Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed

Do you ever feel that your faith is too small to make any significant difference in the world? 

In the past weeks we have listened to the parable of the Sower, and we have considered the paradox of letting wheat and weeds grow together. Today we heard another parable: this one describing the power of a mustard seed. Although very small, this tiny seed has the potential to grow into an enormous plant that can dominate the whole garden. A mustard seed is microscopic and yet when it is fully grown, it is somewhere between four and five metres tall. 

A mustard tree is not what is expected when a farmer plants a crop, but nobody notices the tiny mustard seed. It is hard to see, hard to keep an eye on, but it has a way of mixing in with other seeds, germinating and sprouting and eventually, dominating and taking over.  In fact, it is an invasive species. 

During the time of Christ, to say something was the size of a mustard seed was to say that it had no great significance, and to those early followers of Christ, the church probably did seem very small and insignificant, especially when measured against the might and power of the Roman empire, or the Jewish temples, or some of the pagan cults of that time. To answer their doubts, Matthew recalls Jesus’s teaching about the Kingdom as a means of encouragement.  

Remember the context in which Jesus is speaking these words:  there are a small band of genuine followers of Jesus. He has been rejected by the religious leaders, and he is doing his teaching outside in the open air, outside the walls of the temple. He is essentially preaching to a minority. He has already left Galilee and has begun his journey to Jerusalem where he will be rejected, persecuted, and ultimately put to death on the cross. 

I’m sure the disciples were shocked to hear Jesus say, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,” because they would have assumed that the planting of the kingdom of heaven would be more orderly and predictable, laid out in neat rows like lettuce, or tomatoes or spinach!  What is planted is what grows. It is predictable. 

However, when Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the implication is that those neat and tidy rows will be invaded and overturned in ways that are unpredictable and unexpected. Just as mustard seeds may be mixed in with other seeds. So maybe there is a deeper meaning for us in this parable. 

In the church, we want to be able to define what belongs, what fits. We want to have clear definitions. Part of this is the specific way we pray:  we have Scripture, we have creeds, we have liturgy, we have tradition. We have convictions about Baptism. We have boundaries:  nice, neat rows of carefully tended doctrine and practice. And we have buildings:  lovingly constructed churches where we gather to worship as the people of God. 

God however pushes us beyond our carefully constructed boundaries, forcing us to consider who we are as the people of God. “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed” a tiny symbol of how God is forever invading our nice, orderly sense of things. Like a mustard seed hidden in a sack of seed, in the hand of the Sower, in the church, in the mind of God – like a mustard seed, like a treasure hidden in a field, like a pearl of great value hidden among the rest, like the tasty fish hidden among the total catch, like yeast in rising bread. 

The kingdom of heaven, like the mustard seed, penetrates the cultivated soil of our certainties and our boundaries, and creates out of it something entirely new and unexpected. Hidden within what we think we see so clearly; it grows in unexpected ways until what we thought we knew is transformed by our surprising God. Our God who is always calling us to surrender, to go beyond our comfort zones. To be open to new possibilities. So let us not reject the symbolism of the mustard seed which, like us, given the right conditions, can grow and mature and amaze us with its strength. 

As disciples, we are called to use our gifts, our treasures in a way that benefits others as well as ourselves. Jesus shows us the way in his interactions with the people he meets on his journey, in the words that he speaks. We, in turn, are called to build up the kingdom, ensuring that each person we encounter experiences the unconditional love of God.  

In this parable, Jesus is telling us what the Kingdom of God is like. It bears no resemblance to earthly kingdoms which rely so heavily on power and wealth. The Kingdom of God is found in small, apparently ordinary things, and in ordinary people like you and me. God works through everyday acts of faithfulness: kindness and concern for others; through every generous gesture. In these ways we are helping to bring about the Kingdom of God here and now. As we say in the prayer Jesus taught us: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Just as a mustard seed is so small that it often goes undetected until it begins to grow, so these small acts of faithfulness become the Kingdom of God hidden in plain sight, a transformative presence in the world. 

When we say this prayer, we are asking that God’s Kingdom may be a reality here and now and that we may be a part of it. And as we are part of it, we are in the process of gradually being transformed by the power of the Spirit.  

The final image in today’s Gospel is that of a householder bringing out “treasures old and new”, suggesting that disciples of Jesus must integrate old understandings with new insights into the teachings of Jesus. Our faith is something that grows over time and so does our understanding of what God is asking of us. The faith I had as a child is not the same as the understanding I have now and the call of God on my life changes over the course of time. We are called to be faithful, we are called to be transformative, and we are called constantly to surrender what we thought we knew as God brings us to an ever deeper understanding of the Kingdom of God. Amen.