by Rola Ak Ashkar

In the entire Old Testament we do not find any mention of a mustard bush or tree, whose use was not common, at least in writing. Therefore, Jesus’ use of this parable was not expected, and carries with it another meaning related to the specificity of the mustard plant.

A mustard seed is a small grain that does not exceed 2 mm in diameter (1/16 of an inch), and it produces a plant that usually grows up to 4 feet. There were three known species of mustard, two cultured species, and one wild. Some farmers cultivated it for medical purposes because of its very important medicinal benefits.

But despite its usefulness, mustard was a very dangerous plant. The wild type was considered very dangerous to any field it enters where it would inevitably grow in a violent manner causing the destruction of that field and the destruction of all its plants. And that’s because it grows in a way that cannot be controlled and its roots and branches extend in a way that attacks the rest of the plants, and it is very difficult to get rid of them even if the farmer wanted it.

So imagine that the Mishnah includes a Pharisaic education that mustard plants must not be grown in a field because of their great overlap with the rest of the plants and the difficulty of controlling them.

Added to that, in other parables of Jesus, the birds were considered the enemies for plants for example, in the parable of the sower in this same chapter from Mark, the birds come and eat the seeds. Hence, birds which will come and nest in the mustard tree were not desired by farmers.

Therefore, to tell a story about a kingdom of God that grows to be a mustard bush and not a great cedar tree, but that still hosts enemies of farmers i.e birds, really says to the hearers of the parable that the kingdom of God is a source of annoyance, confusion and possibly toxicity, it is like a stubborn bush rooted in the ground, determined, and is a disturbance, even a threat, for every other plant, a shrub that grows and spreads rapidly and steadily and occupies the ground, attracts the unwanted, and even breaks the law.

In this unusual parable the mustard shrub replaces the cedar tree in a cynical manner that declares that when the mustard seed grows, it will replace all other trees, including the cedar tree, and thus all nations, including Israel, will be humbled before the kingdom that will grow and bear the future of Israel.

The place where the birds -the nations- will gather is not in a mighty tree but in the most annoying of all shrubs, a subtle hint that God’s kingdom is not to be like the mighty trees or the empires of old which are established through power and violence

Do you see how radical Jesus’s call for the kingdom is? The kingdom of heaven proclaimed and embodied by Jesus is a dangerous kingdom over the world and the values of the world, and the result of the existence of that kingdom includes not only joy but also conflict. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom that many do not want, and even if they wanted it, they often want it only in a small and controllable way.

And the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is the kingdom of God working in the midst, and through the unwanted: the unclean, the ungodly, and the weak.

I am leaving to Lebanon in 4 days, and I have reasonable fears that I might not be allowed back into the country. Though I am Christian, my visa allows me multiple visits, and it isn’t expired yet, but there is a new law in this country today that says: if the officer does not like my skin color and my big nose, he or she can return me back home.

I was preaching at another church two weeks ago about Jesus breaking the Sabbath law and I asked: how many laws have you broken recently, and they all laughed. But I was like: seriously, how many???

Jesus radically invites his hearers to break the laws of the common and of the known and the normal for the sake of the law of love, the law of compassion. This is what thousands of lawyers in this country are doing nowadays. This is what hundreds of organizations are working towards. Because, you know what? If we do not break the –now normal- laws of injustice and discrimination, someone else somewhere will make it the norm to keep breaking the laws of empathy and kindness for the sake of the laws of benefit and power.

The world invites us to be cedar trees, great, majestic and pretty and most importantly, according to the norm and what is known to everyone as the right way to be, but our Christian calling reminds us that we ought to be mustard plants instead, annoying, unusual, persistent, but not for the sake of being irritating individuals, but annoying and persistent in our determination to accept, to receive and to embrace everyone, even the unwanted.

I personally confess that I constantly fail to be a good mustard plant because I am so attached to my desire to be a cedar, to smell like a cedar, it smells so neat and clean. Sometimes I wake up early on an off day to join a fun event or to go a fitness class, and take care of my cedar shape. When Chelsea startlingly wakes up early on a Monday, and enthusiastically packs her stuff and drives for three hours, she is usually going to a dirty place to clean showers and get yelled at by homeless people for couple days. I have to say how much I admire Chelsea and Marcus for what they do as mustard plants in California.

Friends there are different ways we can be mustards in our neighborhoods, of course we are not all called to live with homeless people, and maybe we can start off as small cultured plants, and maybe we are called to stay small cultured plants, but radical in our own way. The message of the kingdom is not to intimidate us, but to challenge us and to push us a little outside of our comfort zone.

Oh what a time to be living in in California, what a chance to find tons of opportunities to be and to plant mustard seeds.