Lectionary Reflection — 17 June 2018
26-29 Then Jesus said, “God’s Realm is like seed thrown on a field by a farmer who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows — the farmer has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without the farmer’s help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain’s fully formed — harvest time!
30-32 “How else can we picture God’s Realm? What other kind of story can we use? It’s like a pine nut. When it lands on the ground it’s quite small as seeds go, yet once it’s planted it grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches. Eagles nest in it.”
33-34 With many stories like these, he presented his message to them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. He was never without a story when he spoke. When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, sorting out the tangles, untying the knots.2
For a lot of us, the stories (or “parables”) Jesus tells to describe God’s Realm are very familiar. So familiar in fact that the words from The Message may be a little off-putting.2 Others of us, though, may find them quite insightful. So let’s look at these stories and see if we can find something to help us on our journey.
In the first story, Jesus said God’s Realm (or “kingdom”) is like seed planted by a farmer. “The seed sprouts and grows,” Jesus says, “but the farmer has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without the farmer’s help…” While some of us would push back against this (we know “how it happens”), we shouldn’t read too much into the story. Jesus isn’t giving a lesson in agriculture or horticulture; he’s speaking in similes.3 That is, Jesus is using poetic imagery to try and give us a glimpse into how God’s Realm works.
So what’s the meaning of this story?
Jesus is saying that, like the seeds growing into a large harvest, God’s Realm grows unnoticed, almost hidden from human observation.
But not only does God’s Realm grow unnoticed, it also grows without human effort. That is, in spite of what humanity may or may not do, the Realm of God continues to grow until it reaches its full harvest. Certainly, our actions can hinder or help that growth, just like the actions of farmer, but God’s Realm grows nonetheless. As the prophets said, “The earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11.9, WEB4; cf. Habakkuk 2.14). In other words, God’s Realm will continue to grow and spread until it consumes the entire cosmos.
But Jesus tells another story about God’s Realm that’s slightly different.
Many of us might not know how small a “mustard seed” actually is but most of us probably know what a pine nut looks like. And while Peterson changed the seeds in Jesus’ story, the story’s still the same — God’s Realm is like a very small seed that grows into an exceedingly large tree. This tree is so big that birds can make their nests in it.
What does Jesus mean with this story?
Again, I think it’s similar to his previous story in that God’s Realm will eventually spread throughout the cosmos. But further than that it means that God’s Realm shouldn’t be seen as “going to heaven” when people die. Notice that the birds build their home within the branches of the tree. This means God’s Realm is a place of safety and security, not at the end of life, but in the middle of this life.5 And it’s that “middle of this life” that’s key to all of Jesus’ stories about God’s Realm.
One of the most prevalent views of God’s Realm in Jesus’ time was that it would come at the “end of the age.” And that’s exactly right. But because of faulty translations6 and the placement of the book of Revelation as the last book of the Bible, some people after Jesus’ time have thought God’s Realm would come at the “end of the world.” Understanding that “age” refers not to the end of the world but the end of the then present age, i.e., the age in which Jesus and his contemporaries were then living — the Jewish age — is one of the pillars of understanding several themes in the Bible including the establishment and growth of God’s Realm, not at the end of the world but in the middle of it, during the time of Jesus.7
Another point about this last story is that, again, while Peterson uses a different word (eagles), the Greek word is “birds.” Not just a specific bird, but a variety of birds. The idea here is that God’s Realm is not limited to the Jewish people of Jesus’ generation. No. The birds, like the fish in another story8, represent all people.
What Jesus is saying in these stories, then, is God’s Realm is a present reality. That it’s growing and expanding all around us. That it includes all people. And one day, all of creation will become the Realm of God.9
But there’s something more.
While these stories concerning God’s Realm are about the Life and Light of God buried deep like a seed within the earth and growing and transforming creation itself, they also point to people. When he was asked about the coming of God’s Realm (Luke 17), Jesus replied, “The Realm of God is within you” (verse 22; adapted).10 That is, the Life and Light of God, the Divine Seed of God’s Image is buried deep within every human heart. It might be as tiny as a “mustard seed” but it cannot be destroyed (John 1.4-5). With a fresh breath of God’s Spirit, that Divine Seed awakens and people become part of God’s New Creation (2 Corinthians 5.17) with the ability to become “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1.4).
The questions we must ask ourselves, dear readers, are simply these: Where are we in these stories? Are we part of the growth and expansion of God’s Realm? Not to answer the question of what happens when people die, but to answer the question of how we should now live — how we should now be — in our daily lives? Are we living the Life of the Age right here, right now? Are we working along with the Spirit of God to implement God’s Realm of peace and freedom in every aspect of our lives and world? What would it mean to the earth and the peoples of the earth if this was our focus, our drive, our intention for everything we do? Can we imagine some examples of what this would look like in our homes? At our work? What steps can take right now to implement these changes?
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
2. Eugene Peterson’s take on this very familiar story of the “mustard seed” may be a little off putting for some readers. If you’d like to read this in a more traditional translation, follow this link.
3. While both metaphors and similes are used to make comparisons, the difference between the two comes down to a couple of words. On the one hand, similes use the word as or like to compare things — “The Doctor is like a big kid.” On the other hand, metaphors directly state a comparison — “The Doctor is the oncoming storm.”
4. Scripture quotations marked (WEB) are taken from the World English Bible. The World English Bible is in the Public Domain. That means that it is not copyrighted. However, “World English Bible” is trademarked.
5. Of course it’s at the end of life, too, but that’s never been the point. See, for example, Tom Wright’s books, Simply Jesus or How God Became King.
6. See here for some passages where the Greek word for “age” (αἰών) has been translated as “world” in the King James Version.
7. The same can be said about the resurrection. One of the prevailing view of the resurrection was that it would happen at the end of everything. What makes the resurrection of Jesus so impactful — other than it happened at all and in some kind of physical body — was that it, too, happened in the middle of life and not at the end of it.
10. It should be noted that when Jesus said that the Realm of God doesn’t come with observation, or that people won’t be able to point to it saying “Here it is” or “There it is” (verse 20), he’s making a statement about how the people of his day misunderstood God’s Realm. It was not going to be another Empire or Kingdom or nation like that of Rome or the old Davidic Kingdom or other nations. God is not establishing another empire along side the existing ones (not even a supposed “Christian” nation like America). No. God’s Realm is about transforming, not only empire, but all of life, including human life.
The other side of this coin goes straight to the heart of a lot of misunderstandings about God’s Realm today. That is, many people believe that God is only concerned with the “spiritual” life and people “going to heaven” when they die. That the “spiritual” world is the true life, the only authentic life, and the “natural” world is so broken, so bad, it must be destroyed and a new “spiritual” world must be created. But, as we’ve seen in Jesus’ stories and miracles, God is concerned about all life, all creation. God’s Realm is not divided into matter (bad) and spirit (good). The redemptive work of God through Christ is about restoring the whole life — matter and spirit — to its rightful place of New Creation.
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