Have you ever watched a show called “The Great British Baking Show?” Thanks to Netflix, we are able to watch ordinary home bakers in England compete in a circus-sized tent set on the pastoral property of a huge estate for the ultimate prize of a glass cake stand. Each week the bakers engage in different challenges: Cake week, biscuit week, pastry week, etc. and my favorite: Bread week. I can just smell the fragrant aroma of bread coming through the television screen to my couch. 

The kitchen is well equipped for a set built in a tent and I am fascinated with the use of the “proving drawer.” This sits at the bottom of the oven unit and is kept at the perfect warm temperature to facilitate the rising of the dough. The proper amount of yeast must be mixed into the flour to get the perfect rise. A well-risen dough can quickly double in size in a proving drawer. Every bread baker must yearn for one in their kitchen.

A cursory glance at our passage today would seem to suggest that Jesus is talking about the kingdom working its way through the whole world like yeast, growing it from the inside. But the word “leaven” has always had negative connotations in the Scriptures. Leaven has been synonymous with sin and corruption.

Matthew 13:33 (Common English Bible)

³³ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.”

We get a clue about the negative connotation from the fact that the woman “hid” the yeast into three measures, or sixty pounds (NIV) of wheat flour until all of it was leavened. The original hearers of this parable would have been shocked at this. They understood that the measure would have produced a massive, unnatural size for a homemade loaf. They would have remembered the Old Testament use of “leaven” from Exodus 12:8 and 12:15-20 that indicated corruption and impurity. So Jesus’ comparing the kingdom to this giant, growing yeasted mess meant that he was warning them about the advancing paganizing influences on the kingdom of God.

 We face the same dilemma today, as secular thinking threatens the purity of the gospel. As the world turns to praising “The Universe” and away from praising the Creator of the universe, Christ’s message is polluted and corrupted.

My friends, you are the proving drawer for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your study of the Word can provide good yeast in your community to help grow the kingdom with truth and accuracy. So go and be that good leaven! Keep your passion for learning the Scriptures warm by constant stirring and proving. Watch your influence grow as you live out your Christlikeness in words and especially deeds. You are his proof!

Bread Week by Becca Ziegler