Introduction

One time, my family and I went to a restaurant. As per usual, I was off in my own little world while my family grabbed their food and sat down. When I snapped out of it, I looked up and saw my family sitting across the way.

So I walked over to them, but I realized that I was looking at them through some windows and I didn’t know how to get to the other room where they were sitting. I was puzzled. I walked the length of the wall trying to find a door. I even walked out of the restaurant to see if there was another entrance to the secret room.

Finally, feeling like I was trapped in some sort of nightmare, I called out to my mom and asked her how she got over there. She looked at me, completely confused and said “Mattie, we’re right here.” I told her, “I know, I just don’t know how to get over there.” Again, confused and completely unhelpful, my mom repeated, “Mattie, over here.”

At this point in the story, I should tell you that this restaurant is small but it is popular. It is packed, and I notice that every single person is now staring at me. My face grew red, and I repeated, “Mom, I don’t know how to get where you are.”

A very kind woman touched me on the shoulder and said, “Sweetie, turn around.” You see, what I didn’t notice when I walked in is that this restaurant had an entire wall of framed mirrors made to look like windows. So, I turned around and realized that my family was, in fact, only a couple of feet away from me, and I had been pacing around looking for their reflection like a lost bird. And everyone in the entire restaurant had been watching while I did it.

You might be wondering at this point; how did I miss my own reflection? I have no idea. The worst part of this is that I was sixteen-years-old.

We’re going to be talking about paying attention. Although this is not always my strong suit, we’re going to look at two parables that Jesus used to describe the kingdom of God. With these parables, Christ illustrates to his audience that if you can’t find the kingdom of God—you might be looking for the wrong people, you might be looking in the wrong place, and you might be looking for the wrong thing. So, pay attention and turn around.

(Read Luke 13:18-21)

You Might Be Looking for the Wrong People

I want to start with a quick translation note. ἄνθρωπος means “person” not “man.” So, if you hear me using gender ambiguous pronouns for the gardener, that is because I am reading from the Greek.

I want us to see that there are three unusual things about the mustard seed.

First, it’s small. The kingdom of God, the Messiah you’ve been waiting for is like a mustard seed. To the original audience, this metaphor might sound like comparing something like the Eras Tour—powerful, significant, and all-encompassing—to something as small and insignificant as the NFL.

Second, it’s not allowed to be planted in gardens according to the law. This stuff was seen as a weed—it was clearly stated in the Mishnah that one could not plant mustard seeds in a garden, because the plant would end up taking over the whole garden—it couldn’t be controlled.

When I was a kid, my grandfather had acres and acres of land, but he had this one plot of bamboo. If only you could hear him talk about this bamboo. He was this massive, country man who never met a buck he couldn’t shoot. But this bamboo was his arch enemy. I remember him looking me in the eye one day and saying, “That bamboo spreads faster than your mamaw’s gossip on salon day.” Y’all, I have been with my grandmother to get her hair done—and let me tell you, that bamboo must have spread FAST.

Third, it doesn’t grow into a tree. The mustard seed does spread quickly, but it isn’t known for its height. We’re talking a couple of feet tall, at best.

So, what is Jesus trying to say here? Does he not know what he’s talking about? I can imagine some bystanders listening to this story and saying, “Stick to carpentry, Jesus.”

He is addressing the elephant in the room—that he isn’t the Messiah they expected. When they pictured the Messiah, they were expecting someone to come with enough military power to rescue Israel from Roman imperial oppression. Instead, they’re looking at a guy with a group of scraggly looking disciples.

He’s not the Savior they expected, but his method of saving isn’t what they expected either. What do you mean he’s willing to challenge religious authority? In the previous passage, he just healed a woman on the Sabbath.

I was over at my friend’s house absolutely slaughtering her in our favorite board game. This is my story; I get to tell it how I want. But I was admiring her absolutely gorgeous monstera plant. It’s huge, maybe six or seven feet tall with beautiful leaves. I told her that I was so impressed that she was able to keep a plant like that alive.

Then, she showed me that she actually had received the plant as a propagation. The picture was a scraggly looking leaf in a jar of water. And she had managed to take care of it and nurture it to this point. Although growing this monstera plant to this point was very impressive and took a lot of care, it is still within biological reason for the monstera plant to reach this height. The mustard plant, however, does not turn into a tree. No matter how much care and attention you give it. So, is Jesus a fake plant person, like I am? Or is it possible that he’s referencing something else?

If we look at the Old Testament, we see that two of the biggest and most powerful empires are compared to trees. Assyria and Babylon were presented as trees. In Ezekiel 17:22-24, God plants his own tree that eclipses that of worldly kingdoms. In fact, there is this picture of God doing his own propagating. He takes the shoot off this tree, and he makes something completely different. This is a tree for birds of every kind of nest.

With this image of the mustard seed, Jesus urges his hearers that if they cannot find the Kingdom of God, they are looking for the wrong people. They are looking for a military savior to rescue them from the oppression of the Roman empire. Instead, Jesus tells them that the kingdom of God belongs to the mustard shrubs. God’s kingdom, despite its unlikely beginnings with a humble messiah from Bethlehem and his ragtag band of followers, will grow to supersede the most powerful of earthly kingdoms.

Christ may not be the Savior they expected, and he may make religious authorities uncomfortable, but his kingdom will grow—in fact, it is spreading faster than Mamaw’s gossip on salon day. You just have to pay attention. You have to look for the right people.

This brings us to the next point. Jesus uses not one unusual image for the Kingdom of God, but two. In fact, if you think that the first parable was strange, buckle up for the next one—because God compares the kingdom of God to a yeast infection. Or something like that.

You Might Be Looking in the Wrong Place

Sourdough girls, it is your time to shine. I narrowly avoided the sourdough epidemic of 2020, but I had many friends who fell victim. But it is better this way because I became a certified taste tester. Not only did I get to eat the bread, but I even helped a few of my friends come up with names for their sourdough starters.

You see, sourdough starters are wild because they are a living thing. That’s right, these women are able to make delicious bread because they have a jar of living bacteria living on their counter. And it has a name. Just for fun, here’s some of the names I suggested to my friends:

• Bread Sheeran
• Clint Yeastwood
• Taylor Sift
• Yeast Witherspoon
• Bread Zepplin

Or you could go for a more historical name:

• Edgar Allen Dough
• Isaac Gluten
• Alexander Hamilton (Rise Up!)

Like the mustard seed, there are three shocking things about this parable.

First, Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a woman baking? I made dinner for my little brother and a couple of minutes into dinner, he looks at me and says, “Mmmm! You know, if you weren’t such a good bible scholar, I’d say you belong in the kitchen!” Little brothers. Similarly, Christ knows how shocking it would have been to compare the power and magnificence of God’s kingdom to the mundane work of a woman.

Second, yeast was a common image for moral corruption. It was something infectious and viral. It’s not exactly the most appealing metaphor.

Finally, that’s a lot of bread! This much bread would be way too much for one family. This woman is not only baking enough for her daily bread. She was preparing a feast.

What is Jesus trying to say here?

With the baking metaphor, Christ is saying that if the kingdom of God is not what we expect, maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. The word “mixed” here literally means “hidden.” The woman is literally hiding the kingdom of God in something as mundane as baking bread for her community.

In one of my favorite poems of all time by George Herbert, the poet attempts to describe prayer. This is no small task. The poem is a string of metaphors that try to capture the magnitude and beauty and complexity of petitioning to our Creator.

One of the metaphors Herbert uses has always stuck with me. He describes prayer as “Heaven in Ordinary.” To me, this metaphor captures how strange and wonderful it is that we can always access God through our mundane, ordinary words.

I believe that this metaphor also beautifully captures Jesus’ meaning of this parable. In describing the Kingdom of God as hidden in the dough of a woman baking bread, I think that Christ is saying that if you can’t find the kingdom of God, maybe you’re looking in the wrong place. Maybe, you need to look for the ordinary.

Yeast is pervasive, infectious, growing, and living. It is transformative. Even though it is shrouded in the mundane, the kingdom of Heaven is alive and working, even if you can’t see it. You just have to know where to look.

God’s reign is as powerful and extensive in its reach as it is ordinary in its appearance. Similar to the sourdough starter, it might just look like a messy jar sitting on a millennial white girl’s kitchen counter. Instead, it’s something that is living, spreading, and growing. And the results are transformative and nourishing.

This is enough bread to feed a whole community. If you can’t find the kingdom of God, look to the banquet table.

I was raised Southern Baptist. One thing that the Southern Baptists get right every time is the potluck. Women may not be able to preach in the Southern Baptist Denomination but man did they manifest the kingdom of God in that fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

Jesus explains with this parable that if you can’t find the kingdom of God, you have to look in the right place! The kingdom of God is ordinary and mundane, it’s transformative and infectious, and the kingdom of God is practiced in community.

This leads me to our last point. Jesus is trying to tell us that if we can’t find the kingdom of God, we might be looking for the wrong thing to begin with.

You Might Be Looking for the Wrong Thing

Both of these unlikely images compare the kingdom of God to something hospitable, nourishing, and healthy. All three words that we can always confidently use when it comes to the North American Church … right?

Most of us are at this church because we’ve experienced some sort of deep hurt when it comes to the church. That’s why I am here.

When we come to church, we feel like we don’t know the right moves. We feel awkward, out of place, and we feel like we don’t belong. We feel like a shrub. Some of us may have even been made to feel like a corruption or an infection.

Far too often, we go looking for the kingdom of God, and all we see is oppressive systems and tired rituals. We see the hurt, the suffering, and awful things done in the name of Jesus Christ. We feel paralyzed and overcome looking for the kingdom of God, and then we find the wrong thing.

But with these parables, I believe that Christ is tapping us on the shoulder and telling us to turn around. You’re looking for the wrong people. You’re looking in the wrong place. You’re looking for the wrong thing. Pay attention.

The kingdom of God is not a military power. It is not made up of able-bodied, straight, white men. It is not limited to any one kind of person, and it is not tied to any one kind of place. It’s just the extraordinary and supernatural.

If you want to see the kingdom of God, go wash some mugs downstairs after this service. If you want to see the kingdom of God, stick around to see the toddlers run around the sanctuary laughing and climbing all over the stage. If you want to see the kingdom of God, look at the person sitting next to you and tell them that you are glad they are here. If you want to see the kingdom of God, look in the mirror. Go make some sourdough. Go plant a mustard seed. Watch it rise, watch it grow. There it is. Pay attention.

Conclusion

But Christ knew that the kingdom of God was not perfect. He knew that what we have on earth is only a glimpse of what’s to come.

A couple of weeks ago, we made the insane decision to take our toddler to Disney World. She had absolutely no idea what was coming. So, we decided to micro-dose the Disney World experience by showing her YouTube videos of the Disney parade.

She became absolutely obsessed. We watched them over and over again. The whole time, my husband and I were getting more and more excited because we knew it was only a glimpse of what was to come.

When the day came, and she witnessed the parade in person, I have never seen anyone so full of joy and awe. It was the real thing.

I can’t help but imagine our Heavenly Parent watching us admire and enjoy his kingdom now, and thinking “Just you wait. Just you wait.”

Benediction

And now, may you be reminded that we are all called to explore and participate in the life of Jesus, so that we can be a healing presence in the world. Let’s close our time with a final blessing.

And now, may you, my friends, take time to observe the Kingdom. May we all pay attention to the Kingdom of God at work around us, and may we always remember that it is a mere glimpse of what is to come. In the name of Jesus, go plant. Go bake. Peace be with you.

Mattie Mae Motl is an MDiv student at Denver Seminary who has a heart for bridging the gap between the ivory tower and the church pew. After her masters, she plans to get her PhD in New Testament.