My Favorite Verses - Vol V (Feb 17 to Jun 17)

Second, it is worthwhile to note that Jewish law at the time prohibited the
growing of mustard in one‟s garden – and that Jesus lauding mustard was yet
another alluded critique of the unnecessarily limiting and indeed spiritually
counterproductive religious regulations of his day … Third, Jesus doesn‟t stop
there, but in all three of the Synoptic Gospels goes on to state that the mustard
plant grows into “the greatest of shrubs” (Mark 4:30-32), with Matthew & Luke
going on to state that it even thereafter “becomes a tree” (Matthew 13:31-32 &
Luke 13:18-19). All three of these writings then go on to note that the mature
mustard bush serves as shelter for the birds. And this latter addition is
significant, for it shows Jesus equating the culturally prohibited & judged
“unclean” mustard plant as being on equal symbolic footing to the glorious cedar
trees famously mentioned in the Old Testament (see Psalms 92:12 -- “The righteous
flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon”, and Daniel 4:10-22 --
“Upon my bed this is what I saw: there was a tree at the center of the earth, and its
height was great … and from it all living beings were fed … and in whose branches the
birds of the air had nests”, and Ezekiel 17:22-24 -- “I myself will take a sprig from the
lofty top of a cedar … I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain … in order
that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every
kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every
kind.”, and Ezekiel 31:1-9 -- “Whom are you like in your greatness? Consider Assyria,
a cedar of Lebanon … All the birds of the air made their nests in its boughs”) …
Fourth, while more than a few modern-day theologians assume that Jesus is
speaking about the spread of Christianity in this parable (and that the birds
represent either the presence of evil – an influx of false prophets & heretics into the
church; or the Gentile nations that will soon be sheltered by the church‟s rapidly
expanding penumbra), even the most cursory of glances at the teachings of Jesus
shows that this cannot be the case. Indeed, Jesus went out of his way on many
occasions during his ministry to point out A) that he was a dramatic reformer of
Judaism, not a founder of any new religion (see Matthew 5:17-18 & Hebrews
8:8-13 et al) and B) that he most certainly did not want to be worshipped himself
(see Mark 10:18, John 5:41, John 7:16, John 8:50-54, John 12:44 et al) but rather
wanted his Way of Selfless Love to be “followed” (i.e. emulated – see Matthew
16:28, Matthew 25:35-40,
John 12:24, John 13:15-17 et
al) … Fifth, remember that
“Faith” for Jesus was not a
mental certainty of belief or
a verbal announcement of
confidence, but rather was a
verb – an action performed
despite doubt and fear, not
without the presence of the
same (see John 14:12) …
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