Today, in Church, we listened to the parable of the mustard seed, the text in which Jesus says that the Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed (see Matthew 13:31-32).
Jesus says in the text that the mustard seed is ”the smallest of all the seeds,” and that it becomes ”a tree”.
Unless the mustard Jesus is talking about is of an entirely different kind than the mustard we have today*, he does not speak the truth. There are lots of seeds that are smaller than a mustard seed, and mustard does not become a tree.
I have never heard any preacher talk about this, that what Jesus says about the mustard seed does not correspond to reality. It is apparently not a problem.
But when it comes to some other texts, then it suddenly becomes very important that what Jesus says in the Bible is exactly right.
But why?
Dare we not be open to that what is written in the Bible needs to be interpreted?
Does my faith only work, if everything that I believe in is scientific and exact truth?
I need to reflect on this.
( * … but of course, I can be wrong. It’s happened before. )