Influential Change    (June 5, 2016)

​

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.” Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”   (Matthew 13:33-35)

​

         On this very weekend, twenty-seven years ago, [June 4,1989] the world watched as students and political reformers occupied Tienanmen Square in the city of Beijing, China—protesting the continuing oppression and political corruption of the communist government—in an attempt to force the government to make changes in its economic and industrial policies. A couple of lasting images came out of that weekend: the thirty-three foot statue “Goddess of Democracy,” erected as an homage to the Statue of Liberty and the appearance of the “Tank Man,” a lone individual who halted the progress of an advancing line of tanks entering the square. Of course, in the end, in spite of their courage, the protesters efforts appeared for naught when twenty-six hundred [2,600] people were killed along with ten thousand [10,000] wounded as the Chinese army enforced martial law and opened fire on the protesters.

        All was not lost, however. Since that date, almost thirty years ago, gradual, even important changes have occurred in the Chinese government. Several communist leaders have expressed remorse about their support of the massacre and changes in attitudes have led to loosening accommodations to popular tastes.

        The failure [and subsequent embarrassment of some] of the Chinese government to suppress reform doesn’t surprise those of us who are Christians. Our Teacher knew quite well that changes, while inexorable, still occur gradually. This was the point of the parable cited above: Jesus was attempting to reveal how God’s kingdom would eventually subvert and overtake the kingdoms of the world—not overnight but, like yeast, through the gradual dissemination of its influence. God’s kingdom advances through gradual, ever-increasing, true and permanent change in the lives of individuals. 

          Those in first-century Israel who were expecting the sudden triumph of God’s kingdom—and there were many—missed out on its arrival and rejected its King. We, too, often get impatient for God to transform our world, but we must remember that real, lasting change occurs gradually... as we allow Him to reshape our world by reshaping us.