(Audio)
The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
The Church started so small that it seemed it could never make a significant difference in the world. Jesus may have possessed divine power and authority along with heavenly wisdom but he and his disciples did not seem positioned to effect much beyond the backwater of Israel let alone transform the world. Yet the Church did become a bush so large that the birds of the sky could come to dwell in its branches, just as God intended for Israel. It was through God's covenant promise to Abraham that all nations of the earth were to be blessed, and the temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all peoples. Yet the expansion of these blessings beyond the boundaries of Israel were always hesitant, halting, and incomplete during the times before the coming of Jesus. But one might wonder. If Solomon was as close as Israel came to fulfilling its destiny to be a light to the nations, drawing people from the ends of the earth to hear his wisdom, wouldn't whatever finally did fulfill that destiny be, by necessity, large and obvious? Yet it was precisely in the mustard seed of faith Jesus entrusted to the followers, and in particular to his Apostles that this promise was eventually realized. They were successful because they took Jesus at his word. They were under-resourced, outnumbered, outmatched, but they didn't let this stop them or even slow them down once the Holy Spirit sent them forth on the day of Pentecost. Even then, supernaturally equipped, it might not have seemed like what they had was all that much when faced with all the resistance of the world, let alone enough to address all the needs its brokenness. But by being faithful to the small seed entrusted to each of them they changed the world. The period of history that their efforts ushered in would be entirely unintelligible if not for these mustard seeds to explain it.
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
The Church started so small that it seemed it could never make a significant difference in the world. Jesus may have possessed divine power and authority along with heavenly wisdom but he and his disciples did not seem positioned to effect much beyond the backwater of Israel let alone transform the world. Yet the Church did become a bush so large that the birds of the sky could come to dwell in its branches, just as God intended for Israel. It was through God's covenant promise to Abraham that all nations of the earth were to be blessed, and the temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all peoples. Yet the expansion of these blessings beyond the boundaries of Israel were always hesitant, halting, and incomplete during the times before the coming of Jesus. But one might wonder. If Solomon was as close as Israel came to fulfilling its destiny to be a light to the nations, drawing people from the ends of the earth to hear his wisdom, wouldn't whatever finally did fulfill that destiny be, by necessity, large and obvious? Yet it was precisely in the mustard seed of faith Jesus entrusted to the followers, and in particular to his Apostles that this promise was eventually realized. They were successful because they took Jesus at his word. They were under-resourced, outnumbered, outmatched, but they didn't let this stop them or even slow them down once the Holy Spirit sent them forth on the day of Pentecost. Even then, supernaturally equipped, it might not have seemed like what they had was all that much when faced with all the resistance of the world, let alone enough to address all the needs its brokenness. But by being faithful to the small seed entrusted to each of them they changed the world. The period of history that their efforts ushered in would be entirely unintelligible if not for these mustard seeds to explain it.
The disciples didn't let appearances stop them. It was a little like the scene in Star Wars were Yoda explained that the appearance of size was not the deepest truth, and then preceded to lift the crashed X-Wing from the swamp unto dry land by his power. Our faith, it is said, can move mountains, which are larger still than X-Wings. However it can only do this if we don't take for granted what we have been given, but rather choose to place our faith in the wisdom with which Jesus has apportioned to us the gifts and opportunities that constitute our lives. The mustard seed is inherently something that doesn't seem that valuable apart from the fact that Jesus said it is valuable, and the promise he attached to when it is faithfully sown.
He spoke to them another parable.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.”
The yeast is a small fraction of the recipe yet has a disproportionate effect on the resulting loaf. Just so, even when the Church is a minority in the world it nevertheless has an effect beyond what scale would suggest is possible. Especially now, in an age where the faithful are a remnant, rather than a dominant cultural, force this is reassuring. But we should remember that the initial presence of the yeast in the dough is hidden. It is meant to be mixed in with the other ingredients. It is only over the course of time that there is any evidence of the batch rising and obtaining to a higher destiny of deliciousness. Our own role in helping to address the challenges of our times is similarly often invisible at first. But it does require that we not keep ourselves entirely isolated from the world around us. We can't simply remained sealed in yeast packets. We must be unleashed if we are too have the intended effect, even if, at first, we seem to be lost in a much larger mixture.
He spoke to them another parable.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.”
The yeast is a small fraction of the recipe yet has a disproportionate effect on the resulting loaf. Just so, even when the Church is a minority in the world it nevertheless has an effect beyond what scale would suggest is possible. Especially now, in an age where the faithful are a remnant, rather than a dominant cultural, force this is reassuring. But we should remember that the initial presence of the yeast in the dough is hidden. It is meant to be mixed in with the other ingredients. It is only over the course of time that there is any evidence of the batch rising and obtaining to a higher destiny of deliciousness. Our own role in helping to address the challenges of our times is similarly often invisible at first. But it does require that we not keep ourselves entirely isolated from the world around us. We can't simply remained sealed in yeast packets. We must be unleashed if we are too have the intended effect, even if, at first, we seem to be lost in a much larger mixture.
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