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THE CASE OF THE SMALLEST SEED!

      Two thousand plus years ago no pious Jew doubted, even for a moment, that the kingdom would come and that it would be vast and glorious.  They had been raised and bred on the notion that one fine day the Davidic Kingdom would be restored by the coming of their Messiah.  Through the prophet Micah they were told that a ruler would come out of Bethlehem and that in the last days Israel would be lifted up above all nations.  For in Micah 4:1 - 3 we read:
       In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.
      Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  3 He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
      Then on one fine day a king was born in Bethlehem.  But when he presented himself to the public thirty years later, he didn't live up to the press he had been given in the Old Testament.  Or rather, he didn't live up to the expectations of the religious rulers.   He claimed to be the long anticipated Messiah, but the kingdom he spoke of had no well-defined boundaries, no material wealth to display, and no readily perceived army to impose its will.   
      You and I have the opposite problem, we have lived among the weeds for so long we can't picture a kingdom of God on this side of heaven.  Sure, we speak about the kingdom, we even read bits and pieces about the kingdom in the New Testament.  But it tends to be a far off place, or at best it seems to be a place that will only be fully realized in the far distant future.
      The Israelites of long ago expected more than they saw on stage.   In our day, we expect too little of the kingdom.  In an odd sort of way both the disciples of long ago had, and the disciples of today have, mistaken notions of the kingdom of God.  The former group expected too much, the latter expects too little.  To correct the thinking of long ago, and to correct our thinking today, Jesus took time to spell out the nature of the kingdom of heaven.
      We have already noted that the kingdom of heaven is like a dumb farmer who scatters his season with no regard for the type of soil on which it falls.  We've also seen that a midnight farmer, a farmer with maliciousness in his soul, over-sowed the field of the first farmer.  He over-sowed it with weeds so that when the wheat sprouted and formed heads the weeds also appeared.
      In using these two agricultural metaphors Jesus is telling us how people enter the kingdom.  He is telling us that others will be drawn into the kingdom because the seed has been broadcast far and wide.  He's telling us not to be discouraged if some of it fails to germinate.  He's telling us to take advantage of the opportunities around us for some of the seed will germinate.  In short, he's telling us that the coming of the kingdom is not so much an event as it is a process.
      He then continued with the agricultural metaphors by telling them a third parable.  In Matthew 13:31 - 32 we read: 
      He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
      It is interesting to note that in Mark 4:30 - 32, where we find the same parable, it appears that Jesus  struggled with how to describe the kingdom.  It's as if he knew that the disciples had failed to grasp all the implications of the first two parables.  So he racked his brain trying to come up with another parable that would illustrate the nature of the kingdom.  We read:
      Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?  31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground.  32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
      Later on, after sharing four additional parables with his disciples, Jesus asked them if they understood what he was saying to them.  He asked them pointblank, "Have you understood all these things?"  And without hesitation, they said "Yes."
      They lied.  They may not have lied intentionally, but they lied.  They didn't understand and the proof of their lack of understanding came a few years later when Jesus was ready to ascend to the Father.  Just before the ascension the disciples started nudging each other saying, "You ask him."
      "No, I think it would be better if you ask him."
      "It's your question, you ask him."
      "It's not just my question!  It's what all of us want to ask him.  We've been talking about it for the last week.  And since you're so close to him, I think you ought to ask him."
      "I'll get Peter to ask him.  There is nothing bashful about him and if it is really a stupid question we can just say that it was Peter's idea."
      "Good idea!"
      So, as you can guess, Peter asked the very question that was on everyone's mind.  He said,
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"1
      You see, they didn't get it.  They didn't understand the parable of the smallest seed.  And neither do we.
      In regards to the parable there is a good deal of controversy surrounding Jesus' observation that the mustard seed "is the smallest of all your seeds."  I think Mark clarifies this for us when he notes that it is the "smallest seed you plant in the ground."  In other words, it was the smallest seed they used agriculturally and in the context of the first two parables Jesus' classification of this seed as the "smallest" makes sense.
      More importantly, it is to be noted that in Jesus' day there was a proverb which used the mustard seed as a symbol of smallness or insignificance.  Today we might say something is "as small as a flea."  But in Jesus' day, they would say "as small as a mustard seed."  We see this in Matthew 17:19 - 20 where we read:
      Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
      He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
      Now let me remind you that the Israelites in Jesus' day never doubted that the kingdom would come and that it would be vast and glorious.  What Jesus is teaching, in this parable of the mustard seed, counters this built-in expectation.  He is saying that there is a basic connection between the small beginnings taking place under his ministry and the kingdom's future glory.  Though the initial appearance of the kingdom may seen inconsequential, the tiny seed leads to a mature plant.
      We can now see why Jesus chose the mustard seed.  For him it was not essential to stress the greatness of the future kingdom; he knew that was a given.  It was more important for him to find a metaphor emphasizing the kingdom's tiny beginning.  This is what the disciples failed to understand.
      But he also chose the mustard seed because surprisingly, though its seed is so small, it grows to a great height.  So much so that it becomes a resting place for the birds of the air.  Scholars estimate that in a single season this plant can grow from twelve (12) to fifteen (15) feet.  The seed appears to be insignificant when compared to other garden seeds but it is powerful.
      What this means for us is that when Jesus told the disciples that he would make them fishers of men he wasn't thinking of just one lone trout.  He was thinking in terms of a boat load of fish!
      It also means that we should never hang our heads as we look at our work in the field.  It may not look like much to us.  But usually that is because we are too close to the work itself to put it in the proper perspective.  To illustrate what I am saying, let me read two sentences to you from an e-mail dated 3/26/07.  The e-mail was from Rachel Chesley in Chad and the sentences are in regard to the trip Carole, John, and I made in mid-March.
      The sentences read:
      "It was good to have you here and hear you say that much has been accomplished.  We don't always feel that way, so hearing another perspective is helpful."
      Do you see our problem in Rachel's words?  You and I have been among the weeds for so long that we fail to see the greatness of the kingdom in this present age.  And in a tough environment like Chad where life is hard every single day and where God's work seems to move at a snail's pace - it is easy to become discouraged.  It is easy to start thinking that you haven't accomplished very much for the kingdom.
      But let's take stock of what God has accomplished through Bill and Rachel Chesley.  Eighteen years ago there was no evangelical church in Baro.  There wasn't even an alphabet associated with the language of the village.  But today, the Migaama language can be expressed in written form.  Today there are 30 literacy classes taking place in Migaami land with at least one class in every village.  These classes are taught by people within the village and the program is directed by Chadians.
      On top of this there is now an evangelical church in Baro with about forty believers.  The church exist in part because the Sultan has placed his blessing on its existence, in fact, the Sultan donated the land on which the church is located.  But it also exist because Bill and Rachel served the everyday needs ot the village day-in and day-out for well over a decade.
      Additionally, the Bible is now being translated into the Migaama language.  Genesis is completely done and is ready to be printed.  The plan is to import a glossy cover for it so that it will be a very attractive book befitting the holiness of the book itself.  Additionally, Bill hopes that the gospel of John, which is very difficult to translate, will be ready for printing before the family comes home on furlough this summer.
      This translation work is not simply the work of Bill and Rachel.  There is an entire team of people, most of them Chadian, who are working through the translation process.  Granted, the church isn't as anxious to see the translation work done as are Bill and Rachel but we need to remember that they have never had the Bible in their hands and, as you can guess, don't fully understand the treasure that it is and the impact it can make on the Migaami tribe.
      So given the metaphors that we have seen in the first three parables, how do you and I plow the fields of this old world?  We tend the fields through prayer.  For prayer is a request for the Holy Spirit's active participation in the work.  It brings divine resources to bear on what may very well appear to be unsuitable soil or on those individual weeds who appear to be beyond redemption.
      As Jesus explained the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples, he said, in John 16:8 - 11 of the Spirit
      When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:  9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;  10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;  11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
      The Holy Spirit will do three things that we can't do, or rather when we try to do the Spirit's job the conversation goes south rather quickly.  First, in regard to sin, the Spirit will convict others of their guilt before God since they do believe in him.  You see, people will admit to failures, vices, or to even some misdemeanors they committed long ago.  But, they shy away from the idea that they have sinned against God.  This is where the Spirit steps in and does his work.
      Second, when Jesus was with us he served as the measuring stick for righteousness.  His life was a walking definition of the term.  Now that he is not physically present, the Spirit convicts men of their flawed view of Jesus whenever the Resurrection is proclaimed.
      Third, in regards to judgment the Spirit demonstrates that the ruler of this world has been defeated by the death and resurrection of Christ.  As such, though Satan would never admit it himself, he no longer holds the power of death over others.
      You see, we can create the opportunity for others to get a good look at Christ, but we can't touch the heart.  That's the work of the Holy Spirit.    

        
        
      He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."    

If it was not good soil for the reception of a new idea, it was for no lack of sufficient plowing and harrowing.

Leviticus 23:15 - 18, also 7:13

Jacques Dupont believes these two parables are linked in that the strange choice of images catch us off guard and make us think.  After all, who, other than Jesus, would think to compare the kingdom of heaven to a tiny mustard seed.  And any Jew would immediately associate yeast with evil.  And yet while it is normally associated with evil in both the Old and New Testament, this is not always the case.

      If there is a distinction between this parable and the last one, it is that the mustard seed suggests more-than-you-would-ever-expect growth while the yeast suggest an inside-out transformation.

1     We really don't know which of the disciples asked the question.  But is seems clear enough that it wasn't the question of one lone disciple.  They were all wondering about whether or not it was time for the kingdom to be restored to Israel.

JESUS & THE KINGDOM OF GOD                          04/01/07    1

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