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Yeast

              Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

            Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Luke 13:18-21)

 

            For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (I Corinthians 7:14)

 

            We’ve already looked at the kingdom as a mustard seed growing in a garden. This seems like a sort of outside view of the kingdom. Things outside of it are protected and sheltered by it. In Luke’s account, Jesus follows it with a similar illustration. Whether we discuss the world/society or our own lives, that which is external to the kingdom benefits from the protection provided by the kingdom.

Yeast is another of those things that we don’t know much about anymore. We buy our bread at the store or the bakery. But I have a breadmaker, so I sometimes buy yeast and use it. When I do, I make one loaf of bread and add yeast to water and flour, and my machine does the rest. Traditionally, people kneaded the dough, which does something to the flour molecules but also distributes the yeast through the dough. Kneading isn’t easy. It seems to take a long time, and one needs to be thorough. As a result, the dough rises uniformly, having been changed by the yeast.

            This seems more of an inside view. When introduced, the kingdom grows. You probably won’t see it happening, but it spreads throughout society. Slowly, society is changed by it into something that nourishes. It changes from within, even if it doesn’t become yeast. This happens within us as well as it does within society, and it may be the source of the idea in I Corinthians 7:14, in which an unbelieving husband may be sanctified by a believing wife.

            I have long wondered whether the kingdom of God and we as part of it grow most when we are least aware.

 

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