“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till all was leavened.”  –  Matthew 13:33

 A solid fact of the gospel is this: God wants to include everyone in His family! (2 Peter 3:9)  That’s precisely why the gospel is good news!  No one is excluded from the eternal redemptive purpose God carried out through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That fact has always made me excited and proud to preach it.  Another solid fact is obvious:  Some folks are harder to get into the family than others!  Because of this, the tiny parable of the leaven (yeast) becomes one of the most powerful, and most comforting, of all Jesus’ stories.

 Leaven, or baker’s yeast as we call it, is a one celled micro-organism which grows all around us.  Baker’s yeast is a strain which, when combined with dough, converts the fermentable sugars in the dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol, causing it to rise in preparation for baking.  Pretty potent stuff.  Jesus seized this simple, familiar part of daily life to give us a penetrating glimpse into the kingdom He was introducing to men.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.”  (Matt. 4:17)  “The kingdom of God does not come with observation . . . . for indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)  Insight into the kingdom is important.

 If the kingdom (the invisible, incorruptible, and all powerful realm of God) affects humanity like yeast impacts the dough, then this parable opens my heart to some wonderful probabilities which are both universal and personal!  Regarding the big picture, here’s what I draw from it:

• God’s Spirit and kingdom in the earth can never be extinguished, diminished, or compromised by darkness.  Evil may capture some headlines, but undisturbed, the kingdom keeps doing God’s thing!
• God doesn’t make noise; that’s the devil’s stuff.  The kingdom just penetrates the darkness and permeates the environment so that even the direst situations eventually yield to God’s holy purposes.
• God never gives up on the world.  The power and authority of God’s Spirit in the earth challenges the dire predictions of Antichrist and a violent ‘end of the world.’  Antichrist is already here! (1 John 2:18; 4:3)
• What you see is not always what you get.  The kingdom is ‘out-of-sight,’ in the background, secretly arranging what we could not possibly anticipate.

 For example, the end-time forecasts of fiery judgment by Peter and John are doubtless reliable, but we must not be so sure we know how all that will work.  God is sneaky!  Jesus’ birth was clearly predicted, but the actual event shocked everyone, especially the religious professionals.  Hmmm.  The End might be an even bigger surprise!  However, my spirit and prayers are most energized by the parable of the leaven when I reflect on everything it suggests about each of us, and those we care about.

•  Our relation to Jesus has begun a process of positive change in our inner being, a ‘ferment’ like yeast, that will continue all our lifetime.
• Just as yeast works best after the grain has been finely ground, so the ‘grind’ of life, seemingly so threatening, actually prepares us to benefit most from the working of the Spirit.  (Rom.8:28)
• Every situation and person is different.  Dough rises at different rates under different conditions; so God’s work in each person is by degrees, some more lengthy than others, but all under the watchful eye of One making us the flavor and aroma of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:14,15)
• God is quietly, gently, relentlessly pursuing those who have seemingly lost their way.  They are not lost from God’s infinite love.  Some people struggle to believe, to obey, but the yeast keeps working till ‘all is leavened,’   Once the power of the kingdom gets in a soul, we can anticipate, eventually, a holy takeover!  Amen!!