Hidden Potential!

[Jesus] told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." (Matthew 13:33)

Yeast—it’s an ingredient only used in small quantities compared to the whole mixture in which it is placed. Just a little bit has quite an effect. And once it is mixed in, it’s completely hidden—for all intents and purposes, it is gone; but it’s effect is not. Yeast is a hidden talent—something small, barely noticeable; but very evident if it is missing; and very potent, very powerful in its effect.
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

In the parable, the yeast is mixed with quite a large amount of flour—three measures—probably enough flour to make as much dough as any one person was able to knead at a time; probably enough flour to make enough bread to feed quite an extended family, perhaps up to a 100 people.

The yeast is hidden in the flour. Its presence is known only by the rising of the dough.

In other biblical passages, yeast is a symbol of evil or corruption. We need only look as far as the 16th chapter of Matthew to find Jesus warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and in Corinthians. Paul exhorts his readers not to celebrate with the old yeast of malice but with new unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Think about the Passover story. In this most significant feast of the people of Israel, the bread was to be unleavened, a sign of the haste required in preparation for the departure of the Hebrews from Israel. But because of its significance in this significant feast, unleavened bread became a more important sacrifice than leavened bread and yeast, therefore, was seen in some way to "taint" the dough.

And in some ways, yeast does work as an irritant, a catalyst to the rising of the dough, a prod to provoke the chemical reaction that produces not flat, but risen bread. Yet, according to the parable, Jesus says that the realm of heaven is like yeast in flour rising to make the dough which, when baked, will be bread.

The yeast is mixed with one of the staples of our diets, flour or meal, the carbohydrate base for a filling meal. The yeast is mixed with an ordinary ingredient, something that would have been used every day and the effect of that yeast is to add something extra to the ordinary to make it the staple food that it needs to be. But the reaction doesn’t occur immediately, it occurs over time. Breadmakers know that the dough needs to put aside, to be allowed to rise before it is kneaded (and perhaps allowed to rise again), before it is finally shaped and baked.

So what is the yeast doing in this parable? The parable of the yeast is a parable about the unexpectedness of the form of the realm of heaven. We know neither the day nor the hour and we may not even recognise it for what it is. We may see it as an irritant. We may discount its presence. We may simply not notice that it is there in the mix. But it is there and it does have an effect. The realm of heaven is not easy to discover or to discern. It is not easily recognised and it may even be misrecognised. We humans don’t always know what we are looking for.

But this promise of the extraordinary power and presence of God in our lives often seems just a small presence in our ordinary lives; and we wonder what effect it will have; what effect it does have. Yeast has a huge effect on an ordinary mixture of dough. And as the people of God, we are called to watch out for the extraordinary presence of God in those the life that we take for granted. And more than that, we are called to take the gift of that yeast and to place it in the abundance of the life that is ours, and to watch it have the effect that it will have because it is the very presence of God.

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

Discussion Starters
1. In what ways was yeast described?
2. Where have you caught glimpses of God’s presence in the ordinary?
3. What does it mean for the people of God to place God at the centre of our life?
4. In what ways is the body of Christ like yeast in our everyday world?