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Parables of Grace - Luke 13
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
What is the kingdom of God like? It's like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches. Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 1:We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. And last week, we looked at another parable, the parable of the unhelpful friend, and that's a tough one because I think a lot of our translations actually are really unhelpful in uncovering the image that God or Jesus wants to portray of God. He tells a story about going to a friend in the middle of the night and asking for a favor. And the friend says, no.
Speaker 1:Are you kidding me? It's the middle of the night. I'm not getting out of bed. Go home. And so Jesus adds, I tell you that even though he will not get up to give you bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Speaker 1:That's Luke 11 verse eight. A lot of people hear that to mean, well, he said no, but if you keep pounding on the door and waking the neighbors and making a scene, eventually he'll come down and help you out. That's great except that this is a parable about prayer. And I don't think that's how God works. The divine does not need to be disturbed from slumber or annoyed into responding or pestered into caring about you.
Speaker 1:God is always on your side even in the middle of the night. And so we had to go back and look again and realize that some of our assumptions were just that, assumptions. That Jesus is not talking about persistence here. He doesn't even talk about knocking a second time. He's certainly not portraying prayer as an annoyance that disturbs God into action.
Speaker 1:He's actually talking about what makes God different. With a friend, you might be hesitant to knock at midnight, not knowing if they'll respond or unsure if you're actually close enough to them to disturb them in the middle of the night, but with God, it's different. Here, social calculus means nothing. Here, there is only your willingness, your shamelessness to stand before God unashamed of your need and ask for help. That's the only prerequisite when it comes to prayer.
Speaker 1:And there's a couple clues here that push us in that direction as we read. I didn't get to them last week. I ran out of time, but I did put together a quick video about some of the technical reasons in the translation for my approach. You can find that on our YouTube channel if you're interested in the nerdy details. But one of the simplest things here is this, is how Jesus introduces the final section of the parable.
Speaker 1:He starts by saying, I tell you. And that's something that we should recognize from Jesus. Right? One of his favorite sayings is, you have heard it said, but I tell you. And here, he only uses half of that line, but I think it's meant to help us recognize that Jesus is working to overturn our expectations here.
Speaker 1:He's set us up. You might expect your friend to say no in the middle of the night, but I tell you, God is good. And that changes everything about how you approach the divine. Now, today, we have mustard seeds. So let's pray, and then we'll dive in.
Speaker 1:Oh, God, who continues to surprise us with your grace, would you remind us by your spirit that we are never begging for your attention, but that we are generously granted your affection. We are not here to wake you from slumber, but that you are already attentive to us, leaning in to listen and care and speak with us. Help us to trust that you are near today, that your grace envelops us, your love transforms us. And as we continue this path towards Easter with Holy Week now only steps away, would you help us to engage this moment with purpose, to embrace the in between, to notice our loss and lack and our need, all so that we might prepare well for resurrection. Gracious father, nurturing mother, teach us to live in your grace.
Speaker 1:In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. So mustard seeds. Well, this is a story that most of us are probably familiar with. The key image being that though a mustard seed is a very small thing, yet it grows into this enormous sprawling plant that tends to take over the yard.
Speaker 1:And the kingdom of God is like that. But there is of course a lot more to discover here. And so today, we have multiple tellings, Hebrew illusions, the trees and the birds and the religion that is on our side. But first, we have tackled this parable before in a series called the Sermon by the Sea. Now in that series, we focused on a sermon that Jesus gives in Matthew chapter 13.
Speaker 1:And there he strings together a bunch of parables about the kingdom. Still available online. You can check it out. It was a lot of fun. It's called the sermon by the sea.
Speaker 1:It's available at commons.church. But today, we're gonna focus on the version of this parable that comes from the gospel of Luke. And there's a couple things we can say about that. First, this is one of very few parables that appears in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are sometimes called the synoptics, and that's a Greek word, and it means that they see together or that they tell a similar story.
Speaker 1:And in fact, the theory is that Luke and Matthew are actually using the earlier gospel of Mark as a source for some of their material. John, on the other hand, is a completely different take on the Jesus story. That's because that gospel is likely written at least a generation later and there's different pressing concerns in the community at the time. But the fact that the mustard seed shows up in all three synoptic gospels tells us that this was probably one of Jesus' favorite stories to tell. Everyone knew this one.
Speaker 1:It was a classic. As we talked about earlier in the series, this is probably one that Jesus told many times before in all kinds of different situations. And so in Matthew, we have him telling this mustard seed story as part of a larger sermon. In Luke, we have him telling it in response to yet another challenge. So it's the same story and the same central point, but the context is gonna shape a lot in terms of the nuance that Jesus wants us to hear as we read in this particular moment.
Speaker 1:So today, we're gonna look at mustard seeds, but we're also gonna pull the camera back a little bit to look at the larger conversation that Jesus is having surrounding this telling of this parable in the gospel of Luke. And that means that we are gonna back up and start in chapter 13 verse 14. Indignant, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, there are six days for work, so come and be healed on those days, not the Sabbath. So let's pause here. Because already we can see that we are jumping into a moving stream.
Speaker 1:Obviously, Jesus has just healed someone on a Saturday, and the synagogue leader is not impressed by that. But notice here, the synagogue leader doesn't address Jesus directly. Instead, he scolds the people who've come to Jesus to be healed. And we're not told why, but here's a guess. People in power who are desperate to hold on to their power often go after those they see as the most vulnerable to assert their power.
Speaker 1:Even in this series, we've been watching Jesus respond to criticism from the religious elites of his day, And absolutely none of them have done particularly well with that line of attack. And you almost get the sense here that they're realizing they need a new target. Like, Jesus isn't going away. He's not afraid of us. Let's go after those that need him the most.
Speaker 1:And we need to be aware of these dynamics around us all the time. The people who are the most vulnerable among us are often the easiest for us to scapegoat. And Jesus, understanding exactly what's happening here, he responds directly to these religious leaders. He says, the Lord answered him, you hypocrites. Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or your donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?
Speaker 1:Well then, should not this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, who Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath of all days from what has bound her? And you get the sense that Jesus understands Sabbath better than any of his detractors ever did. But there's also some really neat stuff going on under the surface here as well. The religious leader quotes Deuteronomy five thirteen, six days you shall labor and do your work. And so Jesus quotes Deuteronomy five fourteen back at him.
Speaker 1:On the seventh day is a day of Sabbath to the Lord your God and on it you shall do no work. Neither you nor your son or daughter nor your male or female servant nor your ox or your donkey. None of your animals nor any foreigner residing in your towns may work. All may rest as you do. Basically, Jesus says, look, we all know the rules.
Speaker 1:Everyone gets a rest. And yet on the Sabbath, you specifically untie your animals to let them enjoy it. How are you now gonna ask this woman to stay tied up and bound even one more day if she doesn't have to? And this is a theme for Jesus. The way that religion takes guidelines meant to help us and turns them into rules that oppress us.
Speaker 1:Maybe even more pointedly what we could say is that the Sabbath is a way that God shapes a narrative meant to democratize work and rest and play and flourishing for everyone. And Jesus now sees how those narratives have become co opted by the powerful to keep the marginalized in their place. And maybe we should hold on to that as the story unfolds. We're gonna need it. But, Jesus challenges the religious leaders.
Speaker 1:And when he said all this, his opponents were humiliated. But the people were delighted with all of the wonderful things he was doing. And we need to pause here again quickly because I don't think that Jesus is ever trying to humiliate anyone. I know that the religious leaders are the antagonists in the story, and sometimes we all like a little schadenfreude. In fact, sometimes I think we take a little bit too much joy in seeing those we don't like canceled.
Speaker 1:But humiliation is not consistent with my imagination of Jesus even when he's addressing his critics. I think that's really important because all of us fall into the trap sometimes of wanting to elevate ourselves by knocking someone else down a peg at times. Right? But I simply don't see how you can make the guy who said love your enemies the mascot for scapegoating those that we disagree with. It doesn't work.
Speaker 1:And don't get me wrong, hold your convictions with passion, but don't look for joy in the downfall of your critics. That is too shallow a joy to sustain you. You need more than that. Because look at what actually happens here. Jesus actually never humiliates anyone.
Speaker 1:What Jesus does is he elevates someone. And it's actually being put on the same level with someone they had thought of as beneath them. That's what feels humiliating to these men. But the humiliation is not coming from Jesus. It's coming from their own misplaced sense of self.
Speaker 1:And here's why that's really important for us, because every single one of us is going to need to be corrected at some point somewhere along the line. And there are people who will do that well, and there are people who will do that poorly, and really that's on them. You are under no obligation to endure someone who is toxic. But how we respond to legitimate critiques, whether we are grateful for that or humiliated by that, whether we are reflective or defensive, whether we are open to someone's perspective, or whether we clamp down hard on what we already know. A lot of times, that says as much about us as it does about them.
Speaker 1:And sometimes, what can feel humiliating at first, especially for those of us who are used to being in power and in control all the time, that is actually the grace of God offering us a new way to look at the world. Trust me here. Jesus is never out to humiliate you. Jesus is out to elevate those who we have sometimes pushed to the ground. But he's not done here.
Speaker 1:And so now he adds this. He says, what is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? And this is where we're going to get our mustard seed story, but this is also why we need to pay specific attention to the context in Luke. Because for Jesus, mustard seeds have something to do with the ways in which religion can conspire to keep the marginalized in their place.
Speaker 1:So what is the kingdom of God like? It's like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches. Again, he asked, what shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast.
Speaker 1:Yeast for the woman took and mixed into about 60 pounds of flour, a massive amount of bread she's making until it worked its way all through the dough. Then Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. So here's our scene. Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath. Religious leaders challenge her about that.
Speaker 1:Jesus steps in to confront them directly and then Jesus tells two stories and walks away. Essentially, these parables are Jesus' mic drop on the previous encounter which is why we have to spend a lot of time on that encounter to get this situation. But now, we need to look at the stories. And first of all, in the Matthew version of this parable, Jesus actually says that the mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds, and it's not. So let's just get that out of the way.
Speaker 1:What this was was a conventional image. Jesus is not the first person to talk about the surprising capacity of mustard seeds. Antigonus of Charistus and Diodorus Siculus, two dudes with wonderful names who were both ancient philosophers. They had both told stories about mustard seeds in the past, and they both used them as examples of something very tiny that grew into something very large. In fact, Jesus himself at one point says that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, then you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will do it.
Speaker 1:The point being that everyone knows that mustard seeds start small and end big. The mustard seed part of the story is not original to Jesus. It's a conventional image. It's almost like a proverb. A bird in the bush is better than two in the hand, whatever that means.
Speaker 1:And I know what it means, so don't at me. And I know I said it wrong, but that's okay. What that is though is something that really makes this interesting. Because remember when the religious leader quotes Deuteronomy five thirteen and Jesus is like bro we can play that game and he quotes Deuteronomy five fourteen. Well now Jesus tells a story that everyone has heard before but before the religious leaders can clap back, and I know for some reason I'm in Twitter mode this week, Jesus adds a twist ending here.
Speaker 1:Yet it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds perch in its branches. Now I know that that might not seem all that twisty just yet. Jesus is no m night Shammalayan, you're saying, but stick with me here on this one. Because there's actually a lot buried in this line. There's really two things we need to focus our attention on.
Speaker 1:It's the birds and the trees. And both of those go back to the Hebrew scriptures. So let's start with trees. This one is interesting because while mustard seeds do grow into very large plants, they do not grow into trees. And this isn't just a mistranslation.
Speaker 1:Mustard plants are generally of the category in Greek, But here Jesus specifically uses the word dendron or tree to describe them. And as I said, that is a callback to the Hebrew prophets. Let me read you a couple passages here. The first is from Ezekiel. This is what the sovereign Lord says.
Speaker 1:I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it. I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel, I will plant it, and it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it. They will find shelter in the shade of its branches.
Speaker 1:Sounds familiar. Right? This is Daniel four. I looked and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous.
Speaker 1:The tree grew large and strong, and its top touched the sky. It was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it, the wild animals found shelter, and the birds of the air lived in its branches. From it, every creature was fed.
Speaker 1:Verses 10 to 12. So if we don't miss it here, this we have to understand this phrase the prophets use, the birds of the air, is exactly the language that Jesus uses in Luke. And I know that in the NIV, which I read earlier, just says birds, but in the Greek here, there's the phrase, which is birds of the air, and that's lifted directly from the Hebrew prophets. In other words, Jesus is going out of his way to make sure we get the connections. He's turning a mustard plant into a dendron.
Speaker 1:Now he's talking about birds of the air. And it's not that he's worried that we're gonna think of ostriches in our mind. It's that he wants to make the connections explicit for his audience. Who are, remember, the religious leaders who were steeped in the imagery of the Hebrew scriptures. So they know what he's doing here.
Speaker 1:He takes a well known illustration about seeds, links it with the Hebrew imagination of trees and God's kingdom coming through Israel to the entire world. And in fact, that's what the animals and the birds represent in Ezekiel and Daniel. It's the Gentile nations, outsiders coming in to find shelter under the Hebrew God. But, that's where it gets really interesting. Because while a cedar is this big majestic tree that Israel had used for generations as a symbol of national pride, a mustard plant is actually just this scrubby little shrub that grows uncontrollably and tends to end up where you don't want it.
Speaker 1:In fact, in Talmud, there are very specific rules about where to plant mustard seeds and how to look after them because these plants were well known for taking over gardens on their own. Add to that, a bird perching in the branches of a cedar, that's a beautiful welcome image. But a bird swooping in to eat your crops and make a home in your mustard plant that you worked really hard to contain and cultivate, that is not a welcome image. In other words, Jesus has taken a well known illustration about something that starts small and grows large and put it alongside another well known image of national pride and maybe even national arrogance. And the juxtaposition is the point.
Speaker 1:We think God's kingdom is splendid and fantastic and obviously indicative of its divine pedigree. Jesus thinks the kingdom is scrubby and scraggly with a tendency to show up where it's not wanted. We think the kingdom is welcoming to those that know their place and respect their role. Those that show proper deference to those of us who got here first. Jesus thinks the kingdom is open for anyone to swoop in whenever they want to take up shelter and build a home even if it looks a little unsightly.
Speaker 1:And if you haven't got his point yet, Jesus immediately says, what else could I compare the kingdom of God to? What else shows up where it isn't expected? Well, what about yeast? And yeast is useful, but it's also not exactly a well regarded image in antiquity either. Actually, unleavened bread, unyeasted bread, that's what's generally associated with God's people.
Speaker 1:Right? That's what the Jews ate during Passover to remember God's goodness. And in fact, yeast is more regularly associated with negative context. In Matthew, Jesus warns twice about the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In Galatians, Paul warns that false teaching is like a little bit of yeast that works its way into the dough.
Speaker 1:And here Jesus says, actually, perhaps the kingdom is like something that you've been taught to be wary of. So we take all these ideas and we go back to the beginning. And we find a woman who comes to Jesus to be healed. We find a Jesus who says, of course, yes. We find religious leaders trying to shoo her away and tell her to come back when it's appropriate.
Speaker 1:And then we have Jesus tell two stories to say, look, guys, the kingdom was never as appropriate as you thought it was. In fact, those grand cedars you have in your mind, maybe they're more like scrubby shrubs. And that carefully crafted religious meal that you celebrate, well, actually, maybe it's more like a block party with more than enough bread to feed all of the neighbors. That's where this parable of the kingdom actually becomes a parable of grace in Luke. Because this isn't just a story about how the kingdom surprises us with scale.
Speaker 1:It's actually a story for all of us who feel like we have been pushed aside or shooed away by religious decorum. And maybe that's a story that you know. Because maybe you have felt like you were the one on the outside looking in at religion. And maybe there was this draw to Jesus, something that you couldn't quite articulate or put your finger on or explain quite adequately enough why, but you knew that you needed to move closer to him. And yet when you did, there was always someone there to stop you and keep you at arm's length.
Speaker 1:No shirt, no shoes, no service. Come back tomorrow. Or actually, probably it was something more like this. Do you believe the right things in the right way? Do you look the part?
Speaker 1:Do you know the words? Do you acknowledge your sins while also simultaneously seeming to have it all together? And just imagine that Jesus steps into that story between you and the gatekeepers and says, actually, the kingdom of God starts in the smallest gesture of grace you can possibly imagine. And truthfully, it grows into something that you are scarcely prepared to even recognize. Because honestly, it's here to invite those you think on the outside, all of your enemies in.
Speaker 1:But trust me, it's all gonna be okay. Because there is enough bread to go around, I promise. You see, that's what mustard seeds and yeast are about for Jesus. They're about turning weaponized religion back into something that is for you. May you know today that your story was never a burden to be chased away from God.
Speaker 1:Because you were always worthy of shelter and respect and care. You are exactly who the kingdom was built for. And if all that God has ever extended to any of us is grace, then may grace become the soil from which that seed now takes root in you. Because if it does, all of it will end up much bigger than you imagine. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:God, for all the ways that we have taken your imagination of the kingdom, your dream for this world, and misunderstood it. And we have seen it as something grand and spectacular and big and beautiful when you saw it as something scrubby and scraggly that pops up where it's unexpected. For the times that we have felt like we needed to protect it and shoo people away and make sure that they were ready to come into your arms and you have said, no. It's always open for anyone to swoop in whenever they need it and find shelter. We're sorry, and we repent.
Speaker 1:We trust that by your spirit, this new imagination of your kingdom would take root in us. Your grace would be like a seed, and we might be, like you say in another parable, good soil for it. That it might grow in us and through us, that it might extend out into the ways we move through your world, the interactions that we have, the relationships that we enter, the ways that we encounter your children all around us all the time. May your grace extended to us become the ground from which we move through your world. And in that, may we begin to see your kingdom popping up all around us in unexpected places all the time.
Speaker 1:May our lives invite people into that experience. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray, amen.