“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”
If you drive to St. Pats from Shelbyville Road along North Beckley Station Road, it’s hard to miss the small grove of bamboo on the left. If you've never noticed it, be careful if you go looking for it: Beckley is dangerous enough. Anyway…
When I was young, I remember the story friends of the family told as a warning. Without much forethought, they had planted some bamboo in their front yard because they liked the exotic esthetic. Of course, it grew and grew and what they had wanted to be a nice little ornament threatened to take over. So, they went to war. No matter how much they cut, it grew. No mater how much herbicide they used, it grew. Even after they dug it out, soaked the ground in gasoline (this is bad for the environment, don't do it), and capped it with ready mix cement, two years later a little bamboo shoot broke through the concrete. Eventually, they had to sell the house (okay, that's not true, I made up that last part for effect). When I drive by that patch of bamboo, I remember the story and often think with a chuckle, “Oops, somebody made a mistake.”
The parable of the mustard seed clearly makes the contrast between the small beginnings of the kingdom of heaven and its amazing increase. This was encouraging to the small band of followers around Jesus who could identify with the small seed. We can think, now, of the amazing growth of the church, the Body of Christ, reaching all the ends of the earth. It may also resonate with us that our personal journey of faith and discipleship may have begun with just one authentic prayer. But there is something more going on here, too.
Why did Jesus not pick a real tree as an example for this parable? The contrast between seed and tree for a Lebanon Cedar, which can reach nearly 120 feet tall (instead of just nine feet for mustard), could have made the point more effectively. Mustard, however, was thought of kind of like that bamboo: a nuisance that grew out of control and was hard to kill. If you sowed mustard seed, you better want it to be there forever. If you were walking along a Galilean road in Jesus’ day and saw a patch of mustard growing in the field, you might think, “Oops, somebody made a mistake.”
In addition to the amazing growth of the kingdom, Jesus also uses the mustard seed because it is a little subversive. Faced with challenge or even persecution, the kingdom persists. Despite sin, rejection, distraction, or attack, it grows. Given any little crack, it reaches for the Son. It reminds me of a quote from the early theologian Tertullian, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Or, better, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Oops.