Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 31, 2023

Luke 13, 18-21

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

The term “The Kingdom of God” as such is not found in the Old Testament although there are many references to God as King, and even prophesies about God coming down to the earth: “The rivers shall clap their hands, the mountains shall rejoice together at the presence of the Lord: because he comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with equity” (Psalm 98, 8-9).  The term would seem to come from the Pharisees who taught that God would send his anointed into the world to restore Israel.  This restoration would last a thousand years, as per the First Book of Enoch, written in the hundred or two hundred years before the Birth of Jesus.  Then the dead would be raised and God would judge the people.  The thousand year period of the restoration would have been understood by the Pharisees as “The Kingdom of God”.  The term itself, however, does not seem to arise until the time of Jesus.  When the Lord speaks of “The Kingdom of God” or “The Kingdom of Heaven” he confirms that it exists, that it has “drawn near”, and he also corrects the teaching of the Pharisees about it.

“What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?”  The Lord Jesus speaks as though he himself knows what it is like, that he has seen it and now will relate what he has seen to the people.  He does not speak speculatively but with authority.  He does not cite Scripture to provide a foundation for his teaching, as the Pharisees would, but speaks as an eyewitness.  “It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.”  The Lord does not say that its majesty will fill the earth, that angels will guard its gates, which will be made of diamonds, or that the walls of the Kingdom will reach miles into the sky.  He does not say that the Patriarchs and Prophets will walk about in it or that all its inhabitants will be made wise.  These are the sorts of things the Pharisees taught.  Rather, the Lord compares the Kingdom to the humble, tiny, common mustard seed.  A man takes this seed and plants it in his garden.  Nothing could be more commonplace than this.  His hearers must have thought they were not hearing him right.  “When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  And then the Lord paused and looked around, waiting for the people to digest his words.  He is clearly teaching that the Kingdom of God is not what the Pharisees taught.  They spoke in grandiose terms, but the Lord in lowly ones.  He is saying, Yes, it is the Kingdom of God, but it is “within you”, and not outside of you: “And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answering them and said: The kingdom of God does not come so as to be seen. Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17, 20-21).  And so the Kingdom of God begins with a speck of grace within a person’s soul, and when it is nourished and watered with good works and hearing the word of God, it becomes fully grown so that others may benefit from it as well.  The Lord is speaking of the life of grace and faith, a share in the divine life itself.

“It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”  Yeast, like mustard seed, is tiny and yet potent.  Three measures is a great deal of flour and yet just a little yeast will make it grow.  The Lord speaks of both the mustard seed and the yeast as being “hidden”: the working of grace in the soul is a great mystery but its effects are clear.  The “woman” here can be understood as the Holy Spirit, and the “flour” as the soul.  In both cases of the seed and the bread growth results that benefits others — the yeast aiding in the making of bread.

Only a small opening need exist for mustard seed and yeast to enter, and only a small opening in the human will need exist for grace to enter.  We pray that we may always be opened wide for it, and for openings in the souls of unbelievers.