Living Stones – Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The secret agent
Matthew 13:33
Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
In His continuing efforts to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, Jesus now leaves agriculture and gets into home cooking.
The basic message is quite simple to understand. Leaven is a rising agent, added to dough to cause it to rise. Your leaven could be yeast, baking powder or similar substance. You know that your dough was leavened when it rises as a result of the fermentation caused by leaven kneaded into it.
This might sound like high science to those who have avoided the kitchen, to others who cook and bake especially, this is a simple everyday occurrence.
This example from Jesus is a powerful reminder that we can learn eternal truths from everyday things.
What are some of the eternal truths we can learn from this everyday occurrence recounted by Jesus in one sentence?
The answer to this question has at times been made difficult as people have argued over whether the leaven represents good or evil. That argument has its roots in the Old Testament where leaven was always considered to be evil. This is seen especially at the Passover when great effort with accompanying ritual was put into finding and burning every bit of leaven in the house.
There should be no argument here, however, because in the New Testament leaven has been used to represent either good or evil, for example Matthew 16:6, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, and Galatians 5:9.
Instead we should focus only on the principles at work when the leaven is kneaded into the dough to take away the lesson that Jesus was teaching.
First, the leaven is at work, practically invisibly in the dough. Similarly, we don’t see the gradual and imperceptible changes taking place within the hearts of individual persons and groups, but we are often able to recognise when someone has become a changed person. We are also able to recognise when the Church has made significant strides in new areas where the Gospel was hardly known before.
This might also be true of your life. You may not have been able to detect the little change taking place but, over a period of time, you are able to detect changes in your responses to different thing.
Second, the effect of the leaven is completely transformative affecting both texture and volume. So too the Word of God is transformative, causing the Kingdom of God to be ever increasing. But more than just increasing numerically, the Kingdom of God is a dynamic movement of people who having been transformed by grace change shape, form, and function for the good of those we encounter.
Third, we can see the Kingdom of God at work both secretly and openly. There are secret things that take place in order for us to have the open effect that we have on individual lives, institutions and the culture as a whole. This relationship of the secret action and open effect will be encountered often. Jesus said to the disciples in Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (See also Matthew 6:4 and 6:18)
A final point. So far, the parables of the Kingdom of God all feature males out doing the things that serve as metaphors for the nature and character of the Kingdom of God. In this parable we see a woman at work, albeit in a traditional role, but it brings to the focus that the Kingdom of God is not a male dominated Kingdom.
We must remember that the parables of Jesus almost always rattled the Jew. This simple one-sentence parable would have rattled them no less. The idea that the Kingdom of God could be likened to negative leaven would certainly have cause them concern, but using a woman as a model of Kingdom activity must have crossed the line for them. Jesus was again making men and women equal in the sight of God.
Think on these things:
- How often do you see eternal truths in life’s everyday events?
- How much time do you invest in secret for the results that you want openly?
- Are there any changes in your life that took place over time that you could now point to the scripture as the basis of the change?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would spend more time with God in the secret place for the changes we’d like to see openly.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex