Luke 13 :: Pine Nuts and Yeast

Luke 13

Suffering.  Healing.  Sabbath.  Kingdom.  Salvation.  There is a lot in chapter 13 that may have jumped out at you this morning, no doubt.  Centering in on which one stands out the most to me, and the one part I'd like to chew on for the rest of this day is a bit of a challenge - but it's been that way for about 10 chapters for me already!

In verse 18, Jesus moves from healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath into a story about the kingdom of God.  The Greek word for kingdom here, comes from a root that means "a stepping or walking."  The phrase carries with it a real tangible understanding of God's kingdom.  It's visible, it's what we walk in now.  The people Jesus was talking to would have understood this phrase in terms of the present.  Here is what Jesus says (18-21),

 Then he said, “How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use?  It’s like a pine nut that a man plants in his front yard. It grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches, and eagles build nests in it.” 

  He tried again. “How can I picture God’s kingdom?  It’s like yeast that a woman works into enough dough for three loaves of bread—and waits while the dough rises.” 

The men at the temple were obviously having a hard time understanding what God really wanted from them.  They were so confused that they felt it was okay to tie and untie a donkey on the Sabbath, but not heal a woman who had been tied up her whole life.  There confusion was in itself crippling.  Jesus wants to paint them a picture of the kingdom in a way they can understand.

The way the kingdom of God in our life is like a pine nut (mustard seed).  Okay, really?  A pine nut.  Yes, a pine nut. The kingdom of God gets planted into the ground of a person's life, and it grows from there.  It doesn't start out as a huge tree, but as a small nut that establishes its root system as it grows and then can be used by others.  The point is that a very small amount of the kingdom of God embedded in our lives will produce something much bigger than we could possibly expect - it's about the power of the kingdom, not the size of the tree.  The kingdom of God is also like yeast.  The power that a very small portion of yeast yields to penetrate the dough seems to be where Jesus is taking these men.

In our life, we want things quickly.  Waiting for a pine nut to grow into a pine tree takes time, but we want to see eagles nesting quickly.  Waiting for yeast to effect the dough as it rises takes time, but we want it now.  We like the end result and I don't think we are that much different than the Pharisees were at the time of Jesus.  They wanted to look spiritual, without doing the inner soul tilling to become that way.  They did not realize the power that just a little bit of God's kingdom on this earth would have for people who were crippled, blind, possessed, diseased, etc..

I don't I live with this clear understanding of the power of God's kingdom - the power of serving a cup of water, collecting some clothes, serving a meal, picking up trash, etc..  If I did, I think I would be more intentional about distribution of pine nuts and yeast in the lives of those around me.  Today, maybe I'll be a little bit more aware.