Mustard

Sitting in church this morning, listening to the Gospel, a thought struck me (remarkable, but it does happen sometimes!). The reading was a parable – the parable of the mustard seed.

He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

What suddenly struck me about this was that I’ve always heard this parable conflated with the other mustard-seed parable: “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.“ That is, in the top passage, “the mustard seed” is assumed to be our faith, and that God will make it and the Kingdom grow until it is the largest of all plants.

But what I think this passage is talking about is Israel. God chose Abraham, the “smallest seed”, and has grown him into a great nation. And, importantly, that the birds of the air will come and rest in it. (Of course, the seed here may also be Jesus, founding the new Israel, but the point remains.) So, what this parable seems to be about is saying that God has chosen Israel and made it grow so that the Gentiles may come and rest in her. For what else can the birds of the air be? The tiny seed has grown out of all proportion (mustard is usually a small plant) and become the place that all nations come together in peace.

And one other point that our vicar mentioned in his sermon is that mustard was probably chosen deliberately. Not just because it has a small seed, though – many plants have small seeds. If we look at the immediately preceding verses, we see that it’s a parable about the Kingdom being like wheat, a good food crop. Mustard, though, is a weed. It steals resources from the main crop to grow; just so, perhaps, the Kingdom lurks within the world.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 6:36pm on 18 June 2006
Category: Faith, Musing

I normally veer on the side of not trying to find a referrent in such parables. That is, Jesus is merely explaining how things work in the KoG. However, it’s pretty difficult to deny this reading.

It reminded me a lot of Deut. 7.

I wish I could remember who it was who argues that ‘birds of the air’ would have been an obvious reference to the Gentiles. Ken Bailey maybe?

graham () (URL)
1:51pm on 20 June 2006