Seeds of Sedition
Weeds in the master’s field
Sowing seeds of sedition,
Sabbath and sabotage.
Weeds in the master’s field,
A harvest that moves mountains.
Matthew 13:31
Jesus put before the crowds another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
This above text from the Gospel of Matthew was one of several parables included together as the Gospel reading for the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost (7/30) from the Revised Common Lectionary. While I did not get a chance to preach on this text I did spend a lot of time turning it over on my own and alongside others in conversation about what this specific parable could mean for us today.
The writer of Matthew often offers an interpretation, but biblical studies tells us that these various interpretations have very little probability of being from Jesus himself, but are rather the product of the community for which the author of this Gospel was writing to/in. This conclusion is drawn from he fact that parables, as a pedagogical tool, were not meant to have one definitive interpretation, but rather exist to pull the listener into reflection, conversation, and wrestling over what the teaching of the parable could mean. As New Testament Scholar Amy Jill Levine makes note, “Jesus’ parables… were designed to afflict, to draw us in but leave us uncomfortable.”
While what follows is by no means a well articulated sermon or paper I did want to briefly share my thoughts on this parable and am planning to write more rigorously and academically on it at a later date (possibly a paper during this upcoming Fall term.)
Context
To understand what this parable might mean for us we must also try and understand the context that Jesus spoke it in. We would do well to remember that Jesus’ social, political, and economic location was that of a poor working class Jewish teacher living under the rule of the Empire in the backwoods of Palestine. With that in mind here are a few observations that will guide my reflection:
Mustard is a weed
Sowing it alongside other crops would have violated Torah
No one would have sown it alongside their own crops because of both the above, and the fact that weeds make harvesting crops less efficient.
So many farmers in Jesus agrarian context would have been tenant farmers rather than landowners given both the Roman occupation and the exploitative land practices wielded by the upper class of Jesus’ community.
Farming practices under the control of wealthy landowners and Roman occupation tended to be less than regenerative in practice and often harmed the soil (Sound familiar?)
Mustard does not become a tree and birds do not rest in it.
Mustard can become rather invasive if not properly managed.
Mustard is actually a really fantastic cover crop and can play an important role in adding nutrients back to the soil off seasons.
Ruminations on an Eco-Theological reading of the Parable of the Mustard Seed
In sticking with the nature of parables I am not offering THE interpretation, but one I believe that is both faithful to the text, and context of the original parable while also seeking to draw from it something that can be used to seed the work of an Eco-Theology for the End of the World in our own context.
Imagine if you will a tenant farmer growing food in land stolen by the powerful (what may even have once been their family’s ancestral land) how would they understand this parable in light of the context of first century Palestine?
As a tenant farmer hearing this parable they would be aware of the fact that mustard is a weed and that it does not become a tree. Any Jewish farmer worth their salt would know that sowing mustard alongside the other crops would violate Torah, but they would also know that underneath this parable there is something radical being spoken. Maybe when this farmer hears these words they are reminded of their ancestors Adam and Eve, who God placed in a garden so to care for the land and soil. Maybe they realize that the farming practices enforced on them to meet the demands of Rome, and their taxes are in so many ways neglecting the this call to care for the earth. As a tenant farmer there would only be so much that they could do in the face of land theft, oppressive labor conditions, and degrading farming practices. Rome comes to collect whether the harvest is abundant or not. The gospel of Empire’s such as Rome (and America) is one of scarcity, which makes the Carpenter from Nazareth’s insistence on talking about a Kingdom of abundance (not accumulation) all the more radical in this context. Rome accumulates, but the Kingdom of God distributes without measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.1
So what then does this parable mean for a tenant farmer in first century Palestine? What does it mean for us today in our twenty-first century contexts? I believe that one way that we could hear this parable is a call to praxis and direct action on behalf of the soil and the community for which Jesus has called us to, namely the “Kingdom of God.” To my ears the call to sow Mustard seed in the master’s field is akin to the direct action and tactics of environmental activism called for in Andreas Malm’s Blow Up a Pipeline.
Maybe, just maybe Jesus is calling for the farmer to sow seeds of sedition, justice, and care for land and neighbor. In sowing mustard seed the tenant farmer does the unimaginable and in one fell swoop not only give the land back the nutrients robbed from it from destructive farming practices by planting a weed that can re-enrich the soil , but also commits and act of sabotage against the land owners. The Kingdom is of God is one of abundance and Jubilee and somehow in this parable Jesus is teaching us that even the “unclean” act of farming in this way can birth justice under the thumb of the empire. That somehow these noxious mustard weeds can become more than we ever imagined if we dare to believe. That by sowing faithfully these seeds of sedition what is regarded as nothing more than a weed becomes transfigured into a place of rest, rejuvenation, and shade for those suffering in our communities.
So what does this mean for us?
Maybe it means the Kingdom of God is sabotage and sabbath.
Maybe it means the Kingdom of God is radical care for the land and neighbor.
Maybe it means the Kingdom of God is direct action and mutual aid.
Maybe it means the Kingdom of God is transformation and Jubilee.
And just maybe its time for us to sow some seeds…
Veriditas (A retelling of the parable of the Mustard Seed)
PARABLE
For what is the Kin-dom of God like? What shall we compare it to? It is like a tiny kudzu seed that someone took and sowed in the field of their enemy; slowly and patiently it grew until it had covered the whole field, and the more the enemy tried to uproot it the more it multiplied. The vines crept across their land like a wildfire of unyielding green smothering out their crop before the time of the harvest.
PLANT
Kudzu (/ˈkʊdzuː/; Is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing perennial vines that densely climbs over other plants and trees and grows so rapidly that it smothers and kills them by blocking out most of the sunlight.
PRAYER
Holy Ghost, Greening Power of God, may our love be like the relentless vines of the kudzu plant, smothering out all the seeds of hate and oppression that have been sown by our enemies.
Luke 6:38