July 19 2020 – 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time


Matthew chapter 13 is full of parables. In last week’s gospel Jesus gives us the parable of the sower and explains it.  In today’s gospel, we have several parables: the wheat among the weeds, the mustard seed, and the yeast.  Jesus explains the parable of the wheat among the weeds.  In the verses that follow today’s gospel Jesus relates three more parables.  He explains these also.  Jesus explains all the parables except for the parables of the mustard seed and of the yeast.  These two are left for us to decipher.  

Before I continue, I would like to say, that I’m looking at the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast through the lens of Jesus’ commandments, love God and love neighbour.  I think this lens is pertinent for these times of covid-19, climate crisis, and the growing realization of the insidiousness of racism.  What can I do?  What difference will it make?  These are questions that I’m sure runs through each of our minds with regard to one, two, or all of these issues.

In the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar, the character Mark Antony utters these words at Caesar’s funeral, “The evil that men do lives long after them but the good is oft interned with their bones.”  With the parable of the mustard seed and of the yeast, Jesus in saying the reverse.  That is the good that you do, even though it may seem as small as a mustard seed, can grow into expressions of the kingdom of God,  The seeds of good that we sow can help us live into, “thy kingdom come where our deeds grow into something life-giving.  In addition, the mustard tree grows wild throughout much of the Middle East and Africa. It is a hardy tree and takes advantage of damp conditions near rivers and waterholes but can survive on fewer than 8 inches of rainfall a year. So another lesson is that although we can’t see results or times may be difficult, we need to be as hardy as the mustard tree and persevere in doing good, no matter how small.

The meaning of the parable of the yeast is similar.  To make bread one needs flour, oil, water, salt, and yeast, each ingredient in a different quantity, each ingredient contributing to the whole.  The yeast may not be the ingredient that is used in the largest quantity but without it, the bread would not rise.  So it it with our contribution to the work of God’s kindom.  It may not be the largest or the grandest but it is vital.

So now I return to the questions: What can I do?  What difference will it make?  These two parables give us the answer, which is, do something, no matter how small. Do the thing you are good at or try something that will stretch you.  Do something on your own or with friends.  Do something.

In Jesus’ eyes there are no small or insignificant good deeds.  Each work that is done in love for the sake of the gospel bears fruit, just the mustard seed grows into a hardy bird sheltering tree.  Each work that is done in love for God and neighbour brings us closer to, as well as, closer to becoming, the Bread of Life. 


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