Mustard seeds and mulberry trees

December 27, 2020 (Sunday)

 

In Luke 17 there is an exchange between Jesus and His disciples. They interrupt Jesus when He demands we forgive people who sin against us (see Luke 17:4). The disciple’s immediate “knee jerk” reaction is about the difficulty in forgiving others who continually offend and ask forgiveness. “Increase our faith!” they cry.

 

The next verse is one of the more cryptic and misunderstood verses, BECAUSE we take it out of context and we do not put effort into understanding it. Let’s take a look.

 

“And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” [Luke 17:5 ESV] In Jesus’ day, the “mustard seed” was proverbial for something very small. The wisdom of the proverbial use of the mustard seed is not in its size, but its potential for growth.

 

The “mulberry tree” is literally a sycamine tree. It’s a black mulberry. If you look up the qualities of the fruit, it will seem like mulberry is a super food. High in antioxidants, vitamins, and all sorts of useful chemicals. It’s interesting that Doctor Luke distinguished this tree from the sycamore, a white mulberry (see Luke 19:4); most likely because they had different medicinal properties. The precision of identifying this tree could not have been random.

 

The sycamine had two qualities that help us understand what Jesus meant. First, this tree was what we call “hard wood.” Meaning the wood was extremely durable. Because of this, it has been referred to as “the casket tree.” Yes, caskets were made from its wood. The second thing is this tree is the last tree to bud. The theory is it waits to protect itself from frost. Thus, it had a history of people understanding the tree to represent wisdom born in patience.

 

If I may be allowed to suggest, Jesus was not suggest a literal tree. The sycamine tree represented the bitterness of death and the wisdom found in patience. Let’s get back to the context. Unforgiveness is bitterness. Bitterness is poison to the soul and body. The bitterness exhibited in being unwilling to forgive means we have yet to be forgiven. We claim God’s rightful place as judge.

 

The possibility that a sycamine tree, or any tree, would obey the command to uproot and plant itself in the sea is zero. Jesus never meant for us to order trees into the sea. What Jesus is saying is something as difficult as forgiving a repeat offender requires faith. But faith is not necessarily full grown. It starts as a seed.

 

Jesus paints this faith as a mustard seed. It’s very small but has the potential to grow. The potential of faith to overcome bitterness through wisdom grown in the soil of patience is powerful. The trouble is we expect forgiveness to be instant. While extending forgiveness can be instant, it may take time to deal with the bitterness.

 

As faith grows, like a seed, I think we become for like Jesus. Personal hurt is transformed into historical hurt. I don’t think humans have the ability to forget, but we do have the ability to treat the offender with love and grace.

 

Maybe Jesus was borrowing an image from Micah 7:19, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” [ESV] If hurt people  hurt people; then forgiven people forgive people.