© 2017 Olga López
© 2017 Urantia Association of Spain
As you know, Jesus’ parables do not have a single interpretation, but rather serve to evoke lofty images and ideas in us, and help us discern the way to progress spiritually. This is the great power of using parables: to draw parallels between the material world, which we know so well, and the spiritual world, which we know less, in order to better understand the latter.
The parable of the mustard seed is one of the best-known parables Jesus used when referring to the development of the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men. If there’s one idea that stands out above the rest, in my opinion, when reading this parable, it’s that of progress, evolution. The kingdom of heaven, the realization of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men, is a process that develops gradually, born like a small seed that must be nurtured so that it can grow and bear fruit.
This parallel between the Kingdom of Heaven and the mustard seed appears in various documents, so I would like to analyze each of the paragraphs where it appears and share the ideas this parable suggests to me.
The three apostles were shocked this afternoon when they realized that their Master’s religion made no provision for spiritual self-examination. All religions before and after the times of Jesus, even Christianity, carefully provide for conscientious self-examination. But not so with the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ philosophy of life is without religious introspection. The carpenter’s son never taught character building; he taught character growth, declaring that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. But Jesus said nothing which would proscribe self-analysis as a prevention of conceited egotism. UB 140:8.27
“The carpenter’s son never taught character building; he taught character growth.”
It’s not necessary to dissect or analyze a seed for it to grow. Likewise, it’s not necessary to thoroughly examine ourselves to grow spiritually. What matters is that we progress, that we put our faith into practice in our daily lives. We may have very lofty ideas, but it’s ideals that drive us to act and make them a reality. This is how the seed we all have within us grows.
By this, I don’t mean that we shouldn’t know ourselves. Of course, this is fundamental, because it helps us know our strengths, those that help us grow spiritually and serve others, and our weaknesses, those that need improvement. But we shouldn’t make introspection an obsession, because we tend to obsess over our flaws and see only the negative in ourselves. We all have good things to offer others.
After the people had asked a few questions, Jesus spoke another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man sowed in his field. Now a mustard seed is the least of seeds, but when it is full grown, it becomes the greatest of all herbs and is like a tree so that the birds of heaven are able to come and rest in the branches thereof.” UB 151:4.2
“A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is ripe, it becomes the largest herb of all and resembles a tree.”
In the spiritual world, growth is never spectacular or sudden. It always occurs slowly but surely, just as a seed germinates to give rise first to a small sprout, then to a small plant, and then to a tree, as in the case of the mustard seed. This is how we progress: right now we are little more than animals with willpower, we are like small seeds struggling to sprout, but we are destined to be great trees, which is what we will be when we become finaliters in Paradise. Along the way, we will cease to be seeds and transform into ever-larger sprouts, until we reach the culminating point of growth (and even that will not be the end). Right now, we are unable to set a maximum height for the tree of our spiritual progress, for not even Paradise is the final goal. The supreme tree will be followed by the ultimate tree, and then… who knows! The adventure of the Absolute God awaits us at the end of the road, where we can peer with our branches into infinity.
“The birds of the sky can come and rest on its branches.”
This is what Jesus says about the mustard tree. This part of the parable suggests to me that we must be great in order to be of help to others, so that we can be their support, their refuge, a safe harbor so that our fellow human beings can be safe from the storms of life. We don’t grow, we don’t progress only for ourselves, but also for others. For there can be no growth or progress for oneself alone. The talents we have been given are not for us alone; if we want them to be productive, we must invest them in service to our fellow human beings.
[The apostles] looked upon the coming of the kingdom in the hearts of men as a gradual development, like the leaven in the dough or like the growing of the mustard seed. They believed that the coming of the kingdom in the racial or world sense would be both sudden and spectacular. Jesus never tired of telling them that the kingdom of heaven was their personal experience of realizing the higher qualities of spiritual living; that these realities of the spirit experience are progressively translated to new and higher levels of divine certainty and eternal grandeur. UB 170:2.16
“[The apostles] believed that the coming of the kingdom, in the racial or global sense, would be both sudden and spectacular.”
Why are we humans so prone to sudden and spectacular changes? Perhaps because we are so fascinated by the sudden and the spectacular, by what happens quickly and effortlessly, what a dear reader friend (now deceased) called “the phenomenal.” In this, the laziness we carry “inherently” plays tricks on us. We want everything, and we want it now, without any effort on our part. We want someone or something to change us as if by magic, for the world to change as if by magic. And there is no magic in the affairs of the kingdom, but rather patient, constant, and quiet work. It is not spectacular work, it is not showy, it is not fast, but it is enormously effective, and the long-term results are assured.
Jesus never tired of telling them that the kingdom of heaven was their personal experience of obtaining the higher qualities of spiritual life; that these realities of spiritual experience are progressively transferred to new and higher levels of divine certainty and eternal greatness.
Spiritual progress is irreversible. Many times in our lives, we believe we have learned certain lessons, but life itself and the challenges it brings are responsible for revealing and showing us which lessons we have learned and which we have yet to. In spiritual progress, the lessons learned are learned forever; we could say they cease to depend on time, because no matter how many times they are tested, our reaction will always be the same. The greater our certainty, the greater our faith, the more we rise to higher spiritual levels.
And of course, spiritual progress is, above all, personal. Progress is not achieved by blindly following precepts or believing in certain dogmas without question. Faith must be living and reasoned, never blind. Intellect and emotions, mind and heart, must go hand in hand in spiritual growth, never dissociated.
This gospel of the kingdom is a living truth. I have told you it is like the leaven in the dough, like the grain of mustard seed; and now I declare that it is like the seed of the living being, which, from generation to generation, while it remains the same living seed, unfailingly unfolds itself in new manifestations and grows acceptably in channels of new adaptation to the peculiar needs and conditions of each successive generation. The revelation I have made to you is a living revelation, and I desire that it shall bear appropriate fruits in each individual and in each generation in accordance with the laws of spiritual growth, increase, and adaptative development. From generation to generation this gospel must show increasing vitality and exhibit greater depth of spiritual power. It must not be permitted to become merely a sacred memory, a mere tradition about me and the times in which we now live. UB 178:1.15
“This gospel of the kingdom… is like the seed of the living being, which remains the same from generation to generation, but which infallibly develops into new manifestations, and grows acceptably in channels that are anew adapted to the particular needs and conditions of each successive generation.”
This paragraph presents a very interesting idea that we should not overlook, and that is the continuity of the gospel from one generation to the next. But this continuity does not mean that the message should be spread in a rigid and dogmatic manner; rather, it must be a living transmission, adapted to the specific and particular circumstances of each generation. We cannot speak or live the religion of Jesus in the same way that Jesus himself and the apostles did; rather, we must adapt it to our time and circumstances while maintaining its essence. Humanity is supposed to have progressed since then, that we humans living in the 21st century have advanced at all levels compared to those who lived in the 1st century, and there is much evidence to prove this. But the gospel was given to us for all humans of all time and remains as necessary today as it was two thousand years ago.
The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man remain true today, but, just as two thousand years ago, they are still far from being lived out by each and every human being living on this planet. And since humanity is not the same and there are other problems that hinder the brotherhood of man, we must seek new solutions that will lead us to make the kingdom of heaven a reality on earth.
“From generation to generation, this gospel must show increasing vitality and demonstrate a greater depth of spiritual power.”
In some ways, the teachings of The Urantia Book are showing us the great vitality and relevance of the religion brought to us by Jesus of Nazareth. We have a unique opportunity to show the world that vitality, to make known the religion of Jesus and not a pale reflection of it. But the world doesn’t just need beautiful words, but words put into action. The depth of spiritual power to which Jesus alludes is inseparable from putting the Master’s teachings into practice. We have had many centuries of theology, dogmas, and traditions that have been stripped of their original meaning: what we need now is the living religion of personal experience with God, which Jesus worked so hard to transmit to his contemporaries.
In short, these are the fundamental ideas that I believe are contained in this parable about the kingdom of heaven: