Before Bill O’Reilly was tossed off Fox News for sexual harassment – really, Bill! – he would often take up the parable of the mustard seed when speaking of religion. This was to show how arcane religion really was. To him, ethics were clear and practical (ethics – again, really Bill!); one did not have to resort to far-out concepts like mustard seeds.
However, because it is in the Gospels, the little mustard seed is a big deal to Christian religions. In our own church we got to hear of it again last week, and again, the emphasis was the same. To paraphrase, ‘the mustard seed is like the kingdom of heaven (or the reign of God) – the smallest of seeds, but it grows to be the biggest of plants in the garden, big enough for the birds to perch on its branches.’ We were given additional information later in the sermon – that Jesus was referring to the tales in the Old Testament about the cedars of Lebanon, and how God will work through Israel to make of it such a tree, the mightiest that rises above all others. The Gospel, then, was to juxtapose the mustard plant, which is a noxious weed, to the mighty cedar, which is a tree of great size and value. The idea is that the tiny and unwanted mustard seed shall grow to become as mighty as the cedar, for this is the New Law, the New Way, the way of heaven – to be humble rather than mighty. We have the Sermon on the Mount – “blessed are the meek” – to back this up. And like weeds in a garden, this new emphasis will spread throughout the world – the humble mustard plant replacing the mighty cedar.
And there we have another famous turn-around of Jesus, the standing on the head of the Old. More important still for Christians, we also have the promise that this tiny, formerly unwanted seed with its theology of humble love will replace the philosophy of arrogance and might that before had reigned everywhere.
Well and good, certainly, but the Bible, as with any writing of depth (and none is greater), has many sides or layers to it. And so it was that another came to me as I sat in the hard wood pew, perhaps jolted by an enticing phrase in the homily, and it is this: that the tiny mustard seed is also an image of the passageway to heaven. As Jesus said elsewhere (Mat 7: 12-14) “How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” Those sentences are usually taken to refer to proper conduct, and that is most certainly true, but I believe that along with the parable of the mustard seed, it also describes the finding of heaven itself.
That is, that heaven is as invisible to us as the tiny mustard seed in this world. We can find it, but few do, because it is so tiny. Instead, we look for the big signs as we once looked to the cedar tree, to find God in great works and mighty bolts of thunder and billowing clouds. But for almost all of us, the Kingdom seldom exposes its power in this world. Recall that the Jews sought a new David in this world, just as Jesus revised this, proclaiming that his kingdom was not of this world. Not this, not that, as the Hindus say. Rather, signs of heaven are found in the subtle, in the ineffable – that is, in the spirit, which is not materially of this world, but still existent as a little “seed” within. The mustard seed is then like that door to Narnia found in CS Lewis’s books – a little door in the back of the closet that opens to a whole new dimension of reality.
That is: in being humble, in putting aside oneself as the center of the universe, our attention can then train on something else, on that tiny speck of a seed that is within. With that, we find the narrow gate, which is also the tiny seed that blossoms into a great plant that is home to birds – and to the spirit of man.
And like the mustard seed, it is unwanted in our earthly garden. We want wealth and success and all those good things. The humble life is the least of our desires. But it is necessary, not because wealth is inherently evil, but because it takes our eyes – our focus – from the spirit of heaven. As the opening to this reality is the smallest of seeds in this world, if our eyes are not focused on it, we will miss it. The gate is not only narrow, but “…those who find it are few.”
To me, this is a mind-blow. What at first reading might be understood as a path to an unwanted way of life, one that gives us only something intangible in some hazy afterlife, becomes much more specific. The kingdom of God is indeed amongst us, even as we live, but its entrance is as small as the mustard seed. The entrance is invisible to the casual glance, but it is here, now, to those who know where to find it, like the fictional door to Narnia. And for those who can find it and pass through, this is where the real-life adventure begins.
Before Bill O’Reilly was tossed off Fox News for sexual harassment – really, Bill! – he would often take up the parable of the mustard seed when speaking of religion. This was to show how arcane religion really was. To him, ethics were clear and practical (ethics – again, really Bill!); one did not have to resort to far-out concepts like mustard seeds.
However, because it is in the Gospels, the little mustard seed is a big deal to Christian religions. In our own church we got to hear of it again last week, and again, the emphasis was the same. To paraphrase, ‘the mustard seed is like the kingdom of heaven (or the reign of God) – the smallest of seeds, but it grows to be the biggest of plants in the garden, big enough for the birds to perch on its branches.’ We were given additional information later in the sermon – that Jesus was referring to the tales in the Old Testament about the cedars of Lebanon, and how God will work through Israel to make of it such a tree, the mightiest that rises above all others. The Gospel, then, was to juxtapose the mustard plant, which is a noxious weed, to the mighty cedar, which is a tree of great size and value. The idea is that the tiny and unwanted mustard seed shall grow to become as mighty as the cedar, for this is the New Law, the New Way, the way of heaven – to be humble rather than mighty. We have the Sermon on the Mount – “blessed are the meek” – to back this up. And like weeds in a garden, this new emphasis will spread throughout the world – the humble mustard plant replacing the mighty cedar.
And there we have another famous turn-around of Jesus, the standing on the head of the Old. More important still for Christians, we also have the promise that this tiny, formerly unwanted seed with its theology of humble love will replace the philosophy of arrogance and might that before had reigned everywhere.
Well and good, certainly, but the Bible, as with any writing of depth (and none is greater), has many sides or layers to it. And so it was that another came to me as I sat in the hard wood pew, perhaps jolted by an enticing phrase in the homily, and it is this: that the tiny mustard seed is also an image of the passageway to heaven. As Jesus said elsewhere (Mat 7: 12-14) “How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” Those sentences are usually taken to refer to proper conduct, and that is most certainly true, but I believe that along with the parable of the mustard seed, it also describes the finding of heaven itself.
That is, that heaven is as invisible to us as the tiny mustard seed in this world. We can find it, but few do, because it is so tiny. Instead, we look for the big signs as we once looked to the cedar tree, to find God in great works and mighty bolts of thunder and billowing clouds. But for almost all of us, the Kingdom seldom exposes its power in this world. Recall that the Jews sought a new David in this world, just as Jesus revised this, proclaiming that his kingdom was not of this world. Not this, not that, as the Hindus say. Rather, signs of heaven are found in the subtle, in the ineffable – that is, in the spirit, which is not materially of this world, but still existent as a little “seed” within. The mustard seed is then like that door to Narnia found in CS Lewis’s books – a little door in the back of the closet that opens to a whole new dimension of reality.
That is: in being humble, in putting aside oneself as the center of the universe, our attention can then train on something else, on that tiny speck of a seed that is within. With that, we find the narrow gate, which is also the tiny seed that blossoms into a great plant that is home to birds – and to the spirit of man.
And like the mustard seed, it is unwanted in our earthly garden. We want wealth and success and all those good things. The humble life is the least of our desires. But it is necessary, not because wealth is inherently evil, but because it takes our eyes – our focus – from the spirit of heaven. As the opening to this reality is the smallest of seeds in this world, if our eyes are not focused on it, we will miss it. The gate is not only narrow, but “…those who find it are few.”
To me, this is a mind-blow. What at first reading might be understood as a path to an unwanted way of life, one that gives us only something intangible in some hazy afterlife, becomes much more specific. The kingdom of God is indeed amongst us, even as we live, but its entrance is as small as the mustard seed. The entrance is invisible to the casual glance, but it is here, now, to those who know where to find it, like the fictional door to Narnia. And for those who can find it and pass through, this is where the real-life adventure begins.
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