Scripture: Mark 4:26-34; Ezekiel 17:22-24; Matthew 17:20 Series: After Pentecost
Preached June 16, 2024 on Mark 4:26-34 (the seed growing secretly and the mustard seed) with Ezekiel 17:22-24, this sermon contrasts the world’s power-as-domination with God’s power shown through weakness. Drawing on the pastor’s family practice of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mustard, plutonium, and the unlikely youngest brother, it argues that Jesus calls for faith only the size of a mustard seed—a ‘spicy mustard’ faith with a kick that lets go of the desire to dominate, win, and conquer. The church has too often sided with domination and shown faith smaller than a mustard seed. Mountain-moving faith is ultimately Jesus’s own; he draws us into his life so that he moves mountains with and in us. The closing invitation: let go of self-destruction, take up sacrifice and love, start with God’s love, and grow into who God created us to be.
Illustrations: bjj-assessing-power, mustard-seed-into-mustard, plutonium, youngest-brother-in-the-fields, spicy-mustard-kick, domination-of-modern-life
June 16
Spicy Mustard
Ezekiel 17:22-24
Mark 4:26-34
Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender shoot from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will transplant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will transplant it, and it will 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. All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree; I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it. - Ezekiel 17:22-24
He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. - Mark 26-34
What does power look like?
A few years ago, my family started practicing this martial art called Brazilian jiu jitsu. My wife, Alina, had done some boxing and kickboxing earlier in her life. Dominic, our eldest, had done a little bit of karate as a small kid, but that was it. Ephraim started. Then, one by one, we all got into it eventually. I was the least likely to pursue something of this kind. Surprising everyone, I really enjoyed it. Jiu Jitsu made me think about the puzzle of how to use my precise physical attributes, plus my skill level versus another person’s attributes and skill level, and then seeing what happens. It’s up in the air. Competitions in jujitsu are like wrestling or boxing or MMA or other similar sports in that they are weight based. So if you’re at a competition, you compete against people of a similar age and similar weight as you are.
I had never been a part of any competitive weight based system before trying Jiu Jitsu. And one of the things that practicing jujitsu and competing in it taught me was this way of assessing other people, judging someone’s weight by how they walk, how they carry themselves. Judging someone’s power based on the powerful people I’ve rolled with.
Someone can be very powerful and small as well as not very powerful and really big. Someone can be very strong and not know how to use it. The most surprising thing in jujitsu for me were those times when I would end up rolling with someone fifty or sixty pounds heavier than me or clearly stronger than me. And I would survive. More than that, if they were new to the sport, there would be very little that someone could do against me. It isn’t arrogance or confidence, but reality.
A mustard seed does not look powerful. They are tiny. If you spill them, they go everywhere and they are hard to clean up
The youngest brother out in the fields, who has never lifted a sword, that brother doesn’t look powerful.
There are elements that don’t look powerful but carry tremendous power. Plutonium doesn’t look powerful. We know it is powerful by reputation. We know it is powerful because of what you can do to transform it. We know it is powerful because of the radiation damage that it can cause. You don’t even have to turn it into a bomb for it to be a deadly device, for it be deadly object.
A mustard seed is not powerful. The seed is very, very small. Mustard seeds can taste good after you transform them. You smash them together, mix in a little vinegar and turmeric, and get mustard. It tastes good on a sandwich.
The world understands power as domination. We should admit this. You have power over someone when you can dominate them. This functions, as well, in jujitsu. I’ve visited gyms in different cities. When you get ready to roll with someone, you have know idea how good they are going to be. People can look big or small. They can have upper belts or lower belts. You won’t know until you actually roll with them.
But it doesn’t take long to realize whether you can dominate them or not. Is this going to be a challenge? Are we equally matched?
In that sense, it is power as domination. This is how power works in the world. This is how it works in the workplace. Maybe not explicitly, but the bosses, the owners dominate. This is how it works in politics. This is how it works between countries. This is how it works in the real world. Only the strong survive. The world keeps telling us this.
What does power look like? The power of domination looks one way. The power of mercy looks another. The power of love. God’s power. God doesn’t need to dominate to show power. God is power. Instead, God shows power through weakness.
Jesus offers a different kind of power than the world. And this power can look even the size of the mustard seed. It’s important here that we remember Jesus doesn’t talk about the faith of a mustard seed, but faith the size of a mustard seed. This small. It doesn’t take much faith to move a mountain. The famous mountain line is in Matthew, but the implication is still felt in Mark. Jesus says:
With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
So the real question is, why haven’t we flourished like the mustard bush? Why haven’t we moved any mountains? Is Jesus just giving us a nice little metaphor to feel good about ourselves? Move mountains, like, you know, change hearts, you know, move mountains. Like, do good, do a little good, do a little more good than bad. Is this what Jesus is talking about? When we stick to the mark passage, we can justify Jesus’s words. Look at our nice building! Look at the global population of Christian’s?
However, in the gospels, the only time Jesus is trying to make us feel good, we were already in a bad situation. If you are not currently in the valley of the shadow of death, the words of Jesus should convict you towards something greater, a life closer to the life you were created to lead. If we are satisfied with growing to be the size of a mustard bush, we should push ourselves to the mountain? How many mountains have you moved?
Are we moving mountains anymore? Have we humans ever moved mountains?
It is convenient to think of the past as a simpler time, a more faithful time, but history does really bear that out. Maybe we were told simpler stories, maybe we were simpler, but people have always been complex and life has always been challenging.
The Christian church has often shown a lack of faith. The church has sided with power as domination again and again. The church has sought relevance more than faithfulness. The church has sought social control more than souls transformed. The church has often acted with faith smaller than the size of a mustard seed. I include myself in this. I think we should all hold ourselves accountable. I’m not doubting your faith. Jesus is the one who puts us on notice concerning how much we believe.
There’s a lot of Christianity you can do today without believing much. There’s a lot of Christianity that fits very well with worldly ideas of power, with power as domination. There’s a lot of history of the church is filled with domination. Whenever we’re holding on to that kind of power, we have no space for the power of the mustard seed, the power of love.
We must let go of the desire to dominate, to win, to rule, to conquer, to be right, to be better than the Joneses, to have the best kids, to have the best grandkids, to win at life, to have the greatest bucket list, to fill it all out, to have the healthiest life, to have the least problems, these constant desires to dominate, all of these desires point to an exceeding lack of faith. Every moment of domination of another is a denial of Jesus Christ. A faith the size of a mustard seed begins with letting go of domination.
In a moment, we are going to say the apostles creed together. If these things about God are true, what are the consequences? Am I living a life that would make sense if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? Or to word it another way, Do I live a life as if the world turned on its axis whenever Jesus rose from the dead? Or do I live a life of practical atheism that doesn’t matter really?
My favorite kind of mustard is spicy mustard, the one with a Little kick to it. I think Jesus is compelling us to have a faith of spicy mustard, a faith with a little kick, a faith that does not compete, a faith that lets go of domination, a faith that thinks these things are true, a faith where Christ’s love conquers all, A faith that doesn’t seek to win, but to witness. A faith that doesn’t compete with the past glories, but seeks the broken of today who need mercy, who need community and hope, who need something to believe in.
Jesus didn’t gather up the winners of ancient society. Jesus didn’t come for Caesar or the generals but for poor fisherman and tax collectors and lepers and widows.
The mountain moving faith is ultimately not ours, it is the faith of Jesus. That is the power. Jesus moves mountains with us. Jesus moves mountains in us. Jesus doesn’t give us magical powers to shift the crust of the earth. Jesus shares life with us and draws us into his life so that we live in him. We live in the one who moves mountains. As the prophet Ezekiel writes,
All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree; I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.
Have a little faith. May we have a little faith in what God is doing here. May we step out in faith in what God is doing here. Even if we start small, may we flourish into who God created us to be. And if you are struggling now. If you don’t know where to go next, what to do, who to be, start with God’s love for you. You are loved and forgiven. You can be the greatest bush but you have to grow. Growing can have pains, but it leads to life. Let God feed and water you. Let go of habits of self-destruction and take up habits of sacrifice and love and God will move mountains with you.
In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit.