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There’s nothing like warm, fresh-baked bread right out of the oven.
Add the butter and life is good!
And although middle-eastern style flat breads or handmade tortillas from su abuela are pretty wonderful—they’re missing something.
They kind of fall short. Or should I say, they fall flat—just like their name.
I mean, you can’t get any of that soft, chewy, lusciousness that’s inside that round loaf of San Francisco sourdough in a paper-thin tortilla.
And there’s a good reason for that, of course.
There’s no yeast in that there tortilla.
And that’s what separates the real bread from the wannabes.
Yeast.
It’s the fungus among us that makes bread, bread.
It’s only a one-celled organism, but still, it has this in its favor: it loves sugar.
So when yeast gets added to a batch of dough, they start to binge, breaking down the starch and releasing carbon dioxide, etc.
The fermentation business is up and running!
And long story, short—the yeast just takes over the place.
And that is Jesus’ point here.
It’s a one-sentence-long sermon illustration which He could’ve taken straight from His childhood memories—Mary baking bread as He was growing up.
So it begins with this infinitesimal pinch of yeast—a teeny sprinkle mixed into a giant glob of dough.
And given the right conditions, things start to happen—bigtime.
It takes a little while, but know this:
The yeast will work its way through the entire batch of dough.
Jesus is saying:
Reminds Me of what happens when a person gets saved.
When a sinner puts their trust in the Savior, the Spirit is poured into our hearts, like yeast is added to the dough.
Faith is born and the Invisible One is added to the mix:
Subtlety, inconspicuously, without a lot of visible fanfare.
You’d scarcely know anything was different—at first.
But yeast and the Holy Spirit have this in common: they seek to dominate.
When God takes possession of the soul He’s created, He wants all, not some. He will claim every square inch as His own.
Like yeast.
No parts of the life He reclaims will be off limits to His benevolent influence.
He will expand and expand and expand—until He’s permeated:
Our words.
Our thoughts.
Our motivations.
Our attitudes.
Our behaviors.
Our ambitions.
Our life.
Why?
Because He’s making us like His Son (Romans 8:28-29).
Good, kind, loving and wise.
He’s restoring us to the image of God, marred as it was by the Fall.
Check out the yeast at work in the ancient Believers: |
