Sunday, June 17, 2018

His Kingdom Is Like A Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30-34)


How can we see the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of God? It is what it is. What is not is not. How do we know what it is and what it is not? What is real and what is unreal? What is true and what is not? What is genuine and what is not? What is good and what is bad? What is trustworthy and what is not? What is eternal and what is temporal? What is invisible and what is visible? What is it that we really want in the earth? Why are there many sighs, cries, yearnings, unfulfillments, hollowness, emptiness, meaninglessness in the midst, even day to day? Why is that we simply can forget or dismiss such a bothersome thought? Why is that those uninvited enemies are coming and visiting at the very unwanted time and space always? Why is that the dark side of lives are much greater than the opposite? Life is a mystery. We don’t have all the answers, not even close. We’re far off from knowing all the truths of our lives.
But there is someone who knows all and is all in all because what has been made is not without being made. There is no accident that what is seen is what it is by itself. It is simply and plainly not possible for all the complexities and delicacies of humanity to exist what it is all but on their own. Who can explain why our body functions, operates, reacts, responds, heals, regenerates, grows, and ages this and that way? Who can explain where winds, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, snows come from? Where does human cruelty come from? Where does such a generous humanity come from? Why do we get depressed and heavy laden even though we never want to be? Why do we so desire of love and joy and peace? And at the same time, why do we envy and hate others? Who are we? Who can answer our relentless questions? Who can embrace our roller-coaster behavior? Who can understand our fears and anxieties suddenly and persistently coming out of nowhere? Are there answers at all?
Yes, we have the answers. Jesus Christ is. There is a God who dearly loves the world he made, especially humanity made in his image and in his likeness. God is so compassionately and mercifully caring and loving for humanity that he speaks and reasons through the word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:1-4) The mystery of the word was manifested and revealed in Christ Jesus who became a man by the Spirit. In the old, God spoke through the prophets, but finally he spoke by his Son Jesus. “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) Humanity has never left alone in knowing the truth on who they are and why they are and how they are and what they are. The loving God has left traces in volume if anyone wanted to seek and search. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
What humanity really wants to know is the kingdom mystery, the invisible realm of heaven. We’re so much accustomed to the visible world, the material universe. However, what is seen is merely the reflection of what is unseen. We can’t see our face but what we see is the refection of it through the mirror. It is only the physical level. Humans have soul and mind and heart which are invisible, nor tangible but real. The vast array of the visible material universe is then the refection of what is hidden and invisible. It is the hand of God who made all things. In Jesus Christ, all the deity and radiance of God is manifested and demonstrated in beauty and glory and grandeur. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3) The kingdom of heaven is the invisible realm where God rules and reigns in his infinite wisdom and power and glory and knowledge. The Scriptures are written for us to teach and reveal the secrets of the kingdom of God. The mystery of Christ was prophesied and foretold in the past and finally fulfilled in these days by the Son Jesus. He spoke and taught the kingdom mysteries, revealing and manifesting the invisible loving hand of the Father through the compassionate acts of healing the sick and caring for the poor. Especially, our Lord Jesus spoke dearly and kindly and most of all truthfully on the deep things of the heaven and humanity. He repeatedly said one phrase, “Those who have ears, let them hear.” Jesus Christ appealed and beseeched the hearers to accept the greatest invitation call for entering the kingdom of heaven by grace through the faith in him.
“Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade. With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” (Mark 4:30-34)
Here is a parable our Lord Jesus tells, the parable of the mustard seed. The majority of Bible students believes that this parable makes a case that the kingdom of heaven starts with smallness like a mustard seed but when it grows it becomes like a huge plant (or tree according to Matthew’s Gospel) where the birds can find shade in its branches. Furthermore, they say the birds indicate the nations. It is true that in a sense that the kingdom of God is growing and may be seen visibly to the eyes of the world. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) However, it is growing in the heart of believers in the invisible realm to the world. So, growing means that the kingdom of heaven is getting more real and closer and the knowledge of God is getting deeper and higher and wider and longer. It also includes voluntary obedience to the commandments of God just as our Lord Jesus did to the Father, even to the point of death. So, it indicates internal and invisible rather than outward and visible in size and appearance to the world because the kingdom of heaven is hidden and invisible. If anyone thinks that some big churches with tens of thousands of people coming on Sundays are the image of this parable, they are wrong. Though the kingdom of heaven is growing in power and glory it is still invisible to the world because it is in our heart.
That’s what our Lord Jesus is comparing the kingdom of heaven with a mustard seed. It is almost unnoticeably small and tiny but very pungent and biting. That’s the main point of this parable, being pungent. It means that the mustard seed is very small and yet has an unforgettable impact like pungent and sharp taste when taken. Christians are living in a hope hidden and invisible in heaven like a mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven is full and bursting and crammed and packed in glory and honor and power and might just like a mustard seed has such a powerful and potent potential in itself.
“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”   ― Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Apostle Paul describes the ultimate characteristics of Christianity as more than conquerors through Christ. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37) Also, the Apostle depicts Christians as men and women who are always on the triumphal procession regardless of the situations they are put. “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16) It is not true that Christ followers would be honored and glowed from the world. Rather, they always remain humble and lowly and small and almost invisible. They are like the scattered people, exiles here and there with no renown, fame, popularity, or status. “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” (1 Peter 1:1-2) Christians remain as nobody in this earth to the end but not without any hope. The hope is in heaven, which God has preserved for them. It’s imperishable, unshakable, incorruptible, unfading, immortal, indestructible, and everlasting. It is a true and eternal hope which never disappoints or fails us. This hope is not from the earth but from the heaven. So, we live on with such an indestructible hope in God! He put each of us in his infinite wisdom and strategy where we are as salt and light.
It may be not much going on but just the routine as usual in our daily lives. But the day of the Lord will soon be coming like a thief in the middle of night just as he promised. We don’t know when, but he will suddenly reveal himself. When he comes with the mighty trumpet sound and the multitude of angels, we will see the glorious and holy body of Christ well prepared as the bride for the Lamb because we will see the Lord face to face. “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) Until then, we continue to remain as the lowly and humble to the eyes of the world. Jesus says that no man can be greater than the teacher. He was persecuted and accused without any cause. He died though he committed no sin. He forfeited all his rights and gave up his life to the Father. So, we will be persecuted by the world as our Lord was. It will not end until the Master returns. We will be remaining as a mustard seed in this world like nobody. When we truly become nobody, God can begin his mighty work in and through us with the resurrection power just as he raised the Son from the dead in the barren cemetery. The dead doesn’t sin at all. In Christ, we died to sin in order to live for God. That’s why our Lord says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
June 17, 2018
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