Life Between The Trees: Mustard Mark 4:30-32

When I was in middle school and began learning about matter, I remember being taught about atoms, figuring they were the smallest particle.  Later I learned that atoms were made up of protons and neutrons and electrons, meaning the basic building blocks of matter were even smaller.  However, though they have been theorized since before I was born, it was only a few years ago I began hearing about something that was even smaller than all those protons, neutrons, and electrons, quarks.  Each proton and neutron within an atom of matter is made up of three quarks.  Quarks, known by their flavors of up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm, are now the smallest particle of matter that has been observed.  Without the quark, which is so small none of us can see it, there would be nothing to see.

Without quarks, there would be no trees to see as we journey in our “Life Between the Trees”.  In our journey, which is fast drawing to a close, we have been moving from Eden to New Jerusalem.  We have considered the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, the Olive Tree, the Cedar Tree, the Oak Tree, the Palm Tree, the Broom Tree, the Fig Tree, and last week, the Sycamore Tree.  In these trees we have discovered the gifts and promises of God, His faithfulness, and His call upon our lives.

While quarks are the smallest known bit of substance to have been observed, Jesus didn’t talk about quarks.  He was not talking to a group of scientists out of MIT, Harvard, Duke, or NC State.  He was talking to a group of first century men and women, many of whom grew up in agricultural settings.  So rather than compare the Kingdom of God to quarks, Jesus talked about something the people listening would have been familiar with, something that itself is made up of an unimaginable number of quarks, a mustard seed.

Jesus had been engaging the twelve disciples, along with some other men and women who were close to Him, teaching them about the Kingdom of God—sharing with them stories and examples, to help them try to better understand the Kingdom of God.  He told them about a person sowing seed, as the seed scattered along the ground, it would fall in different locations, only the good soil producing an abundance of crops as an example of how the Word of God lands upon different people, and how those that have prepared themselves to receive the Word find it producing fruit that in turn touches others.  He compared the Word of God to a lit lamp, that would not be covered, but would be set out to provide light to all.  Jesus then compared the growth of the Kingdom of God to that of seeds that are sown, and then the plant suddenly sprouts, grows, produces fruit, and then is ready to be harvested…Each completed step observable, but almost mysteriously moving from one stage to the next.

Then Jesus says, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God…It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it brows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Yes, as I read that it did say “shrub” and not “tree.”  It could be argued that the mustard plant is only a bush and not a tree and does not belong in our journey.  However, I have included it for a couple of reasons—one is that when I offered up the survey asking folks to name the first tree that came to mind when thinking of the Bible, “mustard” was one of the responses, meaning that regardless of whether or not it is a tree or bush, there are some who consider it a tree in the parable that Jesus shared. Secondly, growing to nine-foot-tall in parts of Israel, it borders on tree height, most likely why the authors of Matthew and Luke actually give it tree status.  Regardless of whether we want to call it a bush, a shrub, or a tree, it does grow and is encountered between the trees of Eden and New Jerusalem, and Jesus has placed it here for us to consider.

There are times where many of us may feel small and insignificant, even in the church.  We look around us and we see people doing, what we consider, to be doing greater things.  We see people working harder than we are able to. We see people doing things that we are unable to do.  We see people giving more than we are able to give.  We see people doing more things than we could ever juggle.  It makes us feel small, insignificant, useless.  It makes us feel like a mustard seed set alongside a Coco de mer, the seed of a palm tree, the largest seed in the world.  And yet, Jesus does not compare the Kingdom of God to the coco de mer, He compares it to the mustard seed.

Jesus wants us to understand that there are no insignificant contributions to the Kingdom of God.  Even the smallest seed planted…the smallest action offered, is significant in revealing the Kingdom of God in the world.  Jesus is saying that it doesn’t matter whether we are preaching to a packed arena like Billy Graham, or just offering a kind word to someone who is hurting; it doesn’t matter whether we are digging a well in Africa, or scooping food at the soup kitchen; it doesn’t matter whether we are singing Ava Maria in the National Cathedral or Jesus Loves The Little Children in the nursery; each and everything we do in the Name of Jesus is a mustard seed act of faith, planted in the soil of God’s Creation.  There is no action too small if it comes from the heart of one striving to follow Christ and reveal the Kingdom—consider the scene that Jesus draws attention to later when He takes the disciples to the Temple and they watch contributions into the treasury.  The wealthy come and place massive amounts of wealth in the treasury and Jesus doesn’t acknowledge a single gift until the widow comes along and offers her two coins.  Jesus declares that she has given more than all of the wealthy that came to Temple that day.

Each and every one of us, each seed we are able to plant, is significant.  We may or may not see the results.  We may not be able to watch it grow and change—just as Jesus referenced in the parable of the seed growth.  Yet, it will grow, in ways often unseen, until it is producing fruit, which contains more seeds, that when planted will grow into more plants.

Think of it this way.  You plant the simple mustard seed of a kind smile to a person who is having a rough day.  That smile takes root in them, lifting their spirits, enabling them to smile at others who are struggling that day.  Those smiles take root, enabling them to share a smile with others who seem to have clouds hanging over their lives. And so on, and so on, and so on, until there are more smiles being spread that we can number…just as the number of mustard seeds from one seed planted, produce more seeds that we could ever imagine.

Each planted seed is important.  Each contributes to making the Kingdom visible in this world.  If an up quark decided it was too insignificant and dropped out of existence, the atom connected to that quark would cease to be, the molecule connected to that atom would cease to be, the object connected to that molecule would cease to be.  A mustard seed left unplanted will never grow into a shrub, bush, or tree…it won’t be there to provide rest and shade for the birds in that place.  Those birds will be left to search for relief somewhere else.  The Kingdom of God is not dependent upon us.  We cannot destroy it by choosing not to plant mustard seeds of faith.  However, God has given us those seeds to plant and reveal His Kingdom right here in this community—that those living here won’t have to search elsewhere for shade, rest, and relief.  May we faithfully plant the seeds that God has given, no matter how insignificant we think they are…that His Kingdom may be seen right here, right now.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.