Seeds for 09/07/2023 - Matthew 13:31-33
Scripture: He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Observation: Peer pressure is a powerful force. Unless you’re a sociopath, you have a need or desire to be included in the group. Some people have less, some people have more; everyone has some. An important skill for anyone’s emotional maturity is learning how to connect with others relationally—to belong to the group—while at the same time maintaining one’s ability to differentiate one’s own guiding principles and values. We’re certainly shaped by the people with whom we surround ourselves, of course (a good reason to be thoughtful about who we allow into the closest ring of influence). But that’s different from falling into groupthink, herd mentality, and going along to get along so much so that we blur the boundary line of where we stop and the group starts.
The parables of the mustard tree and the yeast point to the power of a small, strong influence to make an out-sized difference. God’s kingdom is like that. Like the mustard seed, the kingdom only needs a small beachhead to grow and touch many lives. Like the small amount of yeast that works through the whole dough, the kingdom’s influence is persistent, expansive, and powerful.
The yeast is yeast, not flour. When it mixes with the flour, it does not give up being yeast and that’s why it makes the difference that it does. Followers of Jesus, clear about their identity in Him, formed in the values and virtues that reflect His holy character, can have that same kind of influence as they remain faithful to Him while staying connected with their surroundings.
When we are different—formed by and faithful to Christ and not the world, we are able to be agents of God’s kingdom. More flour would have added to the total poundage of flour, but it wouldn’t have transformed the whole batch into dough. Likewise, Christians whose beliefs and behaviors simply match those of the world increase the overall volume without making any transformative difference.
Many people have said a version of this: “You can’t give away what you do not possess.” Zig Ziglar once said, “You teach what you know, you reproduce who you are.” The calling of a Christian is to grow in our formation in and faithfulness to Christ, so that we, like the yeast, can be agents of transformation for God’s kingdom. A big splash is not necessary, but ordinary faithfulness is.
Application:
Whose ordinary faithfulness has made a difference in your life?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, form me heart, mind, body, and soul in you. Then, keep me faithful to you, that I might be the small seed or the bit of yeast, through which your kingdom expands. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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