Student Devotion Week 27: Small Beginnings, Huge Results: Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

Matthew 13:31-37
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast 31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
33He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."
34Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."

Jesus often spoke about the Kingdom of God and like many times before he spoke in the form of a parable to try to relay to the crowd of people what God's Kingdom was like. First thing you notice is that God's Kingdom starts with small beginnings: 12 disciples turned into crowds of people following after Christ. The mustard seed is very small and if you were to take a grain of yeast you would have a hard time seeing it, but when they are worked into the batch of flour and when planted in a garden, the yeast and the mustard seed are very powerful with their ability to spread and grow very rapidly. The funny thing about Jesus talking about the yeast and mustard seeds is that for the common Jew these were not good images: Mustard Seeds were forbidden to be grown around other crops because they ruined the other crops and would overrun them. Remember Moses and the Israelites preparing to leave Egypt didn't have time to use yeast, instead they baked unleaven bread, which is also what is used in the passover meal and our communion today to represent the broken body of Christ and for the Jew God's deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians.
So what was Jesus talking about and what does all of this mean? God's Kingdom isn't about who is the best or biggest Christian, but about potential and God sees potential in the smallest of things, even a sinner like ourselves, that is why He sent His son Jesus to die for our sins, because He loves us and believes in us! Never under estimate the power that God has given you through the Holy Spirit to "Move Mountains" as Jesus in another passage refered to the mustard seed and Kingdom of God. God can take something very small and insignificant and use it to affect the whole world! Are you using the potential that God has given you to grow His Kingdom?