It is easy to read past the parables, as if they are for children or the randomly curious. But that’s far from true. All the parables say something deep, needed, and amazing.
That little mustard seed grows into something very big. Christ is that little mustard seed. One man shows up in Israel and He changes the world. We need to hear this. It is Christ then, as well as now, and certainly into the future, that changes everything.
Jesus changes us. He promises to. It wont all be easy and it wont all be hard, but he promises to change us. This means he is constantly working in us, even in our sins, even in our easy times. This is the love for God. This is good!
Due remember though. This change is only possible out of love, He died for us. And out of power over death, he rose from the dead. Everything about Christ and change goes through and is because of the suffering of the cross and the empty tomb.
The leaven in the fourth parable is that the working of the Kingdom of God is quite often hidden and patient. We humans like the spectacular. And we like things to happen when we want them to happen. But Jesus promises us that the leaven is at work, though we do not often see it and we cannot control it.
Trust God to be at work even when it seems He is not.
This is a video of Tim Keller’s funeral
The Men's Bible Reading Idea 