A Mustard Seed
The readings this Sunday have a particularly botanical bent. In the first reading, God plants his Cedar on the mountain and it grows, sheltering all the birds and bears fruit. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, a strikingly similar image occurs. However, not up on the mountain of the Lord, as in Ezekiel, but down on the side of the road where wild mustard grows.
The mustard seed parable is often depicted in art and children's colouring-in exercises in ways that might appear humorous to anyone who has actually seen a mustard plant. The misconception is helped along by English translations that give us mustard "trees". Mustard seeds do not, in fact, grow into large trees. In early Spring, they cover large banks and non-arable land with bushy, green branches, and bright yellow flowers. From a small but potent seed comes a prolific burst of vegetation.
Where Jesus lived and taught in Galilee and Judea, mustard plants would grow and cover the banks each year. Often when Jesus tells parables, he uses imagery that people of his day knew about: wineskins, lost sheep, etc. People knew all about hedge mustard. They would collect the seeds from the pods that grew on the plants to cultivate their own mustard for cooking, for medicines and oils, like many people still do today.
No doubt you have seen mustard seeds; Jesus is right in that they are tiny. You may have eaten one, just by itself, and your nose and mouth would have been full of a distinct bitter flavor. The mustard plants that grow in the Middle East cover large areas and are home to birds, insects, and all manner of small mammals. From a little seed comes a whole habitat that shelters the birds and gives flavour to people's lives. Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like this; it is packed with flavour and it will put out its branches and provide space for everyone. More than that, it bears fruit that can do the same.
This parable is about how jam-packed with meaning and goodness life with God can be. A life that keeps growing, seeding, and putting out new pods of goodness. This is the everyday goodness that you could unwittingly walk past and not even notice, like a shrub on the roadside. Yet, if you know how flavoursome it is, you will come back to it time and time again.
Today's Readings: Ezekiel 17:22-24 Psalm 92 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Mark 4:26-34
Source: Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
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