A little sidetracked, a little distracted 😊 The mustard seed and the leaven

The Mustard Seed and Leaven Matthew 13:31-33

³¹He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

³²and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” 

³³He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”

As we begin our study today, note again that parables are usually stories drawn from everyday life. Jesus’ comparison of the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed and leaven illustrates this fact.

It was men who typically worked in agriculture, while the women carried out the domestic chores like baking of bread in the first century.

By telling parables that related to these tasks, Jesus could get across His message in terms that were familiar to the people.

In our last devotion, we discussed how Jesus did not usher in God’s kingdom in the way that the Jewish people thought the Messiah would.

Instead of an immediate and final entry of God’s saving presence, there was an inauguration of the kingdom that is followed by a long period of growth before the final consummation.

And here in today’s parable, the mustard plant’s growth and the leaven which causes dough to rise, … both takes time, … helps to illustrate this point.

Now, for clarity’s sake, the mustard seed in verse 32 is described as “smaller than all other seeds”.

Now, it’s obvious the mustard seed is not the smallest of all the seeds in the world.

But you see, Jesus is not making an absolute statement about the size of seeds.

However, it was the mustard seed that was the smallest of the seeds that were most commonly used by the people who were listening to Jesus’ teachings.

And He used the mustard seed to make His point easy for them to grasp.

Like the seemingly insignificant mustard seed, God’s kingdom starts out small and all but hidden.

In time, however, it becomes so large that no one can ignore it — just like the mustard plants in that region that can reach ten feet in height. Despite its humble beginning, the kingdom will grow to an immense size (Dan. 2:31–45).

And the parable of the leaven in verse 33, makes essentially the same point, although from a slightly different perspective.

A small amount of yeast is seemingly consumed in a large lump of dough; however, the leaven actually ends up permeating the flour, transforming the dough and making it rise.

So too will the Gospel, with slow growth at first, penetrate and transform society. One church preacher from the 400’s wrote that, “The leaven, though it is buried, is not destroyed. Little by little it transmutes the whole lump into its own condition. This happens with the gospel”

Matthew Henry reminds us that yeast “works silently and insensibly, yet strongly and irresistibly.”

The kingdom of God works in a similar fashion. Though Christians often suffer and the darkness looks overwhelming, the kingdom is growing nonetheless.

Life Happens…  and let’s consider how we are allowing the Lord’s presence in us, to permeate our world.