MUSTARD SEED, AND LEAVEN

Homily for Oct. 29^th, 2013: Luke 13: 18-21.              

          The two little parables we have just heard in the gospel, about the mustard seed, and leaven, immediately follow the report of opposition to Jesus because he heals on the Sabbath. Jesus knows that his followers will also face bitter opposition. He tells the two parables to give them hope. They both say that God’s kingdom begins small and hidden; yet suddenly breaks forth with life, and is not confined to any single group.  

          Luke, the author of our gospel, was a city man and no farmer. He doesn’t know that his reference to a man planting mustard seed in his garden misrepresents the conditions of that day. Mustard bushes grew wild around the Lake of Galilee, the Scripture scholars tell us, not in gardens. They grow from tiny seeds to a height of 8 to 12 feet, far taller than a man. It is this growth which the parable emphasizes.

Leaven, on the other hand, is thought of in Scripture as something that corrupts. Even today observant Jews eat only unleavened or pure bread at Passover time – like their ancestors, who ate only unleavened bread as they prepared to flee from slavery in Egypt, because of the need for haste. There was no time to wait for the leaven to do its corrupting work. Was there a childhood memory behind this parable -- Jesus recalling his mother kneading dough with leaven? We cannot know. But it is not unlikely.

Despite all opposition and discouragement, Jesus is telling his friends, ourselves included, that, like both seed and leaven. God’s kingdom is at work secretly yet irresistibly. How fitting then, is our response to this brief gospel reading: “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.”