Reed Mueller

Matthew 13:33 is one of those interesting and powerful one-liners that Jesus shoots out every now and then. As I read this again this morning it struck me that I’m here – and every follower of Christ is here – to work a little bit of heaven into the the world we live in today.

The really interesting thing here is that leaven, or yeast, wasn’t seen as a particularly good thing in Jesus’ day (see, for example, Exodus 12:15 and Matthew 16:6). In fact, Jesus’ image here would have tweaked the religious elite because he was saying that God was working through the marginalized in our world (here, a woman of the day) and through unconventional means (here, with leaven) so that slowly, in His time, the world would change. Jesus point is powerful: God was doing an end run around the religious system of his day and would make the changes that needed to be made through Jesus and Jesus’ small, simple, weak, unlearned, and marginalized followers.

So, can I work a little of heaven into the world today? Can you? Can we change the world? The answer is: YES!

You don’t have to be learned, or strong, or a genius… neither do I. Rather, we simply need to live our lives as his follower day by day. Through that simple act of following – of reflecting him in how we move and what we say – God brings a little more of His Kingdom into the world each new day.

So go for it! Change the world slowly and little by little by adding a kernel of heaven into your conversations and activities today.

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