The Cedar of Lebanon, Coniferous Forest 2024.
Thus says the Lord God: I, too, will pluck from the crest of the cedar the highest branch. From the top a tender shoot I will break off and transplant on a high lofty mountain. Ezekiel 17:22.
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Whenever Scripture mentions the cedar tree, you can be almost certain it is a reference to the magnificent cedar of Lebanon, as pictured above. Lebanon then as now was to the north of the Holy Land. It even has a cedar on its present-day flag:
And although in the Middle East there is a significant Lebanese Christian minority with an ancient tradition, the Catholic Maronites. The mention of the cedar in today’s first reading is from the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel and he was dealing with the convulsion of the defeat and exile of the Jews to Babylon and the total confusion as to what was going to happen to them. Hence the reference to the cutting and replanting of a symbol of strength from the north (and the Babylonian captivity was also to the north) and its endurance, but again all that takes a little bit of agricultural knowledge to understand. After a rapid tutorial on tree cloning, today’s reading allowed me to understand a little more of the metaphor being used here. First, cloning a tree is difficult, but possible. You should use a cutting from a young tree of perhaps the thickness of a pencil. Well, that requirement challenges the magnificent cedar parallel right there with God taking a clipping from the top of a full-grown tree, except, of course, it is the Lord God promising this, with whom anything is possible. God seems to be promising that the exiles in Babylon are still the Chosen of God and similar to the majestic Lebanese cedar. They were exiled in Babylon, north of the Holy Land itself, but were promised that they would be returned to their land and would once more be strong and magnificent in Jerusalem. All other cedars would then seem smaller in comparison, and the new Jerusalem after the return of the exiles would be much greater than before. Compare all that to today’s gospel.
Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God and how, like the tiny mustard seed, it would also grow, paralleling the growth of the mustard seed into the “the largest of plants”, or the seeds thrown from the farmer’s hand which will become rich sheaves of wheat from almost nothing. And, of course, he was talking to those who would know all about scattering seeds, though they were probably unaware that they would be scattering the seeds which would become the kingdom of God; only when they came to understand the freedom and joy of his message would they then begin to spread the seeds of the Good News. And St. Paul seems to confirm that idea when he talked about all of us ultimately appearing before the judgment seat of Christ to make account of our life on earth. Did we make known our devotion to Christ’s teachings when living with others? Could they see that Christians have a freedom and a joy which comes from the hand of Jesus?
The Mustard Tree (Bush?), Kristi’s Morning Devotional.
So, given all that, today seems to be a calling to each of us to make an accounting, at this time, and to examine our Christian life and see if we are doing any scattering of the good seed at all. Can I point to times and places when what I said or did made a positive difference in someone’s life? Have I been Christ to the world in any way at all? Have I cultivated the seedlings of life, light and love to grow in my heart and spread them to those around me? And not by giving an impression of being a holy joe, but by loving example and generosity? It’s not easy, but it is necessary. And it is what is meant by being Christian at all times and in all places.
Sowing seeds on the Farm, Westend61.
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