Jesus often turns to earthy images when inviting us to the “great mystery” of life in the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is not an idealized state; these images do not evoke a heavenly bliss or vision of perfection.

Rather, this kingdom springs from the most inauspicious of beginnings, becoming a maturing tree sprouting fruitfully in all directions. New life springs forth as birds flock to settle in a mustard tree’s bounty, nesting gratefully on the arching branches and plentiful foliage. A small amount of yeast produces a similar excess, as dough rises in fullness, producing many loaves to meet the needs of the hungry.

Another earthy analogue to this kingdom is employed as St. Paul instructs the Ephesians, finding in the patterns for husbands and wives in his day a deeper model for a Christian community of mutual submission. Here we see the husband-wife dynamic, viscerally available to his audience, repurposed for a lesson on the role of discipleship in a relational image in which Christ is at the center.

To imagine the point of this passage as a simplistic blueprint for husband-wife relations is to rip these verses from the rest of Scripture, which is filled with complex relationships of encounter and reversal. Paul’s goal here is not marriage advice; instead he is using this relationship to articulate the hard work of becoming a Church and turning toward Christ.

This is the great mystery: that through our everyday acts of mutual submission, our small and humble selves are born anew into the joyous buzzing life of the Kingdom of God.

Nancy Dallavalle

Nancy Dallavalle is director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut.