Walk Of Life – Day 03, May 2022 – Thoughts From The Words Of Jesus Christ
The Yeast
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.’” (Matthew 13:33).
The Parable of the Leaven (also called the Parable of the yeast) is one of the shortest parables of Jesus.It appears in Matthew (13:33) and Luke (13:20–21). The leaven or yeast in this parable represents the kingdom of God. The point about the yeast is that it permeated and leavened all of the dough into which it was placed. This represents the universal nature of God’s kingdom. It is a world wide kingdom, a kingdom spread through all the earth.
Jesus uses an illustration that would have familiar to everyone who had ever watched their mothers or wives make bread. And that would have been an almost daily occurrence. Bread is one of those things that we tend to take for granted in 2022, and we have so much of it and so many different varieties. We have bagels and pita, tortilla’s muffins, rolls and baguettes, white bread, whole wheat bread, multi grain bread, raisin bread. But two thousand years ago in Palestine they would have had bread. And the bread would have been made daily. Remember in the Lord’s Prayer, right after Jesus taught us to pray that his will would be done on earth, do you remember what he taught us to pray. Matthew 6:11 Give us today the food we need. But do you remember the way you memorized the Lord’s prayer? Sure you do Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread. And in the original language the word used is very simply, bread.
But the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t like bread; it is like the ingredient that makes the bread rise. In the New Living Translation it is translated as Yeast but in the King James Version it is translated as Leaven. The reason is that yeast as we know it is a fairly recent innovation, commercial yeast has only been available for less than 200 years. And long before we were able to go to a store and buy yeast in an envelope or a bottle people have been eating bread that was not flat. And it was this rising agent, this leaven that Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, in the New King James Version it reads this way: 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.”
Leaven Has a Purpose The reason that leaven was added to the bread mixture was to make it rise, it wasn’t added to increase the flavour or change the colour. They didn’t add leaven so there would be more fibre in the bread, they added leaven so it would rise and become light and fluffy. And if the leaven functioned the way it was supposed to that’s exactly what it did. And because of that the bread tasted better, and had a nicer texture and was easier to eat. Leaven Has a Purpose The reason that leaven was added to the bread mixture was to make it rise, it wasn’t added to increase the flavour or change the colour. It influenced the full lump of dough. A small pinch of leaven accomplishes its task by achieving the full target.
Dear brothers and sisters, are we like the leaven for God’s kingdom in the place where we have been placed. Jesus left his followers here so we can have an impact locally and globally. And are we serving our purpose as Christ Followers
