by Rev. Dr John Evans
From little things big things grow.
Yes, that basically is the story of the mustard seed . . . however, there is more to be gained from this parable, and the other parables we have heard today so that we might be like ‘every scribe who is trained for the kingdom of heaven’; that is “like a householder who may bring out their treasure which is new, and that which is old.”
First of all, I think we need to go back a couple of steps. Jesus taught in parables – this new and unsettling way of religious communication. And in Matthew’s community he was addressing a community facing particular difficulties. To understand that we just need to see where these “radical and subversive” communications fall in the story. As we are aware a few weeks ago – Jesus sought to address the crowds who were like sheep without a shepherd – by sending out his disciples. Mission. The consequence was rejection and conflict. Then immediately following these parables of Matthew 13, Jesus himself is rejected in his hometown.
In short his community, his very Jewish community, does not want him or his message, or his new community, his new way of living – this kingdom of heaven. When Jesus gets into the boat to begin this teaching at the beginning of the chapter, one is reminded of the earlier scene of the very call of his disciples. Back in Chapter 8, the reader will remember the scene where, in the presence of the crowds Jesus called his disciples to follow him, they then get into a boat and travel through a storm-tossed sea to the other side – to Gentile territory. This teaching is to a community that has been shaken and tossed to the core.
They are small. They are face conflict and rejection. They just seem so different to ways of the religious patterns and practices of the past.
A familiar ring? Perhaps is this what we face?
So already we have seen several responses from Jesus to this.
The abundance of the word of God when it does take root in good soil – the stupendous harvests of 30-, 60- and 100-fold, even taking into account great wastage because of roads, rock and weeds. Two weeks ago – the sower.
Get on with life now and not be consumed with being pure and perfect; take risks. Don’t spend your time being anxious or finger pointing. Leave the wheat and the weeds to grow – last week. (And I should add also the same message from the parable of the drag net in today’s reading.)
But in all these passages know that there will be judgement. What we do now is important – these are not idle matters. For Matthew’s community to know God’s plan for history, culminating in the judgement of the Son of Man, is to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
Today we add to these responses; reinforcing, and in some ways offering new insights.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone sowed in their field; it is the smallest of seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make their nests in its branches.
Perhaps we need to understand a little more about mustard – or at least what passed for mustard that Jesus was talking about. You see any seed might have done to get the message across – from little things big things grow; but Jesus chose a mustard seed. So what do we know about mustard?
A Roman naturalist who lived at the time of Jesus – Pliny the Elder – wrote about the mustard plant. (As an aside, Pliny died when his curiosity got the better of him and went too close to the erupting Vesuvius.) Anyhow, he wrote:
Mustard . . . with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely beneficial for health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted. But on the other hand when it has been once sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it as the seed, when it falls, germinates at once.
Pungent, fiery, good for your health, better if it is planted as a seed, but can spread like wild fire. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed . . .
Wheat, a couple of times referred to in chapter 13, comes across as a rather bland image for the word of God – mustard, however, doesn’t. It is pungent, bitter, perhaps hard to take. So in a world obsessed with self, possessions and greed – Jesus’ teaching can come across as being difficult and hard to take; at the very least, counter cultural. But as Pliny saw – all of that is “good for your health”. Is this not the fullness of life that Jesus offers?
Mustard, according to Pliny, grows wild – it is not necessarily a domesticated or controlled thing. Is this the word of God, the kingdom of heaven – not necessarily domesticated and constrained by the church. Certainly Jesus would have thought in his day the Kingdom of God grew and flourished outside of the constraints of the then religious authorities. In these post-modern times when people are exploring and searching for the spiritual life, they are not committed to the institution of the church and all its structure and ways of operating. People are looking for Jesus apart from the church. We cannot control such a “movement of the spirit”, but we in the church must be there for such people as we can journey with them too and accept that they might only intersect with us occasionally, and we can learn from them. Certainly the old institutional ways will not be the way of the future.
But for all that, mustard can be intentionally planted. And this is something I see we still have to do with the word of God. After all, in Jesus’ parable, the mustard seed was intentionally planted. We have lost sight of this in so many of our churches. We have failed to plant seeds for children and young people, seeds for our friends and other family members, seeds intentionally planted in the community and the hearts and minds of our fellow Australians. Why we have failed in this, I wonder? Is it that the message of the kingdom of God is a little pungent; but then it can be good for your health. Why wouldn’t we want to share that?
The final quality about mustard – according to Pliny – is that mustard, once planted, has a tendency to take over – spread like wildfire – become a weed, an infestation. What would we say – the kingdom of heaven is like nutgrass, or prickly pear or lantana or Salvation Jane or is it Paterson’s Curse? The kingdom of heaven can start from a small seed – but that then becomes the norm. Indeed those wonderful birds nesting in this shrub are probably the cause of the spread of the plant.
So the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed . . . an encouragement and challenge to a small community.
In a similar vein, it is also yeast – a small amount can leaven a vast quantity of flour (the three measures) enough here to feed 100-150 people. Indeed, yeast was almost a symbol of corruption in Jewish tradition. Like with the mustard plant, it is a shocking juxtaposition with the hope for the kingdom of God. Moreover, this woman literally hides the yeast in the flour – not just kneads it in – hides it. In the context of Matthew’s story the parable seems to mean that the reality of the kingdom is hidden now to religious leaders, perhaps to the general public, but it will be revealed later. God is present within God’s community – but this is a hidden presence, a quiet abiding, not some great public spectacle.
One commentary I read concluded with a modern analogy to these parables of quiet, hidden spread and growth. It said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a preacher who preached every Sunday to a congregation of twenty-five people in a city of two million residents. The preacher kept on preaching until the whole city believed the gospel.” Scholars believe that Matthew’s community, for whom this gospel was written, consisted of only 25 people.
But then why then would one keep at it?
You see, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field; it is like a pearl of great price. It is worth so much that the labourer will go out and sell everything and buy this field, and the pearl trader will similarly go and sell everything. In other words, it is worth everything. One gives everything up to enjoy life within the kingdom of heaven. Whether you just in the ordinary course of your life – here in the first parable it is a man working in a field – and you just stumble upon a treasure; or perhaps you set out on a life’s quest to find meaning and happiness – like the pearl trader – and you just happen to come across the most stupendous pearl; you are going to give up all so that you might have this treasure. The treasure you acquire brings joy, fulfilment and great happiness.
So we come to the end of these parables with Jesus’ question to the disciples, “Have you understood all this?”
How are we to take their bold answer, “Yes”? What would be our answer?
Is the answer of the disciples arrogant – especially as they are later exposed as not understanding? Is it an honest misunderstanding on their part to claim that they understand? Or do they really understand? The narrator leaves us dangling, since Jesus passes no verdict one way or another on their answer. Hereafter in the story, they both understand and misunderstand.
What we do learn is that understanding is critical—not so much intellectual perceptiveness, but an understanding of the heart – like Jesus spoke about earlier in the chapter when he was speaking of why he uses parables. He says he uses them (quoting from Isaiah),
So that we might not just look with our eyes and listen with our ears, but understand with the heart.
Do we understand with our heart? And here Jesus surprisingly uses the image of the scribe (or rather a scribe likened to a householder who brings out treasures new and old). Now this scribe has undergone training for the kingdom of heaven. It conjures up the spectre of disciplined learning, of committed engagement to prepare for life under divine rule. The disciplined learning involves things both new and old.
There is the old story to be rehearsed, of God’s promise to establish a reign of peace and justice in the world and of God’s working in the history of an ancient people to bring about that reign. However, critically there is also the new fact — Jesus’ entry into the story, confirming the promise and demonstrating, albeit in a hidden way, the nature of God’s reign. The parables Jesus has just told give insight into this new way of understanding God and our relationships. In the disciple’s training the two belong together.
So again the question of Jesus – have you understood all of this?
Let anyone with ears listen!
