Matthew 13: 24-43

Like any good story teller, Jesus uses humor and hyperbole to make his point. Remember, these parables follow Jesus encountering some significant opposition, so he is trying to lighten the mood of the disciples, as well as provide assurances that God will prevail over the forces of evil. The stories about seeds, wheat and weeds give that assurance and the mustard seed and yeast stories provide the comic relief, as well as give an insight about the Kingdom of God.

The mustard seed isn’t the smallest seed nor does it grow into a huge tree with branches sufficient to house flocks of birds. This reference to such a tree comes from the Book of Daniel where a majestic tree is pictured as standing at the center of the earth with its branches reaching to heaven. I am sure the disciples were snickering at the image of a mustard bush being compared to Daniel’s mighty tree.

Jesus is saying that there might be just a few of them, but God is going to do a mighty work through them, using the most unlikely of means.

The disciples really get wide eyed when Jesus talks about three measure of flour. That’s fifty pounds of flour! In the Bible yeast is often used in a negative connation, so Jesus is saying something like one bad apple spoils the whole barrel. What is Jesus getting at? The key is in what the woman does with yeast. In the original Greek, she ‘hides’ the yeast in the flour.

Jesus is saying that one person not laughing at a racist joke can make a difference. Jesus is saying one person exercising Christian integrity at the point of decision can make a difference. Jesus is saying that his little band of followers, armed with the Good News, living for God in a fallen world, can change the course of history.

They did.

We can.

What does today’s reading reveal 

to you about God?
What does it reveal to you about yourself?
Think about what God wants you to do

or remember about this passage.

Does God want you to change 

anything in your life?