THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

64SMALL THINGS MATTERThe Parables of the Mustard Seek and the YeastLuke 13:18-21We all get discouraged at times. Sometimes we look at things that seem so overwhelmingthat we get depressed.Jesus has a pair of parables that speak to our weak-kneed faith and expand ourunderstanding of His kingdom.To get His disciples thinking He asked them the question,“What is the kingdom of God like?” (13:18)The disciples had trouble understanding the nature of the kingdom of God that Jesus wasproclaiming. Their own view of the kingdom of God was that the Messiah would overthrow theRoman oppressors and restore David's throne. Although they were ambassadors orrepresentatives of that kingdom, they had little understanding of the true nature of the kingdomof God.We are easily impressed by what is large and tall: large estates, aircraft carriers the sizeof football fields, large impressive cars, jumbo jets, mega-stores, mega-malls, mega-churches,multiple lane freeways, giant screen televisions, etc. Big is in!Are mega-churches are more important than small churches? Is it only the big things thatare important?Although big things can be used by God, so can small things. Just as big things matter,little things matter too.This is not true just in the spiritual life; it’s also true in life in general. The same God whocreated the big things created the small things. We are increasingly finding that small things haveas much beauty, complexity and importance as large things. We can see the incredible beautyand complexity of the heavens as we peer through a powerful telescope; similarly, we can see allkinds of incredible beauty and complexity of things the size of a pollen grain when we lookthrough a microscope. But even a flower has complexity, and each part is important and has ajob to do. We can go down even to the size of a pollen grain or a virus until we reach theincredibly small realm of nanotechnology.