Today’s gospel, Matthew 13:24- 43, is a continuation of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom. Last week we heard the parable about the Sower. This week we hear Jesus comparing the kingdom of heaven to a field planted with wheat and weeds, a mustard seed and yeast. Just as he explained the parable of the Sower, Jesus explained the parable of the wheat and weeds to his disciples. We are left to work out for ourselves the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast.
When Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven to his followers, he was not talking about some place where we will end up in the future. He was talking about the here and now. For us the kingdom is Peachtree City, Georgia in 2023. For others, it is wherever they are right now. The kingdom doesn’t have any boundaries or borders because it is made up of a collective of people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to us to bring us salvation. It is where God’s values of love, truth, compassion, justice, mercy, forgiveness, trust and respect prevail.
The parables of the mustard seed and yeast are about tiny things that produce amazing results. The small mustard seed produces a huge plant that in turn produces thousands of seeds. And a small amount of yeast grows and transforms dough into multiple loaves of bread. Each of us is like a mustard seed or a pinch of yeast. We all have the potential to produce amazing results for the kingdom. If we allow our lives to be transformed by gospel values, we in turn can transform the lives of those around us by how we live those values.
Merciful and patient God,
Let your word, like a mustard seed,
bear rich fruit within us,
and like a little yeast,
produce its effects throughout the whole church.
Thus may we dare to hope
that a new humanity will blossom and grow
to shine like the sun in your kingdom
when the Lord of the harvest returns
at the end of the age.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
AMEN
