A Woman and Her Dough

Just to review from the last post, the next mini-parable is the following:

He told them still another parable: “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.”

Let’s apply the same principles we’ve looked at in the past to this current parable.

P’SHAT

There appear to be some similar attributes to this parable as the previous one (exactly as we would expect). We seem to have the same picture of something small being planted and having massive, unstoppable impact. Once you plant the yeast in the dough, it’s going to do its work. Also, it appears to be counter-intuitive. Yeast (leaven) is ALWAYS a picture of sin in Jewish thought. While Judaism is full of paradox and what is called “double-point truth,” this does not appear to be one of those cases. Leaven represents sin. And the kingdom of heaven is like… leaven?

The p’shat of this teaching lines up to bolster the teaching in the previous parable.

REMEZ

But, if we are becoming more Jewish in our ability to interpret rabbinical teachings, we have to start asking the question: Where have we heard this before; where is this in the Text?

The image of a woman baking a large amount dough would definitely strike familiarity in the mind of a Jewish learner. Especially if we translated the passage correctly (you will likely sense my smirk here). The passage here says “sixty pounds,” which does better than the NIV of 1984 did, but it still misses the better reference. Some translations will add a footnote pointing out that the Greek says “three measures,” or even “three satas.” This would be appropriately heard as “three seahs.” Does this ring a bell yet? Try Genesis 18:

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. 

He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.” 

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

A woman who bakes leaven into three seahs of flour? Sixty pounds? Have you ever tried to make sixty pounds of flour into bread? Jewish tradition teaches that the story of Sarah and her three seahs was miraculous. The rabbis say that when you are willing to be generous and hospitable to a stranger, God will equip you to do unbelievable, even miraculous, things.

DRASH

So what would the deeper teaching be here? The kingdom of heaven is like a woman and three seahs of flour. Jesus seems to be saying, “You know that day when Abraham and Sarah radically served the stranger? You remember how Sarah was willing to bake sixty pounds of flour for people she didn’t even know? That’s the kingdom.”

Link this parable up with the connected parable before it and you have a stunning teaching.

The Kingdom begins small, but it is unstoppable.

The Kingdom is counter-intuitive.

The Kingdom is a small seed that grows into a tree to bless the outsiders.

The Kingdom is a woman who was willing to show radical hospitality to a stranger.

And now the disciples have much to chew on. And so do we.