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This week’s parable is the first of a few weeks that is very short, yet no less powerful. I am sure that this is familiar to many of us:

‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ (Matthew 13:31-32)

Jesus’ imagery

It is often useful to try to get inside the head of a first century Jew when reading Jesus’ parables, and this is a good example. The mustard seed was the smallest agricultural seed used by Jews in the first century, and is used elsewhere by Jesus as an example of something indescribably small (see Matthew 17:20). This description of the Kingdom would have been to the Jews something at the very least surprising. The expected appearance of the Kingdom was as a mighty army overcoming everything in its way, yet Jesus was saying that the Kingdom would appear almost insignificant at the beginning. This is something to bear in mind: God’s ways are so different than ours, and our outlook is so often that he ought to do things in our way. Let’s learn some patience and humility, and joyfully and willingly allow God to do things his way, in his timing.

So what are the birds about?

This parable is aimed at the Jews, and it draws on a life which underlies everything that it means to be a Jew: Abraham. Perhaps you know the song I used to sing about Father Abraham and his ‘many sons’, taken from the promises given in Genesis. God said: ‘Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him’ (Genesis 18:18), ‘I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed’ (Genesis 22:17-18), and ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 26:4).

The concept of an enormous nation spreading from a single man is comparable to Jesus’ image of the mustard seed, and would no doubt have been picked up by the listeners. The birds, therefore, represent those of other nations.

God’s heart for the nations

This parable was a message at the time for the Jews, saying: ‘the Kingdom of God is bigger than Israel!’ We know from the book of Acts that the early church shows the inclusion of gentiles, but I think the message is far bigger than this, and should impact us today. God’s heart is not just that gentiles would become Christians, but that his church would be comprised of the nations. Looking at today’s ‘denominationalised’ church it is far too easy to attend a white, middle-class church, a black church, a Chinese church, a Kurdish church, or whatever you are looking for. This is not God’s intention. God’s passion for the church is to see a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-tribal, multi-racial church. You may say, ‘but I find it hard to engage in a different style of church’…sorry, but when did the church become about you?

The church is for the glory of God. It is his plan that we have a multicultural church so we should humble ourselves and trust his plan. Be intentional in developing relationships outside of your culture. Be pro-active in creating a culture in your church that encourages multiculturalism. If you are in a mono-cultural church and see no way that it will ever change, then perhaps we need to become heavy. Is your church leadership submitting to God’s will?

I don’t think I’m in a place to judge any reader, or any reader’s church, but I do know that we are all to submit to the authority of God, and God’s Word. If we are not multicultural, we are not submitting to God’s Word, so unless we have a genuine reason not to be (i.e. we live in an area which is almost entirely mono-cultural), we ought to repent!

"The Way" from Kevin Pauley

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