Daily Devotion for Thursday 24th September 2026
Thursday 24th September 2026
Jesus 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.”
Reflection
The Parable of the Yeast or Leaven is often paired with the Parable of the Mustard Seed in commentary and devotions because they both are about small beginnings and large stunning outcomes. But there is something rather special about the yeast parable that merits individual attention.
We are all familiar with the effects of yeast in baking when the unprepossessing grey substance brings about such a transformational effect in the dough.
We may rather take this familiar process for granted. Yeast is amazing! It functions through complex molecular processes involving DNA, RNA, proteins, and metabolic pathways that regulate energy production, growth, and reproduction.
So, although similar to the message of change from small to large in the mustard seed parable, what is distinctive in the use of the yeast image is that it dynamically transforms at a fundamental level. The call of the Kingdom changes the very essence, self, the soul of the follower. Its wonderful power has the potential, as it were, to re-write the DNA of the disciple.
Its effect is also large scale and cosmic as indicated by the “sixty pounds” of flour, a massive quality enough to feed 160 people! The exaggeration is again intentional, pointing to the universal transformation that the Kingdom will bring about.
Prayer
Lord, may the yeast of your gospel message
transform my life.
Day by day may I be changed from the inside.
Re-write my soul’s DNA.
And may my discipleship
act as leaven in the lives of others, Amen.