18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to?
19 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.”
20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?
21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
On a whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, we had an opportunity to take several hikes along the trails next to the river. The scenery was harsh, but breathtaking. On one particular hike we came across a sprig of greenery pushing its way out of the middle of a rather large rock. It did not look like it belonged there, but a random seed had found a spot of soil in a crack in the rock. And somehow enough moisture collected in the desert area to germinate this seed, and it grew up out of the rock. Sometimes new life comes at us from unexpected places.
That is the lesson I hear from Jesus in our passage from Luke. What is the kingdom of God like? It is an unimpressive mustard seed, a little bit of yeast, a seed that found its way into a small crack of rock.
And from those inauspicious beginnings, new life, activity where there had been none, a slow steady growth that begins to change the surroundings out of which it springs. The kingdom of God changes the soil, the rock out of which it emerges. The soil is still there, the flour is still there, but the kingdom of God growing within gives a new quality that is not there without it.
Lent is our opportunity to experience some of this new life, to experience the Kingdom of God pushing out in our life in new and unexpected directions. Perhaps in our journey through Lent, we find ourselves in a desert place, a place that does not seem very fruitful. There was no abundant life evident in the arid countryside in which we walked. Perhaps the small beginnings of planting a mustard seed seem almost inconsequential. The kneading of the yeast into the mountain of dough does not seem to make an immediate difference.
Our scripture text reminds us that these inauspicious beginnings made a difference in the farmer’s field, and the woman’s bakery. The emphasis in our text is not the planting or the kneading, but on the grace-filled activity found in the Kingdom of God, that place where God is at work.
We are encouraged in Lent to keep up the journey. Take those steps, plant those seeds, work that yeast into the stuff of your life. This is life in the Kingdom of God.
Author: David Brown
Other Lenten readings for today:
- Psalm 39
- Numbers 13:17-27
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