Growing from Seeds is based on Mark 4: 26-34
Agricultural Parables
These are two agricultural parables, one about a field crop and the other a garden plant. Both crops still grow in the UK – so the question would be, if these parables were being told for the first time in the modern UK, would these plants be familiar to the people hearing them?
In a built-up urban environment, probably not. People have probably seen a picture of a field of wheat and they certainly eat mustard, but neither plant would be found in the average small garden or window box. The mustard plant Jesus was likely to be talking about was Black Mustard, which has smaller seeds than White Mustard. It’s not commercially grown in the UK any longer, though you can still see wild escapees growing about the country.
Mark and Luke
In Mark, the Parable of the Mustard Seed comes immediately after the Parable of the Growing Seed. In Luke 13: 18-21, a slightly different Parable of the Mustard Seed comes immediately before the Parable of the Yeast. What’s the difference? Did those parables go together in the (probably oral) sources? It’s quite possible Jesus retold the same parables in different places; the Parable of the Mustard Seed might have been paired with more than one parable. Or it might be Mark and Luke knew that Jesus had told these parables but not where or when, so were making their own editorial choices about which parables should be paired.
In Luke, the connection seems to be the ‘starts small and grows into something huge’ meaning of his two parables. The woman is kneading a huge amount of bread dough; enough to make about fifty loaves. The mustard seed, likewise, starts small and grows big. Luke’s emphasis seems to be on ‘growth’.
Mark appears to have a slightly different focus. The wheat, once planted, grows by itself. The mustard seed, once planted, grows as big as a tree. Mark previously (4.14) told us that Jesus could use ‘sowing seed’ as an image for ‘the word’. It looks like Mark is focusing on the planting – plant the seed and God’s Kingdom will grow, even if we don’t understand how.
What farmer acts like this?
The two parables together also have a slightly strange air; a wheat (or corn) crop would normally be extremely poor if the farmer did nothing but plant it. The mustard seed, on the other hand, has been planted in a garden – and what we know of First Century Judea and Galilee suggests mustard was never planted in gardens. Like wheat, it was a field crop. God’s kingdom isn’t like a normal crop; it grows by itself and it’s planted in strange places.
Retelling
One possibility for the Parable of the Mustard Seed would be to swap the mustard seed for an acorn, using the proverb: ‘Great oaks from little acorns grow.’ A number of commentaries suggest that the mustard seed Jesus is using was also proverbial in his day, so riffing off a more modern proverb seems appropriate.
But what about the wheat seed? In a rural district there’s no problem – we still grow wheat, or barley, or ‘corn’ and the images of the parable wouldn’t need any translation in the retelling. But in an urban district, one possibility might be to replace the unfamiliar wheat with some kind of food plant commonly grown in window boxes and garden plots.
Tomatoes, for example, are perfectly happy to be a ‘volunteer’ plant. Their seeds can and do fall on the ground unnoticed, grow by themselves and develop a lot of tomatoes on the one plant. Like the wheat, it’s also pretty unlikely that they’ll give a super abundant crop when left to themselves.
What do we lose by retelling the parable with a different food crop in place of the wheat? The parallel of ‘Jesus’ and ‘bread’, certainly. However, while that’s a connection that could be teased out in a bible study or a sermon, it’s not something that would be immediately apparent to a group of non-Christians. The decision is the preacher’s: use the original parables to plant the seed, or retell them in a way that might help a modern listener hear them anew.
In both cases, the advice of the parables is to plant the seed – and let God worry about its growth!
Previous parable: The President’s Celebration (Matthew 22: 1-14)
Next parable: The Tiny Speck and the Giant Tree (Matthew 7:1-5)
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