it bit by bit, until it becomes what the yeast want, though the yeast is miniscule in comparison to the flour, it still works all the flour into itself, and creates dough that can be used and divided and multiplied into wonderful bread. Bread which give sustenance and life.
In this one line parable, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven Is working in each of us to make something that gives life and sustains life to the world. You are the working of the kingdom of heaven. Praise be to God for giving us little which is made much for his glory.
Grace & Peace,
Sam