The Weak and Mediocre Mustard Seed

There is a great scandal in Christianity, a great scandal that reveals a great mystery that lies behind our belief: the Scandal of Particularity. God had a universal mission to accomplish: he strove to save all of mankind from the tyranny of sin and death: he strove to rescue all humanity from the consequences of our own actions. So what does he do? He becomes one particular man: the word becomes flesh and dwells among us, but only in one specific place, in one specific time. The word was made flesh, and his name was called Jesus. Without faith, this is an absurdity. God chooses Israel and guides them, not to global conquest to bring all nations to serve Him, but to almost constantly being conquered and subjugated, allowing the persecution of those who worship Him. This is all to prepare for the coming of one man. A carpenter’s son. A single individual born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth. When he was 30, he was baptized by John the Baptist and began to preach in the neighboring towns. 3 years later, he went to Jerusalem, to the Holy City, where he was crucified as a false Messiah, his life seemingly ending in failure. And yet, our faith tells us that that failure is Himself the Word made Flesh: the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity.

There is no way to evade this scandal. We worship as God, the one God of a nation that never accomplished very much. Just before that nation was destroyed, this one God revealed himself as a communion of 3 persons. That revelation came about because the second person of this 1 God humbled himself and became a particular man. That man was then crucified as a false messiah 1991 years ago. And yet, through faith, we know that all of creation depends on these facts. From this seeming mediocrity in this certainly mediocre nation, God changes all of humanity so that we can truly return to Him and live with Him forever. Out of this scandalous mediocrity, the kingdom of God is brought about: the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. From the mustard seed sprouts the largest of plants, its large branches reaching out to the entire world, even as far as the shores of the Narragansett Bay. With faith, the scandal of particularity is shown to really be the miracle and the wonder of particularity. By humbling himself, making himself obedient even to death on the cross, God saves us all from sin and death.

This is a pattern that can be seen throughout Salvation History. Through the small, the humble, the meek, the mediocre, perhaps even the pathetic, God brings about and grows His kingdom. Almost every time God interacts with humanity, he finds a weak, mediocre individual. He reveals some great mission to that weak, mediocre individual: he will carry God’s words. Eventually the weak, mediocre individual agrees. Through that weak, mediocre individual, God’s plan develops: it is impossible to tell how this happens from outside, but the seed grows and develops into a new stage. A couple key examples can demonstrate this pattern: Moses and St. Paul: two of the most important figures in Salvation History.

Moses had been raised in Pharaoh’s court after his miraculous journey on the Nile, but, before he was called, he had completely lost any privileges that may have once given him. He killed an Egyptian, then humiliated himself in front of some of the Hebrew slaves, and fled to Midian. After a chance encounter, he settled there, working for a priest named Jethro and marrying one of Jethro’s daughters, Zipporah. He lived this quiet life in Midian for 40 years. When he was called by God, Moses was not a Prince of Egypt, but a poor exile working as a shepherd for the man who had taken him in. When Moses seems to be nobody, nothing, of no account, he is called by God. Moses has a number of reasonable objections to God’s call: who is he to accomplish these things? Moses is a weak, mediocrity with a speech defect: who is going to listen to him? How can he bring about something as spectacular as the liberation of the Hebrew people from the tyranny of Egypt? By the end of the Pentateuch, it is through this weak, pathetic mediocrity with a speech defect, that God has accomplished all these things and more. Through Moses, He doesn’t just liberate the people from Egypt: He gives them the Law, the essential teachings that continue to serve as the center of unity for the Jewish faith. Through Moses, He brings the people of Israel to the edge of the promised land, a land Moses is unable to enter. The small mustard seed, through Moses, grows roots and becomes the stem of the plant from which Christ will come, the stem of the plant that brings about our redemption from sin and death.

St. Paul is an even more extreme case. He was worse than nobody. St. Paul actively persecuted and sought out Christians to arrest. He stood by and encouraged a mob stoning St. Stephen. And yet, Christ appears before this zealous hater of Christianity. Christ reveals his resurrected body to this persecutor of Christians, and proclaims his weakness: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Paul is knocked over and blinded: he has no way to respond. He spends three days like Christ in the tomb: unable to see, neither eating nor drinking. Eventually, Christ sends him a disciple named Ananias to restore Paul’s sight: to make him able to see in a way he never could before. Paul becomes a great missionary. The Church expands, the branches of the kingdom of God stretch out to new horizons. Nevertheless, Paul can only boast in his weakness. God chose him not because of his eloquence or greatness, but because he was weak. His power comes from preaching scandal to the Jews and folly to the Greeks. Paul is arrested, and sent to Rome. Eventually, he is executed. This is not an important event trumpeted throughout Rome: he is just another troublemaker executed by the Roman empire as thousands of others were. But through this small seed, God brought about a great harvest: the Church, the Kingdom of God, expanded to the ends of the Roman empire, and, eventually, to the ends of the Earth: even to the shores of the Narragansett Bay.

In both of these cases, as well as many others, God sows a seed. From the outside, the soil does not look promising. And yet, without any sense of why or how: that seed produces great grain that is harvested for God’s kingdom.

This process continues in the Church, and can even continue through us. This is not because of any greatness of ours. It would not be unfair to call many of us mediocre, perhaps even pathetic. And yet we are here in this Church participating in the greatest human endeavor possible. We are here to participate in the great act of our salvation: the Paschal mystery. We have transcended the scandal of particularity: we have been made present for the events of 1991 years ago on Mt. Calvary in Jerusalem. God has chosen us, mediocre and perhaps even pathetic as we are. He has sown His seed within us, and watched it grow. Looking at our lives, how or why it has grown can remain a mystery. Nevertheless, God calls us to His kingdom: the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world, and opened to us through the Death and Resurrection of His Son. From the tiny seed: the executed false messiah, a truly grand mustard plant has grown: reaching out to all human beings. This is the miracle of particularity: the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. His name was called Jesus. And to that name, every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.