We are told that a woman 'took' the leaven. She would have to, I'm sure, as she was not born with leaven in her hands. The representation is of something outside of ourselves, of something that we take up, and add to our state – something that we can work with, and make something by its inclusion. But, why a woman?
Traditionally, that is to say: from the point of view of that time and culture, bread making was a woman's work. It fell outside the purview of the common man. It was a restricted field of activity, a thing of narrow focus. The only one we might expect to take up leaven and bread making was the woman.
Here, we should not view the parable as relating only to women, per se – since we must make the leap from leaven to heaven – rather, we must see the issue as something that is taken up by individuals with an inclination to that particular narrow focus, individuals focused and dedicated to their own narrow field of personal interest.
As I am fond of saying – that particular path is open only to those who are open to that particular path. Therefore, taking up heaven, or truth, or the work of the kingdom – that is a particular matter that falls to those with an inclination to take up that particular matter. We are a qualified group of narrowly focused individuals, we find the matter to be one of personal interest.
The common man is a far-reaching group comprised of individuals spinning in tight restrictive circles. There are atheists and agnostics, people interested in work, and people interested in play, professionals, scholars, transients, butchers, bakers, and preachers. All of them are focused on what is in front of them. None of them stray from their field of focus. Like the others in the list, there are also truth seekers, laborers for the kingdom, and those with a heavenly inclination. These also remain true to their field of focus. They are the bread makers; think of that when you recall that Christ said, “I am that bread of life” and “This is the bread which comes down from heaven . . .”
The final detail of this parable is the richest morsel of them all. You'd think the most efficient way to make bread would be to simply throw the yeast in the whole lump, that is not the case in this parable; the leaven is added to three small measures. In effect, the leaven is taken up, and included into three divisions of our state, with a personal interest, or goal, in mind. Here is where definition serves us best, for we must define our 'state', and the three divisions of our state into which we include the heavenly leaven.
Our state is ever connected. We are connected to our environment, our community, our family, our co-workers – and, just as surely as our left brain is connected to our right, our physical/emotional self is connected to our spiritual self. Each and every self, or group of selves, is connected to the spirit through the spiritual self. Every point in the list above is connected to every other point via some form of communication. No state is without communication, therefore, we must define our state as a relay point in a chain of looped communication.
The three communicative divisions of our state exist in our physical, emotional, and spiritual natures. The three measures of meal are seen, then, as equally distributed to, as well as equal in development. No part is, or should be deprived. We may infer from this what kind of individual we wish to be. Each division may develop best in the company of other such divisions – thus the whole point of dividing in the first place, but to truly get the meaning of this, we must see that these divisions are meant to be a whole.
No one part of us should develop at the expense of some other part. All three of our natures: physical, emotional, and spiritual are meant to combine as a whole, and not just that, but intentionally, by predisposition, design, and as a set goal. If we view the combined three natures as a living creature – say, a head connected to two legs, each with hands instead of feet, we might well imagine how some creatures will look due to poorly developed appendages.
Some will be all head, two small tabs struggling to hold it up. Some will have one or more mighty legs, adept in grasping and taking, but so blind they continuously run into walls. The common man is such a creature, well-developed emotions and or physicality, the head only developed enough to aid it's grasping appendages. Even the common preacher, who claims to be spiritual, is seen as more emotionally developed than spiritual. Those with a heavenly inclination, those who labor for the kingdom, must seek the truth of wholeness.
Our physical/emotional half is a relay point in a looped communication between the physical experience, and our spiritual half. Our spiritual half is a relay point in a looped communication between our spiritual roots and our more corporeal branches. We must deprive ourselves of no one part to favor another, for we are meant to be whole: just as spiritual as physical/emotional.
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