Yeast Masters

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

YEAST MASTERS

Matt 13:33

33 He 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." 

NIV

Yeast is a very invasive substance that once mixed into dough cannot be stopped from having its way with the dough. We remember a very funny story regarding yeast used to make donuts. As a child, my parents owned a donut shop and a young man who my father took under his tutelage was told to use a quarter cake of yeast into the mix in this very large stainless-steel bowl. However, due to either a miscommunication or misunderstanding this young man put four cakes of yeast in the mix. When the dough started to rise, it just kept rising and rising and the light cloth that was used to cover the bowl was no longer covering the bowl, but rather sitting upon the largest, ever-growing blob of dough. Soon the truth was determined, and the mix was no good for donuts or for anything, for that matter. It was dumped into a fifty-five-gallon drum that sat outside in the back of the shop. I recall, it was a warm summers night, and the following early morning when I accompanied my father to the shop to pick up the daily supply of donuts that he would deliver to various restaurants and stores, the blob had grown to overflow the drum and now consumed the entire parking area behind the shop. This is just how the kingdom of heaven works its way in the world. When the gospel was introduced into the world, it started to grow, and it has been growing and growing to overflow out into the world. However, the gospel does not speak on its own anymore, just as it did not do unless Jesus told people. When he left, he entrusted the gospel to his disciples and now it has been entrusted to us. Because the gospel or the kingdom of heaven will always have the same effect in the world as yeast does in flour, we can be sure we were intended to be involved in mixing the yeast in the dough or spreading the gospel message throughout our portion of the world. Certainly, we have not been called to travel worldwide as some missionary or even an evangelist, however, we have been called to work in that yeast wherever we find unleavened dough. We can be sure there is enough flour or dough out there that is in need of some yeast. All we need to do is mix it in and allow the news of the kingdom of heaven to do its thing. We cannot make the dough rise faster, or for that matter, we cannot make the dough rise, it is all up to the yeast. All we can do is mix the yeast into the flour. Now, we could be like that young man, and instead of simply mixing in just the right amount, we could put a whole lot of yeast into the mix and watch and see what happens next. Either way, we are to be the yeast masters.