[OBW]

As I read the whole of chapter 13 of Matthew, I see a beginning that speaks of a scattering of seed (the Word) that finds both fertile and infertile places to try to grow. Then there is the parable of the weeds (tares) where Jesus basically instructed that to the extent that the wrong crops are found in the field, they should not be uprooted because that will uproot the good crops.

So at this point, you have the seed being scattered everywhere, and you have bad seed scattered in among the good seed. Opposite issues.

The is the parable of the Mustard seed which looks at the rather odd nature of a particularly small seed that in that environment resulted in a woody shrub of such stature that it was often 12 feet tall or so and birds, even fairly large ones, did roost in its "branches." Not an anomaly. This is the regular, everyday truth to the people to whom Jesus was speaking.

So how do you read a parable in which the words "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough"? You could argue that something bad is put into something good. But since it is described as worked "throughout," and it is understood that leaven results in the permanent alteration of the nature of the thing it is put into (dough, grape juice, etc.) then you would need to have a theology that causes the Kingdom of God to be permanently changed by the introduction of something evil.

Now you may find that what we think is the present, earthly representation of the kingdom of God can be altered in appearance. But the true kingdom of God is never altered. So no matter how this parable could be interpreted, it would seem that this particular interpretation stands in opposition to the truth of God.

So that leaves us with the alternative reading. The kingdom is the leaven. It is added to the dough (humanity?) and it slowly changes it all. Yes, you can argue that much of humanity will never be altered. But that is not entirely true. God was sown into humanity and even those who will not take His grace and follow will ultimately be affected. The one sown into humanity proclaimed a sentence on sin and its author. From that time until it is finished, everything is slowly working to and changing toward that conclusion.

But there are many ways to understand this parable from the side of "the kingdom is the leaven" that are consistent with the whole of this chapter. To read it that the dough is the kingdom and it is inundated with something evil (leaven) just seems to stand in stark contrast to the "reality" of the kingdom. It makes the kingdom into something powerless and even altered by the evil into which it comes. Christ came into the evil. The evil did not come into Christ. And if Christ is the kingdom, while we can talk about spending time trying to reach the "fish" that will ultimately reject the message and be tossed aside, there is nothing evil being added to the kingdom of God that will chemically change its nature.

These other parables, of the weeds and of the great catch of fish, speak well to the nature of things that surround the kingdom but do not change its nature. I believe that understanding the parable of the leaven as about something evil/bad altering the kingdom itself to be contrary to everything else that we learn concerning the kingdom.

I will once again bow out. If you disagree, I cannot say that it is because I have not made my case clearly enough.