The Seed, the Yeast and the Narrow Door. About Three Universal Laws 

Luke 13: 18-29, Gal. 3: 8-12

The Apostle reading on the Nativity day says, “…When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, … so that we might receive adoption as children” (Gal. 4: 4-5).

It is not only the Mosaic law that Christ yielded to. Today we are reminded of the three universal laws, created by God. They are the law of the seed, the law of yeast and the law of the narrow door. Asking, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it?” the Lord finds no better parallel than an ordinary seed and ordinary yeast. Anything that comes into this world follows the law of the seed, while everything in the world happens according to the law of yeast.

The law of the seed allows one seed to give life to many others. However, it must first go through a narrow door and die. Abraham, was once a lonely wanderer in a foreign land, constrained by neighboring tribes and having lost his hope of having an heir. He truly died when, at the command of God, he raised a knife over his long-awaited son, but later he became a progenitor of nations, leavened by the faith of their forefather, the Law of Moses and later also by the words of the prophets. It is the same people that God later led along the narrow path of a long slavery, a forty-year journey through the desert and being constrained by cruel neighbors in the Promised Land.

Everything takes time, and gradually this leaven also did its job, permeating the Abrahamic people with righteousness and the expectation of the coming Saviour. Raising a Daughter, through Whom the Savior came into the world, this nation then sent its sons to preach the Gospel everywhere. Throughout His earthly life the Lord walks the narrow path of voluntary fasting, patience towards enmity, and, finally, crucifixion and death. Becoming buried in the earth, He becomes the seed of a new, blessed life of the Kingdom of Heaven, sending the Holy Spirit to His disciples, as a leaven that would gradually transform His Church in faith. All this is also walking “through a narrow door”.

Whoever thinks that there is a way to safely walk in and out of this world, avoiding this narrow pathway, will find himself knocking on the locked doors, saying, “Lord, open to us”.  At this point neither Him coming into this world, nor the fact that He lived among us and was crucified for us will help. Then we will hear, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” Because only “those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed”.

All this makes the law of the seed, the law of leaven and the law of the narrow door the universal laws of this world. The Lord is preparing to come into this world to follow these laws; turning them to our salvation and pointing them out to us again.

Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Vyacheslav_Reznikov/propovedi-na-kazhdyj-den/54

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