From the Sunday Note with additional thoughts–
He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
Mark 4:30-32 from the Sunday Gospel
A mustard seed is small—but not “the smallest of all seeds on the earth.” The mustard plant can grow into a substantial shrub, but it is certainly not “the largest of plants.” What is going on here? What is going on is memorable teaching in an oral culture.
Jesus attracts a wide range of educated and uneducated people, a few with some formal education, but many with none; perhaps a handful who had books and could read them, but most without books, all of whom heard a lot of the Jewish holy scrolls read to them—and who were a lot more likely to have to memorize what they were taught than to jot down notes. So, Jesus uses the verbal toolbox everyone was familiar with: striking images, hyperbole, humor, surprise—things people would remember and enjoy repeating to family and friends.
In Jesus’ day, many expected the !!KINGDOM OF GOD!! to arrive like Hannibal with war elephants, an immense army, the sky rent by thunder and lightning. Instead, Jesus mashes thumb and forefinger together to suggest just how tiny the earthly beginning of his Kingdom will be: a mustard seed you cannot even see when he holds it up. Really, in seed, at that moment, the kingdom is just him, alone. The smallest kingdom imaginable.
But, once it is “sown” and then “springs up” it will become “the largest” Kingdom of them all, large enough to accommodate all the various kinds of “birds” who need a resting/nesting place. That image, from our first reading in Ezekiel, was a well-known metaphor for a great Empire of many different peoples and tongues. The mustard shrub is, in fact, large enough to accommodate nesting birds of various kinds.
With the hindsight of centuries, we can see that those who have responded to Jesus’ call eventually total many millions more than have ever been part of any earthly empire.
With the hindsight of just a few months, his disciples realized the mustard seed was especially apt when applied to Jesus: he had to be “sown” and then “spring up” from the tomb to establish the beginning of the Kingdom.
Later in the Gospels, when Jesus is arrested, his enemies have no idea they have bitten off more than they can chew. His parable carried a warning for them, too: a mustard seed is small, but crush it with between your teeth and you will discover it packs a wallop hard to forget!
For further reflection:
“Gentle Jesus meek and mild” begins a famous poem for children by Charles Wesley. It is right to surround our littlest ones with the gentleness and protective love of our Lord. As they get older, they (and we) need to realize the more “mustard strength” attributes of Jesus: his willingness to call out evil, his challenging of hypocrisy, his acceptance of suffering for the good of others, just to name a few. As you read through the Gospels about Christ and consider the lives of the earliest Apostles, consider these aspects of the holiness we are called to as adult Christians.
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