What do a mustard seed and Palm Sunday have in common? Ericka Graham continues our series looking at the parables of Jesus and examines the theology of a mustard seed.
Matthew 13:31-33
31 Jesus told them another parable.
Jesus: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a sower took and planted in his field. 32 Mustard seeds are minute, tiny—but the seeds grow into trees. Flocks of birds can come and build their nests in the branches.
33 And Jesus told a fourth parable.
Jesus: Imagine a woman preparing a loaf of bread. The kingdom of heaven is like the leaven she folds into her dough. She kneads and kneads until the leaven is worked into all the dough.
Mark 11:1-11
1 When they had gotten close to Jerusalem, near the two villages of Bethphage and Bethany and the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His followers ahead of them.
Jesus: 2 Go to that village over there. As soon as you get into the town, you’ll see a young colt tied that nobody has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it back to Me. 3 If anybody stops you and asks what you’re doing, just say, “The Lord needs it, and He will send it back right after He’s done.”
Everything happened just as Jesus had told them. They found the colt in the street tied near a door, and they untied it.
Bystanders: 5 What are you doing?
6 They answered as Jesus had instructed and were allowed to take it, 7 so they brought the colt back to Jesus, piled garments on its back to make a comfortable seat, and Jesus rode the animal toward Jerusalem.
8 As they traveled, people cast their cloaks onto the road and spread out leafy branches, which they had brought from the fields along the way. 9 People walked ahead of them, and others followed behind.
People (shouting): Hosanna! Rescue us now, Lord! Hosanna! Blessed be the One who comes in the name of the Eternal One! 10 And blessed is the kingdom of our father David, which draws closer to us today! Hosanna in the highest heavens!
11 To the sound of this chanting, Jesus rode through the gates of Jerusalem and up to the temple. He looked around and saw that evening was coming, so He and the twelve went back to Bethany to spend the night.
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“Yeast and mustard, both of which were known for their infectious spreading qualities, seem to be unlikely metaphors for God’s kingdom…Jews valued order and had very strict rules about how to keep a tidy garden, and one of the secrets was to keep out mustard. It was notorious for invading well-trimmed veggies and other plants and quickly taking over a garden. When first century peasants heard Jesus’ images, they probably giggled, or maybe they told him to hush before he got himself killed for using this infamous plant to describe God’s kingdom subtly taking over the world.
Plenty of people had lofty expectations of the kingdom coming in spectacular triumph and were familiar with the prophets’ well-known ‘cedars of Labanon’ imagery, which described the kingdom as a giant redwood—the greatest of all trees. The cedars of Labanon as a metaphor for the kingdom would have brought some enthusiastic amens from the crowd, gotten some people dancing. But Jesus ridiculed this triumphal expectation. After all, even mature mustard plants stand only a few feet high—modest little bushes.
When mustard is crushed, it’s potency is released…so there goes Jesus spinning power on its head again. His power was not in crushing but in being crushed, triumphing over the empires sword with his cross.”
- Shane Claiborne, the Irresistible Revolution
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“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr