Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII, 26 July 2026). Today (27 July), the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship gives thanks for the life and work of Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), Bishop of Durham and Teacher of the Faith. He was one of the ‘Cambridge Triumvirate’ and was the founder Westcott House, the theological college in Cambridge that I visited last week and that I described in blog posting on Saturday evening.
Later this evening, I have a meeting of the trustees of a local charity in Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 13: 31-35 (NRSVA):
31 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’
33 He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35 This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet:
‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’
This morning’s reflections:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Matthew 13: 31-35) repeats part of yesterday’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52). I suppose it helps to be reminded this morning to be reminded how why Jesus keeps on trying to grasp at images that might help the Disciples and help us to understand what the Kingdom of God is like.
Christ tries to offer us a taste of the kingdom in this reading, as he continues to speak in parables. The two parables in today’s reading – the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Yeast – are really similes that must have seemed incredible in their day because of Christ’s use of exaggeration and hyperbole.
A mustard seed is very small, but it grows into a large shrub, rather than a tree. Birds do not nest in it.
Bread made with three measures of flour would feed 100 people, so once again we have hyperbole. The Kingdom of God will grow from small beginnings to something beyond our measure or imagination.
We have a romantic imagination that confuses gardens with Paradise, and Paradise with the Kingdom of Heaven. But perhaps that is a good starting point.
I was reflecting yesterday how the Kingdom of Heaven may be so like so many of those places that I see as snatches of heaven, places where I find myself constantly praising God and thanking God for creation.
But … but it’s not just that. And I start thinking that Christ does more than just paint a scene when he describes the kingdom of heaven.
I also need thanks for the small seeds or fistfuls of yeast, and share them with those I love and cherish.
You may wonder why Christ decides to talk about a mustard seed and a mulberry tree, rather than, say, an olive tree. After all, as he was talking in the incident in this morning’s Gospel reading, he must have been surrounded by grove after grove of olive trees.
But, I can imagine, he is also watching to see if those who are listening have switched off their humour mode, if they have withdrawn their sense of humour. He is talking here with a great sense of humour, using hyperbole to underline his point.
We all know a tiny grain of mustard is incapable of growing to a big tree. So, what is Christ talking about here? Because, he not only caught the disciples off-guard with his hyperbole and sense of humour … he even wrong-footed some of the Reformers and many Bible translators who make mistakes about what sort of trees he is talking about this morning.
Why did Christ refer to a mustard seed and a mulberry or sycamine tree, and not, say, an olive tree or a mighty oak tree?
Christ first uses the example of a tiny, miniscule kernel or seed (κόκκος, kokkos), from which the small mustard plant (σίναπι, sinapi) grows. But mustard is an herb, not a tree. Not much of a miracle, you might say: tiny seed, tiny plant.
But he then mixes his metaphors and refers to another plant. Martin Luther, in his translation of the Bible, turned the tree (verse 6) into a mulberry tree. The mulberry tree – both the black mulberry and the white mulberry – is from the same family as the fig tree.
As children, some of us sang or played to the nursery rhyme or song, ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’. Another version is ‘Here we go gathering nuts in May’. The same tune is used for the American rhyme Pop goes the weasel and for the Epiphany carol, ‘I saw three ships’. TS Eliot used the nursery rhyme in his poem ‘The Hollow Men’, replacing the mulberry bush with a prickly pear and ‘on a cold and frosty morning’ with ‘at five o’clock in the morning.’
Of course, mulberries do not grow on bushes, and they do not grow nuts that are gathered in May. Nor is the mulberry a very tall tree – it grows from tiny seeds but only reaches the height of an adult person. It is not a very big tree at all. It is more like a bush than a tree – and it is easy to uproot too.
The Greek word used in verse 31 for a tree, δένδρον (dendron), appears 25 times in the New Testament as the ordinary word for a tree, not a shrub or a bush. Although generic, it carries rich theological weight. A tree stands rooted between heaven and earth, silently declaring the Creator’s power (Genesis 1-2) and inviting reflection on life, growth, fruitfulness, and judgment.
When the New Testament writers select dendron, they tap into this panoramic biblical backdrop to illuminate the message of repentance, authentic discipleship, kingdom expansion, and final judgment. In first-century Judea and Galilee, hillsides were dotted with olive, fig, date-palm, sycamore, oak, and cedar. Trees furnished timber, fuel, medicine, oil, fruit, shade, and landmarks for travellers. Their steady annual cycles made them ideal teaching aids.
However, the tree Christ names in a smiliar reference in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 17: 1-6) is the sycamine tree (συκάμινος, sikámeenos), which has the shape and leaves of a mulberry tree but fruit that tastes like the fig, or the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus). Others think the tree being referred to here is the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus), a tree the same as the big tree that little Zacchaeus climbs in Jericho to see Jesus (Luke 19: 1-10).
The sycamine tree is not naturally pollinated. The pollination process is initiated only when a wasp sticks its stinger right into the heart of the fruit. In other words, the tree and its fruit have to be stung in order to reproduce. There is a direct connection between suffering and growth, but also a lesson that everything in creation, including the wasp, has its place in the intricate balance of nature.
Whether it is a small seed like the mustard seed, a small, seemingly useless and annoying creature like the wasp, a small and despised figure of fun like Zacchaeus, or a small amount of yeast used in baking bread, each has value in God’s eyes, and each has a role in the great harvest of gathering in for God’s Kingdom.
Put more simply, it is quality and not quantity that matters.
Today’s Prayers (Monday 27 July 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 26 July to 1 August 2026 (pp 22-23), is ‘Lives in Transit’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 27 July 2026) invites us to pray:
God of all peoples, we pray for migrant workers who begin each week in uncertainty and hard labour. Surround them with protection and your love.
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.
Additional Collect:
Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
