To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?

Modern icon of Jesus teaching the disciples the Parable of the Mustard Seed

 Also He said to them, "Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?  Is it not to be set on a lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."  Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear.  With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."

And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  For the earth yields crops by itself:  first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

Then He said, "To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?  Or with what parable shall we picture it?  It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade." 

And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.  But without a parable He did not speak to them.  And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.

- Mark 4:21-34

Yesterday we read that again Jesus began to teach by the sea.  And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.  Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:  "Listen!  Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.  Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.  And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.  But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."  And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.  And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that 'Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.' "  And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable?  How then will you understand all the parables?  The sower sows the word.  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.  When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.  These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.  Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.  Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."

  Also He said to them, "Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?  Is it not to be set on a lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."  Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear.  With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."  My study bible says that this is a call to attentive listening and for discriminating response.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus began teaching in parables with the parable of the sower:  As the Sower Himself, Christ sows the word, and then what happens with that seed is dependent upon the fertility of the ground upon which it falls, and the conditions therein.  He referred to our capacity for spiritual hearing, saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  In this follow-up to that parable, He first promises that for those who truly desire spiritual understanding, "there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light."  Moreover, my study bible says, we must not only hear, but hear properly.  More will be given to those who respond to Christ with open hearts, and they will grow in understanding.  It quotes St. Mark the Ascetic, "Do the good you know, and what you do not know will be revealed to you."   Christ also implies the importance of choice; for those for whom this spiritual priority is unimportant, the life that Christ promises -- especially in the context of His Resurrection -- will not be manifest.  Our own desire for spiritual participation becomes the measure you use. 

And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  For the earth yields crops by itself:  first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."  My study bible notes that this parable occurs only in Mark.  The kingdom, it says, refers to the whole span of God's dispensation, or the plan of salvation.  The man is Christ, and the seed is the gospel (see verses 13-20).  His sleep indicates the death of Christ, from which He will rise.  That the man does not know how the seed grows, it says, shows that Christ doesn't manipulate our response to the gospel, but rather that each person is free -- to receive and let it grow in one's own heart.  The harvest is indicative of the Second Coming, when all will be judged on their reception of the gospel.

Then He said, "To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?  Or with what parable shall we picture it?  It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade."   The tiny mustard seed, in accordance with Theophylact's understanding, is like the disciples (whom Jesus has just chosen; see Monday's reading) who began as just a few individuals, but "soon encompassed the whole earth."  My study bible says the mustard seed also stands for faith entering a person's soul, which causes an inward growth of virtue.  This soul will become godlike, it says, and can even receive angels (the birds of the air who may nest under its shade).

 And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.  But without a parable He did not speak to them.  And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.  My study bible explains that to unbelievers, the parables remain bewildering.  But to those with simple faith, these stories which use common images reveal truth in ways they can grasp, as they were able.

To take all of these parables together is to gather together elements which make a marvelous understanding of the work of God in our lives, in us as individuals, and in the world.  The interpretations and understandings given by my study bible indicate traditional understanding passed on through the Church, and through generations -- literally millennia -- of experience and understanding of faith, particularly as gathered through monasteries, theologians, and saints, and their experience of our faith.  Therefore, this kind of traditional understanding is always valuable, as it is distilled through the experience of countless others who testify to it.  But there is always something striking in Christ's parables that applies to the present time, to our own personal experience, to things we may also know and consider through our own lives.  If we take a look at the parable that is unique to Mark, in addition to the traditional interpretation regarding the whole span of the work of the Kingdom, we are also given a picture of just how the Kingdom works, and this would apply even to its work within us.   That is, it works while we sleep:  it works within us whether we are consciously aware of its work or not, and despite the fact that we are not the ones who make it work.  The work of the Holy Spirit is mysterious to us, just as Christ described to Nicodemus when He compared it to the wind, saying, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).  The mysteries of God work even within us, and mysteriously to us, but as this unique parable found only in Mark describes it, suddenly "crops" or "fruits" are seemingly yielded by themselves and we notice them.  Suddenly we may find a kind of peace we didn't have before, or some wisdom that comes to us in the middle of a bad circumstance, or the capacity for forgiveness we didn't think we had and which surprises us.  These are fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).   They provide fruit for the spiritual harvest of the Kingdom.  The parable of the mustard seed is in some sense the most marvelous of all, for it describes something coming from the tiniest seed, and a mysterious growth that produces so much for all to see, including shelter for angels ("the birds of the air").  Jesus alludes to a kind of growth which is both mysterious in its process of generation, and also mysterious in its direction.  We don't know all the ways in which these products of growth will manifest, and continue to spread.  Moreover, if we reconsider the parable of the Sower from yesterday's reading (above), we note that Jesus described the harvest of the crop as "some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."  That is, this is not a "one size fits all" proposition.  Each life, each investment of that seed will produce different and varying results, which are unique from person to person, place to place, and depend upon a mosaic of conditions.   And looking more closely at these parables, we see that Jesus stresses that these fruits of the Spirit are not things we are entitled to, nor are they rights doled out as from a government or worldly body of laws.  Rather, they are organic things that work within us and with our own motivations and capacities, varying from individual to individual, for He says, "Take heed what you hear.  With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."  Christ's parables address a deeply personal and intimate reality between ourselves and our Creator, and how we work and function within a communion that remains mysterious -- but these are mysteries into which we can delve and be given keys that unlock doors of spiritual reality, depending upon our own motivations and desires for that life.  Let us consider for today this time of Lent, which is created for us and instituted in the Church precisely for cultivating this capacity for spiritual hearing upon which Jesus places so much emphasis.  It is a time to cultivate the right ground for our fruitfulness, to set aside time to focus and to go to whatever place we need in order to do so.  We "remember God" by doing so:  by practicing the fasting capacities we have, by setting aside time for prayer, by making room to go more deeply into our individual "private rooms" and be alone with our mysterious God who not only sees what we do in secret and knows the secrets of our hearts, but who is in the secret place and sees in secret:  all of which teaches us about mystery.  Jesus says in today's reading that "there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light."  He tells us about entering into mystery, just as He taught the disciples, in interpreting the parable of the Sower, that "to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that 'Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.' "   Let us not be those who neglect our spiritual capacities to hear, our depth of potential for communion with God and the feeding of our souls.  Let us not be those who dismiss such things out of hand, or who do not care.  Let us be those who may hear and understand, and want more.   In the icon above, we see Jesus teaching to the disciples the parable of the Mustard Seed.  Standing in front, with his characteristic white hair, is St. Peter, the one whose confession of faith resulted in a new name given by Christ ("Rock"), and the declaration that, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 16:18-19).  He will journey into the world, spreading the seed of the word of Christ, bringing a harvest that is ongoing.  Let us remember him today, and seek to accompany him on his journey.