Reading: Ezek. 17:22-24; Ps.92; 2Cor 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia
UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF GOD’S KINGDOM
Using simple stories and parables to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson is one of the characteristics of Jesus in the Scriptures especially when addressing the people regarding very important things. So, by couching his teaching in parables, Jesus made certain points much clearer to his audience. This is evident in our Gospel passage today where he told us the parable of the mustard seed and used it to describe the nature of God’s kingdom which he came to establish in the hearts of humanity.
In this parable, Jesus said to the crowd: “A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how he does not know”. Then he continued, “What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade”. In a similar way we heard the Lord in our first reading saying: “From the top of the cedar, from the highest branch I will take a shoot and plant it myself on a very high mountain. Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every winged creature rest in the shade of its branches”
Here, Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed growing from the Word of God spoken to the hearts of his few disciples which will grow and spread to the hearts of all humanity. This analogy focuses on the size of the seed that grows to become a mighty tree that gives shelter and salvation to all. Here also, Jesus is not just speaking of the size of the mustard seed, but the size of the faith of the people as that of a mustard seed. Telling us that just as the mustard seed responds to the word of God and grows into a mighty tree, so will the faith of the people grow into great vessels through hearing the word and doing the will of God.
More so, this analogy of the mustard seed symbolizes the humble beginnings of the Christian faith which is well watered by the Holy Spirit to grow and give life and hospitality to all the people of the world. However, God has given humanity the freedom to choose whether to hear his word and embrace the faith so as to bear the fruits of the kingdom or to reject it and perish. For God knows that there are many bad seeds present in this world to deceive people from listening to his word, seeds such as fear, regrets, doubt, jealousy, hatred, disrespect, greediness, lying, gossip, impurity, wickedness, unforgiveness and all others of sinful actions.
Those who embrace these bad seeds follow the dictates of their hardened hearts and will soon be thrown away as good for nothing because they have not listened to God’s words. Hence, we can hear St. Paul telling us in our second reading that whether we are living according to the will of God in the body or exiled from it, we must make it our highest priority to please God. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and each of us will get what he or she deserves for the things done in the body, good or bad.
Dear Friends, what is your understanding of the Kingdom of God? How best can you explain to people about the Kingdom of God? Today we are told that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which is different from every other seed because of its unique nature. So we can model our life and faith like that of mustard seed. No doubt that in our world today, we have different kinds of seeds good and bad. But the question remains, what kind of seeds are we embracing and watering in our lives today? So, are we watering the valuable mustard seeds of faith and love or weeds of fear, regrets, doubt, jealousy, hatred, disrespect, greediness, lying, gossip, impurity, wickedness, unforgiveness and all kinds of sinful deeds that will destroy us?
Remember, whatever healthy seed you water grows and the seed you quit watering will eventually die and go away. So, today we are called to quit watering these weeds because that’s what the enemies want and we must not fall into their traps. Rather we are called to water those valuable mustard seeds of faith, love, holiness, hospitality, obedience, and charity and make them our values of life. When we feed and water such values, we will grow stronger like the mustard tree where people may find solace and so build up God’s kingdom.
LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as you sow the seeds of your word in our hearts today, give us the grace to water and grow it into the mustard tree of faith, love, holiness and hospitality that will usher us into your kingdom, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Happy Sunday and do have a fruitful week ahead.
