Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Matthew 13:33 He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."
LIKE YEAST IN BREAD DOUGH
Perhaps it would be better to translate that last phrase "until it all the dough was raised." In the past I always thought only of the spreading of the yeast but the words here talk not just about how the yeast spreads, but of the fact that it causes the bread to rise as well.
Like the parable of the mustard seed, Christ pictures for us something that seems to be small in significance and yet accomplishes great things. There is however one key difference between this parable and that of the mustard seed. Whereas the mustard seed emphasized how the kingdom will become great of itself, the yeast parable illustrates that it will also affect the world around it. Wherever the true kingdom of Christ is present it will effect change.
Some have argued about the meaning of the dough and the three measures. Christ himself never gives even the slightest indication that the dough or the "three measures" have a special meaning. Thus we ought to apply the parable in general, and simply say that wherever the Kingdom is present it will effect change. If it is present in my heart it will change me, if it is present in my nation it will change my nation, if it is present in the world it will change the world.
Never mind that we cannot see, and often cannot measure this change. If you were to sit and stare at a loaf of bread, the activity of the yeast would not be evident to your eyes. Yet very slowly over a much longer period of time the dough will change.
So, too, we need not worry. We need not carefully watch for and precisely measure every fruit of faith in our lives or the lives of others in an attempt to see the rising yeast, in an attempt to make sure the Gospel is active. It is enough simply to preach God's word to ourselves and others and know that there in the preaching of His word is the power of God's kingdom. And there God WILL change us through His forgiveness.
