Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of scorners. But his delight is only in the Law of Jehovah, and he meditates in His Law day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of waters, which will give its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf will not wither, and all which he does will prosper. Not so are the wicked, but they are only as chaff which the wind drives about. On account of this the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Jehovah is knowing the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked shall perish. (Psalm 1:1-6)
He put another parable before them, saying: The kingdom of Heaven is compared to a grain of mustard, which taking, a man sowed in his field; which indeed is less than all the seeds, but when it is grown it is greater than the plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and roost in its branches. (Matthew 13:31-35)
We saw last time in our look into the parable of the wheat and the tares, that we must come to a level of acceptance and trust in the Lord in this thing called the spiritual life. That while we are called to make our life one of self-examination and repentance, we must also come to realise that all that we see within us which stands opposed to the spiritual life, the tares if you like, cannot always be removed from us when we would like them to be removed. That some things must remain and will be attended to in the Lord’s own time for He alone has the wisdom that can look to our eternal welfare and so knows what must be done at every point of our spiritual progress. In this we saw that we are to avoid being too hard on ourselves – that the Lord doesn’t ask from us an impossible level of perfection, nor will He seek to have us burdened under guilt that arises from a false conscience. All that is required of us is to remain in the effort to examine our motives, looking to the Lord to strengthen us in what is good. If we do this, we will be brought into those states that He desires for us, step by step. Our job is simply to acknowledge Him and do our best to obey Him – if we are doing this, then we give Him leave to do whatever He will with our life.
And so today we come to another the parables of the kingdom, and it is the parable of the grain of mustard. This one begins with the idea of something small growing to fill a much larger capacity than it did in its original form. And the mustard seed is like the wheat of the first parable in that it too is taken up by a man to be sowed in his field. The man is the Lord as the Word, the seed is our grasp of truth, and the field is the human mind into which the Lord sows the seed.
This man who sowed the seed in Greek is called anthropos and is better translated as human or, if we look to a very literal translation, we have the term ‘human-faced‘. This term, in the context of this and the last parable, is wonderfully apt in its association with Jesus for He presents to us a human face of God. That face is one of love, mercy and compassion; it is God in a form that we can connect with. And it is likewise the face of God that the Word as Divine truth can reveal to us in even more detail and depth. For the Word as the Lord is the face of the kingdom of heaven itself and it says, Come, come to me you who are burdened and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
But when and where has this man gone forth to sow this smallest of seeds in the depths of the human heart? Well, the Lord is forever taking care to see that the seeds of the kingdom are implanted in every person. Every contact we have ever had that has been an expression of care, concern, love, friendship, loyalty, every prompting to act on what is just and true and fair, all the millions of impressions that flow from people and the world which give us a sense of being looked after regardless of who or where they come from… these are all the Great Man going forth taking the smallest and seemingly most insignificant things of life to sow in His field, in our minds, a mustard seed.
And there these seeds sit within the soil in the field waiting for the right conditions to mature and grow. Because Jesus, in saying that He takes the smallest of seeds, teaches us that when we allow Him, as the truth, as the Word, to attend to the thoughts within our mind, then from this – big things can happen. Changes can occur, transformations can unfold. What seem to be the big obstacles, can be overcome. Nothing is impossible Jesus tells us, for with God to all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).
So to live in the kingdom of heaven is to be living in a world of great possibilities, in an atmosphere of unlimited potential. We look and at first we just see a small insignificant mustard seed, a grain of truth, an idea about the Lord or spiritual life. It is seemingly of little worth, such a tiny statement or thought or memory- but in the Lord’s eyes it is so much more than a just one grain. For Him, this is in potential the greatest of the plants. For when it matures, we see that it takes the form of a tree in which the birds of the heaven can come and roost and find a place of rest.
The growing tree is a symbol for the maturation of ideas in the mind which are symbolised by the seeds. In fact, we use this analogy in our language often when we talk of planting ideas into someone’s mind; a common phrase is that of ‘sowing seeds of doubt’. We also say that someone has a fertile imagination when they allow their minds to run with an idea. The kingdom of heaven is often linked to seeds in the Word because it begins with ideas that can grow into spiritual principles which, when applied to our life, empower us to become conscious of the laws that govern a practice of genuine charity.
Ideas that have their origin in the kingdom of heaven are small from the natural man’s perspective because the natural mind places more importance on the things of the senses and the world, and the affections that are tied to these. We only need to look at where the focus of our attention is constantly drawn to see that this is true and so there is a struggle when we seek to give spiritual things a priority. Yet the wonderful teaching here is that even the smallest amount of effort in making what is spiritual a priority in our lives, can become something great. The Lord can take the smallest intention that we make to bring the truth which we know into an act of love and see that it grows into something able to give support to the birds of the heaven.
This growth of the least of seeds into the greatest of the plants is a correspondence that illustrates for us our own spiritual growth and development. Every person is born into the world a natural man. This is the part of us that we call ourselves, the I or me, and it is like the outer skin of the seed which eventually will fall away as the new sense of self, which is based on an acknowledgment of the Lord as our life, grows from within. The internal of every man is the Lord’s for He is the giver of all life but this sits dormant within us in potential until the seed is given what it needs to germinate. The essential elements required for the growth of this seed into a plant can only happen as we apply truths from the Word, which are its water and light, and work with them so that our loves can be reformed, and so applying just the right amount of heat. The specific nutrients which the plant needs are given as the Word reforms our natural world memories and experiences that are unique to our daily life conditions. And so through the practice of self examination in the light of spiritual principles, our minds can become organised into a form that is better able to express something of the kingdom of heaven – so the seed grows into the fullness of its life as a plant.
People are often compared to trees in the Word, which are also plants. From the Psalm reading today we see that when we act from our understanding of truth from the Word, we are like a tree planted by the rivulets of waters that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf does not whither so that whatever is done will prosper. For to delight in the law of Jehovah is to live from the Word because when we do this, we grow and develop in the order of the kingdom of heaven; it is such a life that brings forth fruit in its season. The fruit being the product of spiritual work which is in its season when we find that what the Word has worked into our life offers fresh ways to meet our life in the world and interactions with others.
To live from the law of the Word then brings the delight of being carried in the stream of the Lord’s providential care which ensures that all things are right for whatever state of life we are in, in any given moment of our lives. More often than not we are unconscious of this activity of the Lord’s ever present provision but we can trust that if we we take the time to cultivate a love for His Word and a desire to live from it, then He will ensure that we, as the seed, are given all that we need to grow and mature into a tree. The hellish states of course, will seek to undermine our quality of life by getting us to focus on where think we are failing to thrive. They will look to use our perceived short comings to throw our perspective out, so that we fall into a pit of self-loathing, self-pity and guilt. This again is what happens when the natural mind takes control, when we live from the appearance of what things look like from the senses. We need to be reminded that what the hellish states turn into a big thing is small in the face of the good that flows in from heaven which is gently and quietly influencing and drawing all whose hearts are open towards the Lord.
If we are the seed that grows into a plant as we commit our lives to the search for spiritual truths, that further matures into a tree which produces fruit as we look to the Lord to live in the good that truth teaches – then the birds that are supported by such a life must also correspond to something internal. In fact, this is more clearly seen in a very literal translation of the phrase birds of the heaven which literally reads the flying things (wings) of the heavens. The things that fly represent those spiritual principles which, when applied to our life, can lift our sense of self out of the thoughts and affections belonging to the natural world and into things of a much higher spiritual quality. To have the birds of the heaven in our branches then is to provide support for such truths in our minds, through our desire for living a useful life in keeping with the principles of the Word. These truths offer concepts that can lift our life into a sense of the Lord’s presence in the small and simple states of goodness that envelop us every day.
We can also apply the idea of the mustard seed to the parable itself. For in these words is a simple story, on the surface the smallest of seeds, but as we have looked at this story and seen something of what it contains spiritually, so our understanding of it has grown to become a tree in our mind. And in its branches, we see nested there a principle of the kingdom of heaven. This principle is like one of the birds of the heaven that can form the wings of the heavens for us.
So, if you find yourself being drawn into a sense of failure, or self-condemnation, or states that separate you from a sense of the Lord’s presence in your life, then you can remind yourself that if there is a conscious looking to the Word as the source for wisdom by applying its truths in your life, then the Lord will do wonderful things with even the smallest of seeds that He has implanted.
The cognitions of truth and good which precede faith appear to some persons as though they were related to faith; but yet they are not. Their thinking and saying that they believe is no proof that they do believe, nor that these cognitions are related to faith; for they consist only in the thought that it is so, but not in an internal acknowledgment that they are truths; and the belief that they are truths, while it is not known that they are, is a kind of persuasion far removed from internal acknowledgment. But as soon as charity is implanted then those cognitions become principles of faith, but only so far as charity is in the faith.
In the first state, before charity is perceived, faith appears to such persons as in the first place, and charity in the second; but in the next state, when charity is perceived, faith ranks in the second place and charity in the first. The first state is called reformation, and the second regeneration. When a man is in this latter state, wisdom grows in him daily, and good daily multiplies truths and makes them fruitful. The man is then like a tree which bears fruit, and in its fruit lays up seeds from which new trees are produced, and at length a garden is formed. He then becomes truly a man, and after death an angel, in whom charity constitutes the life and faith the form, which is beautiful according to the quality of the charity; but his faith is then no longer called faith, but intelligence.
From these considerations it may be evident that the all of faith is from charity, and nothing of it from itself; and also that charity produces faith, and not faith charity. The cognitions of truth which precede are precisely like provisions stored in a barn, which do not nourish a man unless, in his desire for food, he takes out the grain.
Further, it will now be explained how faith is formed from charity. Every man has a natural mind and a spiritual mind, a natural mind for the world and a spiritual mind for heaven. Man as to understanding is in both; but not as to his will before he shuns and turns himself away from evils as sins. When he does this, his spiritual mind is then opened with respect to the will also; and when it has been opened, there flows from it into the natural mind spiritual heat from heaven. This heat in its essence is charity and it gives life to the cognitions of truth and good which are in the natural mind, and out of them it forms faith.
This is similar to what takes place in a tree. It does not receive vegetative life before heat from the sun flows in and unites with light, as happens in the spring time. There is, moreover, a full parallel between the quickening of man with life and the vegetation of a tree in this respect, that the latter is effected by the heat of this world, and the former by the heat of heaven: for this reason also man is so often likened to a tree by the Lord. (Doctrine of Faith 31,32)