‘Creating a Christlike
Culture’
"The Parables of the
mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure and pearl"
Matt 13:31-33, 44-52.
“Give me a lever long enough
and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” So said
Archimedes.
Archimedes, the renowned
Greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor, died in 212 BC during the Roman
capture of Syracuse when the city was captured by Roman forces under General
Marcus Claudius Marcellus.
Despite orders to spare his
life, Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier, reportedly while he was
absorbed in mathematical calculations and refused to leave his work.
And Jesus told a parable about someone planting a mustard seed, one of the smallest of all seeds. (Matthew 13:31-32) In fact, considered a weed and unwelcome amongst a cultivated crop. Yet, this tiny seed grows and become a place of sanctuary for the birds of the air.
To ram home the point Rabbi Jesus offers the same principle but this time it is yeast mixed in with a
huge amount of dough. (Matthew 13:33)
And on yet another occasion Jesus was to say, “truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20.
Did Jesus have in mind here
the great vast Jewish temple built on Mount Moriah?
This place as the locus of
the People of Israel which was indeed to be 'cast into the sea' in AD70 by the
Roman’s. Putting thousands to death just had they had done in Syracuse in 212BC.
And yet within three hundred years of putting Jesus to death, mighty Rome enacted The Edict of Milan issued in February 313 AD following a meeting between Emperor Constantine I, who ruled the Western Roman Empire, and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Eastern regions, in Mediolanum (modern Milan). This agreement came after years of Christian persecution, including the Great Persecution initiated by Diocletian and Galerius in 303–304 AD, which had destabilized Christian communities across the empire.
Archimedes is an important figure in applied mathematics, think for example of Archimedes screw enabling water to be drawn out and used in irrigation.
And what of Jesus – well consider this poem, ‘One Solitary Life’ (slightly adapted)
He was born in an obscure
village.
He worked in a carpenter shop
until he was thirty.
He then became an itinerant
preacher.
He never held office. He
never had a family or owned a house.
He didn't go to college. He
had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty-three when
the public turned against him.
Twenty centuries have come
and gone,
and today he remains a central
figure of the human race.
All the armies that ever
marched, all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever
sat, and all the kings that ever reigned
have not affected the life of
man on this earth as much as that
One Solitary Life.
Ponder this...
Jesus doesn't call us to a
lifetime of huge, mountaintop experiences or grand gestures of faith. Instead,
He wants us to look to Him as we consistently walk through day by day, little
by little. Someone once said, "God must care about the mundane, because
there's an awful lot of it." God cares as much about how we handle the
little, humdrum parts of our day as He does the earth-shattering, big stuff.
The yeast and the mustard seed stuff is very important.
And what of the man who
discovered a treasure hidden in a field and the pearl merchant. (Matthew
13:44-46)
Consider this, the person
discovered the treasure, he wasn’t looking for it but found it anyway. There
are those who stumble into finding faith in Jesus and then whose lives are
utterly change as they give all that they have.
And the pearl merchant – well
he was searching, looking, seeking. And to his absolute delight discovered
faith in Jesus and again gave up everything for the pearl of great price.
What’s your story, how did
you come to know Jesus and his life transforming message?
Were you seeking, searching,
looking, or did you discover Jesus in an unexpected manner.
However we have come to
embrace the faith, in the day to day, in the ordinary, in the mundane and in
the sorrowful aspects and the joyous moments of our lives we should be minded
to ask ourselves, ‘just what am I doing for God’s sake.’
For it isn’t so much as the
years of our life that count, but the life in our years.
May that life in our years
always and forever be Jesus, first and foremost and above all things, in all
things and through all things. Let King Jesus reign and rule with the power of
love overcoming the love of power.
Little things done with great
love creates a Christlike culture, a realised Lord’s Prayer.
And that begins when we align our hearts desire with God's.
https://youtu.be/oxpPIa-BskY?si=CexootHplpu3Vct2
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