NR 24-07-05
Story: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. They set up their tent and fell asleep.
Some hours later, Holmes woke his faithful friend.
"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
Watson replied, "I see millions of stars."
"What does that tell you?" asks Holmes
Watson pondered for a minute.
"Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo.
Horologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three.
Theologically, it’s evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. “
Then - after a pause, Watson says: “Well, Holmes, What does it tell you?"
Holmes was silent for a moment and then he said.
"Watson, you imbecile, someone has stolen our tent."
Like Watson, it is easy for us to miss the obvious too when we look for the meaning in Jesus’ parables.
And today’s parable of the Mustard Seed is no exception.
In Jesus’ parable this morning he speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven being like a Mustard Seed.
And what he is saying, I believe is that the tremendous growth of the Church – which is kingdom of God on this earth will stem from the death of Jesus.
1. Some people think Jesus was a mythical character, but he wasn’t.
Jesus was a real person who lived 2000 years ago.
We don’t just have the evidence of the Bible, but we also have the evidence of four Roman historians:
Pliny the Younger who wrote in AD 111 to the Emperor Trajan. He said that Christians worshipped Jesus as if he were God and so were abandoning the worship of the Roman Emperor.
Tacitus who wrote about 114 AD and said that
Christ had been condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator in Judea (AD 26-36).
And he went on to say that by the time of the Emperor Nero, Jesus had attracted enough followers in Rome for them to be blamed for the burning of Rome.
Suetonius who referred to Chrestus (a misprint for Christus) being the founder of a sect in Judaism.
(Alister McGrath “Explaining your faith” p 49-50)
And finally Josephus, a Jewish writer who was not a Christian records the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth in quite some detail.
2. Jesus preached a revolutionary message.
He not only called people to love God and their neighbours – but he said some strange things like
we should
Love our enemies and
Do good to those who are unkind to us!!
He spoke about justice and equality – and forgiveness.
The Good and the Great in Israel at the time not only did not flock to his message, they positively hated him and eventually had him crucified.
3. And Jesus’ death should have been the end of it - Yet it wasn’t
The final nail in the coffin of Christianity should have been - when the Christians made the ridiculous claim that Jesus rose from the dead
But it wasn’t.
Indeed it was after that claim that the church really took off.
Was that the reason that the Church of Jesus Christ, a carpenter from an insignificant town (Nazareth) in Israel, a backwoods of the Roman Empire, developed the world’s largest religion.
Consider this:
When the Founder of Islam, Mohammed died, he left a well oiled state machinery and army to boot – to propagated the message he brought
When the Buddha died, the nobility of Nepal had embraced Buddhism and propagated his teachings further.
None of Mohammed’s followers or the Buddha’s followers has ever claimed their founder rose from the dead.
Yet that is exactly what Christians claim about Jesus.
4. So why is the death and resurrection of Jesus so significant?
Well, the key can be found in the parable of the Mustard Seed.
The mustard seed, Brassica Nigra to which Jesus referred was not literally the smallest seed – though it was pretty close to it.
However, the term “like a mustard seed” had become a proverbial way of saying something is very small .
Jesus himself spoke of “faith like a mustard seed” to denote very small faith.
When the rabbis spoke of a minute amount of blood, they spoke of a drop like a mustard seed (The Parables of Jesus – David Wenham p,53-54) 17:20; m. Niddah 5:2; Toharot 8:8).
The small mustard seed had the amazing capacity to produce a large shrub. Indeed, some plants reached a height of eight to ten foot.
Yet it was only when the mustard seed died, that the potential of the huge plant is released.
Just as the life of the plant grew out of the death of the seed and rose to life again as a mustard plant,
so the growth of the Church – which after all is the body of Christ
grew out of the death of Jesus Christ and his being raised to life again.
You might say that is ridiculous. How can anyone rise from the dead.
But this is the only reason that the Church and the Bible has ever given - for the phenomenal growth in the Church.
And remember that Christianity began as a persecuted minor sect of Judaism and grew to become the State religion of the Roman Empire all within 300 years.
If Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead, why didn’t the Jewish authorities produce his body and prove the fraud once and for all.
St Paul writing within 30 years of the death of
Christ says that 500 plus people saw the risen Christ. Why was that never contradicted?
Perhaps the truth lies in the words attributed to Sherlock Holmes who said:
"eliminate the obvious and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer."
(The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory by Ronald Kahn. 1994.)
What do you think?
In closing may I leave you with a story from the French Revolution of the 18th Century?
During the French Revolution, a whole series of new religions sprang up, each with its own special teacher. Yet none of them caught on. They attracted no followers and most ended up collapsing after a few months or years.
In desperation one of the inventors of a new religion turned to the great French statesman Talleyrand and asked how he could get his religion off the ground.
“My dear fellow” Talleyrand is reputed to have replied”I suggest you get yourself crucified and then rise again on the third day”
(Alister McGrath Explaining your Faith p.54)
