Imagine you were one of the twelve disciples or one of the many other women and men who followed Jesus around. You have traveled with him, heard him teach and preach, and even seen miracles. You’re convinced that he is who he says he is, the long awaited Messiah, come to save the world. You’ve bought in and you are passionate about Jesus. Not only this but you desperately want others to come along.
You’ve noticed that Jesus spends a great deal of time talking about The Kingdom of God. As his follower, you want this kingdom stuff to take off. You want the whole world to hear the good news. You’re ready for this thing to go global.
How would you describe this new Kingdom movement to someone in order to accomplish this? What would you compare it to if you wanted to grab attention?
“The NEXT BIG THING is here! The new REVOLUTION has come. It’s going to be HUGE. You DON’T want to miss this. Get on board!”
Well, Jesus doesn’t quite take that approach.
In Matthew 13, Jesus is standing in a boat just off the edge of a lake. He starts speaking to the people in parables, all about this new Kingdom.
The Kingdom is like a mustard seed, Jesus says.
You can just see the disciples faces…Did he just say mustard seed?! Like, that little tiny seed that you can barely even see?! Ok, ok, don’t freak out, it sounds like he’s going to take another swipe at it. Come on Jesus, BRING IT! Tell them what your Kingdom is like, tell them how HUGE it’s going to be!
The Kingdom is like…yeast.
Doh.
Somebody get him out of the boat. The sun has fried his brain.
And this is so striking to me, the way that Jesus talks about his mission and the coming of the Kingdom. Because you think about the most powerful nations throughout history – Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians in the Old Testament. Then the Greeks and the Romans in Jesus’ time. Then Asian and European cultures start to emerge. Then out of Europe comes America as the ultimate super power. How did all of these nations and cultures and social movements rise to power and prominence?
Napoleon, the French military and political leader said this in the early 1800’s;
“I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have all founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men and women would die for Him.”
The most influential social movement in the history of the world was founded by a Jewish carpenter and a bunch of ill-equipped, uneducated fishermen. Nations and cultures and other social movements have come and gone – powerful nations with millions and millions of people have been relegated to the pages of history – as will our nation someday – but the yeast and the seed of the Kingdom of God will never die out.
It keeps growing.
It keeps rising.
We aren’t always called to do great things. But we are called to do small things with great love.
