Smallness and the Kingdom – Luke 13:18-21

Demosthenes (384 – 322 BCE) was a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens.  He said, “Small opportunities are often the beginnings of great enterprises.”  Philosiblog.com notes the many examples of that, including Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in their garage making the first personal computer in 1975.  Jesus acknowledged that God’s kingdom, in its current phase, is a matter of growth from very small beginnings.

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”  (Luke 13:18-21 ESV)

After a display of kingdom power in healing the woman with a disabling spirit, Jesus addresses expectations about the kingdom.  It was commonly held that when the king came, the Messiah, the Christ, he would come to lead Israel to victory over all her enemies and make her the most powerful and prosperous nation on the earth.  Jesus’ miracles seemed to portend that very outcome.

But Jesus likens the kingdom to a mustard seed and yeast.  Both are very small in dimension but through a long process lead to amazingly large results.  It has now been nearly 2000 years since Jesus came.  The kingdom has made its presence known through the church and her children and it is a large tree but even now it is estimated that only a third of the population of earth acknowledges Jesus as Lord.

And coincident with the kingdom’s growth has been the persistence and even the growth of evil in our world.  It will not be until Jesus himself returns that the full aspect of his kingdom will take over and push out all evil and let righteousness reign.  Come, Lord Jesus.  Nevertheless, our small acts of kingdom righteousness will have a multiplied impact in our world.