The Parable of the Mustard Seed
When I was a kid I once tried to grow a tropical rain forest in a wardrobe, in a bedroom in number six Sherwood in the house where I grew up. I decided to begin on the small scale. I began with a seed from out budgie’s cage. If I was successful I would go in for it big time. Obtained a small tin,filled it with soil and embedded the seed in it and hid it at the back of the wardrobe. From my twice weekly visits to the cinema I had learned that rainforests were hot and steamy and that made the trees grow to a great height. As there was neither rain nor sunshine in our wardrobe I had to simulate the tropics. Dead easy – every day I took the can out, filled it up with water and held it over a candle until the steam started to rise. I was a proper little mad scientist. Well, two miracles occurred. The greater of these was that the wardrobe never caught fire. The second wonder was that the earth actually brought forth. One thin unhealthy looking stalk appeared and grew to about two inches. An older and wiser man might have been disappointed and given up, but not me. Success went to my head. I increase the rainfall and doubled the amount of time spent over the candle. It may surprise you to know that the infant forest withered away and died. My attempt at recreating Eden had failed.
In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us that it is possible to produce a forest from one tiny seed. It is beautifully told in a couple of short sentences. Think of the mustard seed –the smallest of seeds, growing in the dark where most people are unaware of it. Yet one day it will be taller than all the other trees and it will protect a multitude of birds. The kingdom of heaven is just us a small and inadequate group of people and yet one day…
Lots of Jesus parables and similes are about seed and growth. I wonder why? I think it may be because he wanted to encourage the week hearted. Those including the apostles were inspired by his Gospel but when times became hard or dangerous some would become fearful or weary or disappointed that the kingdom had not come. Jesus is saying to such ‘cheer up remember the seed growing in the dark. We must go on patiently working, obeying the Father. True we are insignificant by the standards of the world but one day…
After the Resurrection the disciples were renewed and inspired and they would remember that it was Jesus the dead seed, lying three days in the dark who had given new life to them – life that was already growing strong. After Pentecost it would be the Apostles vocation to preach and teach in Jesus’s name. There would be times when the mission would falter when people would be afraid or their faith and hope would falter. It was for such times that the disciples recorded Jesus teaching and especially the parables. When membership dwindled or when there was persecution or when Christians became disappointed or disillusioned the sweet voice of Jesus would sound through the Church: ‘Don’t be afraid. I have overcome the world. Think of the mustard seed – you can’t see it but it is still growing. The kingdom is like that. It is here in the darkness but it is still growing. Don’t lose faith. One day the work will be accomplished and all who yearn for justice will find shelter in the tree of life’.
We have all been hurt, We know bereavement, betrayal and disappointment. We lose heart and our faith fails Christ knows our weakness. He loves us. He will not lose those for whom he gave his life. ‘You have sorrow now but your sorrow will be turned to joy.’ The darkness does not last forever, In Mordor – the darkest of places Sam finds hope: There peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of that forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings