Mustard Seeds and Mulberry Trees June 15, 2008
Luke 17:3b-6
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you. Jesus has been taking the disciples on a crash course of Kingdom ethics. He’s been leading up to his revelation that the Kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21). For a list of most of the things he’s already taught them about the Kingdom of God by Luke chapter 17, take this link:
Sightings of the Kingdom in Luke 1-17But after hearing about the degree to which forgiveness is going to have to play an irreplaceable part in living out the Kingdom of God, the disciples feel in desperate need of more faith. But Jesus’ response might at first glance seem a bit cold.
I guess I’ve always subconsciously read this as Jesus saying that they must not have much faith at all, because even if they had a little, they could do magic tricks. Realizing this, it’s a bit disheartening considering that I, like the disciples, do think I have a little faith already and I’m not breaking the laws of physics on an even semi-routine basis.
But in studying this passage in numerous translations, I’ve changed my interpretation of this passage.
First off, I don’t think Jesus is chiding the disciples. He does recognize that they have faith, and I think in fact he’s telling them that their little faith is sufficient. The key here, I think, it that Jesus is talking more about a certain quality of faith, not about quantity of faith.
My NIB commentary, though it differs somewhat from this conclusion, makes a statement I’ve come to agree with: “The point is not that they need more faith; rather, they need to understand that faith enables God to work in a person’s life in ways that defy ordinary human experience. The saying is not about being able to do miraculous works or spectacular tricks. On the contrary, Jesus assures that with even a little faith they can live by his teachings on discipleship”.
Here, after 17 chapters of Jesus teaching his counter-intuitive kingdom ethics, Jesus defines faith as that trust which enables us to embrace Kingdom logic- logic which is so often the complete opposite of the societal norms.
Also, I don’t think Jesus chooses a mulberry tree and the sea randomly. Granted, I found almost an unlimited variety of interpretations on these details as you could imagine, but I’m going to take a stab at one way of looking at them that makes sense for the Kingdom of God theme which is at the heart of Jesus’ message in the Gospels.
Jesus tells another parable in all three synoptic gospels involving a mustard seed:
Matthew 13:31-32
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." Here, the interpretation is somewhat clearer: God’s church began small- so small, insignificant and threatened that anyone placing bets would not have guessed it would survive. Yet somehow, through the power of the Holy Spirit, it did survive a thousand dangers and grew and grew to the point where it literally spread throughout the earth, sheltering a host of people from every tribe and nation on its shady branches.
Here, the mustard seed is the Christ’s Church (the kingdom of God). In our Luke passage above, the mustard seed is faith, or the faith of the Church. In the Matthew passage we have here, the Church is likened unto a tree. In the Luke passage, the mustard seed of faith uproots a tree and plants it in a very unlikely place.
I see the tree as representing God’s faithful people- the true Israel. That tree had been rooted in the soil of Israel ever since the patriarch Abraham. But now that tree was going to be transplanted. No longer would it be defined by nationalistic or racial boundaries. The Kingdom of God (the true Israel) would be made up of all peoples.
Elsewhere in Scripture some argue that the peoples of the earth are likened unto the sea (Revelation 13:1, Isaiah 27:1). I think that’s what Jesus is getting at here. The Kingdom of God would leave it’s roots in the soil of Israel and be planted in a sea of peoples. And all of this would be accomplished by the citizens of His Church embracing in faith the outrageous principles of his Kingdom manifesto.
I see this interpretation in the other mustard seed parable as well:
Matthew 17:19-21
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."Here I think ‘mountain’ is similar to ‘mulberry tree’. ‘Mountain’ could represent the Temple Mount- the heart of Israel on earth. And here Jesus could be saying that through Kingdom-faith, that mountain would be transported from it’s physical location in Israel to it’s heavenly location among the peoples of the world.
A phrase from Jesus that echoes these sentiments:
Matthew 21:43
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”There’s one more thought about seeds I’d like to touch on.
After Jesus’ revelation about faith causing a mountain to be cast into the sea, the very next thing that happens in Matthew 17 is this:
Matthew 17:22-23
When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.The fact that the impending death of Jesus is mentioned next made me think of this passage in John:
John 12:23-26
Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. And this is a great way to sum up all the points I’ve been discussing here.
Jesus death is the original seed which dies and is buried and seems to be an insignificant event in history… until the miraculous happens- through His resurrection the Church is born and grows and becomes the great tree that the birds of the earth nest in. And how is this accomplished? It is accomplished by His disciples (including you and I) living out those crazy kingdom ethics- like losing our lives to find them. It is accomplished by those who follow Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit whose Kingdom is within us.
“A mustard seed looks small. Nothing is less noteworthy to the sight, but nothing is stronger to the taste. What does that signify but the very great fervor and inner strength of faith in the church?” -Augustine