"He who has ears, let him hear,"
Jesus says to the great crowds that had gathered around Him, there on the beach by the sea of Galilee.
Jesus was just off the shore, sitting in that little boat and teaching the crowds. He was telling them many things, the Scripture says, telling them parables. Stories, some of them like jokes, almost; little jokes whose humor could be elusive sometimes, if you didn't have the ears for it.
"The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed." That was one of Jesus' jokes. Do you get it? The reign of God, the rule of God, the sovereign Lordship of the Creator of heaven and earth -- the administration, as it were, of the Almighty -- the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, just like a little mustard seed, the smallest of seeds. That's what God's kingdom is like.
Advertisement
But how can something be so important, the kingdom of God, how can something that big be compared to something that little, a mustard seed? After all, aren't Jesus' lessons about important, life-changing, earth-shattering stuff? How can the kingdom of God be compared to a seed, of all things, and to a mustard seed at that?
And yet .... isn't new life and growth at the heart of God's will? And, really, what changes more than a seed becoming a tree, unless it's the fortunes of all the little creatures that find shelter there in the tree's branches. What can shatter more earth -- shatter more concrete and pavement for that matter -- than a growing stem?
Earth shattering, life changing -- a seed is all of that, and therefore a parable of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
Do you get it? It's a sort of a joke, an inside joke that not everybody can understand, or wants to. You sort of have to be there.
"He who has the ears for it, let him hear the parable's punch-line," Jesus says. She who has faith, let her believe what the parables say. Whoever has the tongue for it, and the stomach for it, let them taste the irony of the gospel, let them drink deeply the delicious and sometimes bitter truth of the kingdom of God -- the cup does have a bite. Who has the lips for it, let them tell it all again to the delight, or despair, or utter confusion of all who will listen.
But the one who has ears should hear. Those with eyes should see. Those with faith should understand.
II
"A sower went out to sow." And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and were eaten by birds. Some seeds fell on rocky soil -- they sprouted quickly, grew wildly, but wilted and died for they had found no depth of soil. Some seeds fell among thorns and were choked. But some fell on good soil.
The kingdom of God is like a sower, a sower who keeps sowing in spite of the birds, the hard ground, the thorns; a sower who keeps sowing the seed in spite of what is; a sower who keeps sowing for the sake of what might be.
