Jesus says, ’I appoint you to go bear fruit, fruit that will last’ [John 15:16], fruits of the
kingdom of God. Parable of the seed explains how to bear fruits of the kingdom of
God, how Christ and his gospel, is received, planted in the heart and lived. The church
proclaims the good news of Christ, the seed of the kingdom, and like seed in the
ground the good news inspires a process of change, growth in our hearts. A good
harvest, bearing fruits, depends on how we prepare the ground of our hearts to
welcome the gospel of Christ, the labor or good will we invest for the gospel to shape
us and patient waiting and watching how our lives become a witness to Christ and his
love in the world. Through the parable of the mustard seed, its smallness, Jesus
teaches the humble beginning of faith in us. Like the mustard seed that grows into a
big bush or plant to shelter birds, feed humans, our faith has to grow and spread its
branches to give comfort to the weary, nourish the hungry, provide solace and hope to
those who face adverse weather of suffering, trials, doubts, fear and sinfulness.
God is behind the unseen growth of the seed. Despite Christians’ counter witness to
Christ, divisions, scandals in the church, persecutions, the church survives, God’s spirit
guides it through stormy weather! God’s purposes cannot be defeated. Opposition to
the kingdom of God [love, justice, peace, joy] is opposition to what is truly human. The
story of the seed is dream of abundance, sharing, joy, gratitude, peace and rest. When
our faith spreads the branches of charity, mercy, faithfulness, honesty, humility,
forgiveness, patience, understanding, courage and respect, we are filled with joy and
we can rest in the all loving presence of God. If seed of Christ’s gospel remains idle in
us and not nourished by faith and love, it gradually dies in us. Unfortunately, many
Christians let that happen to them through self-hate, unforgiving hardness of heart,
selfishness and doubting God’s mercy.
An old story about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to a holy man
and said, ‘what prayers, what magical sayings do you have to bring my son back to
life?’. He said to her, bring me a mustard seed from a home that has never known
sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life. The woman went off in search
of that magical mustard seed. She first came to a splendid mansion and said, I am
looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? They told her,
you came to the wrong place and began to tell her all the tragic things that had befallen
them. the woman said to herself, who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate
people than I, who have had misfortune of my own? she stayed to comfort them, then
went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in
poor homes palaces, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.
Ultimately, she became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that she forgot
about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had in fact driven
the sorrow out of her life!
Our faith is the magical mustard seed; it keeps growing and works miracles when we
are not self-absorbed but other oriented and reaches out to all around us with the
power of Christ’s love in us. This makes our Christian journey fruitful, a mission to sow
new seeds of the gospel in the hearts of others, our own healing and healing for the
world. We are a living gospel!