Some surprise has been expressed in agriculture circles in the city at the knowledge Jesus the preacher has recently shown about tillage and horticulture matters.
"Considering his background it came out of the blue," said Job Muckanall, Agriculture Correspondent with the Palestine Times."I mean his father is a chippie in Nazareth. He was a chippie himself. And in Nazareth they wouldn't know a ploughed field if it stood up and bit them. As for mustard trees, the last tree of any sort they had up there went out with Methusaleh. It's a surprise alright.
"And his mother's people . . . weren't they shepherds from up north someplace? On either side they hadn't a field between them. Joseph was a great man for the session though," and he recalled a story about a wedding they were both at years ago. It was a good wedding.
Mr Muckanall's views have been reflected in comment by other experts in the field. Still more people were perplexed as to why Jesus should be talking about such matters at all. "Is he promoting a new tillage policy?" wondered Mr Muckanall. "That'd be a bit daft. There's nothing in tillage these days. Cherry tomatoes now, that's the way to go. The Roman's go crazy for them."
The comments followed reports from Lake Galilee where Jesus was talking from a boat to crowds about a farmer planting seed. ". . . and when he scattered the seed some fell along the path he walked on and the birds ate it. Some fell on rocky ground. It sprouted quickly, but when the hot summer sun came it withered and died because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thorns which choked it. And some fell on good soil. It produced a crop, a 100, 60 or 30 times what was sown."
No one understood him. "So . . .? a man in the crowd said to a friend. Jesus continued: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good wheat seed in his field. While everyone was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds in with the wheat. When the wheat sprouted so did the weeds. The man's servants said to him `will we pull up the weeds?' He said not to `because when you pull the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat too. Let them grow together and when harvest time comes we will first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning. Then we will gather the wheat'."
"So . . . .?' said the man in the crowd to his friend, again. By which time Jesus was telling the crowd the kingdom of heaven was like a mustard seed. "The kingdom of heaven seems to be a lot of things today," said the man.
"Though it is among the smallest of seeds when it grows it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree. Even birds can perch in its branches," said Jesus. He continued: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that is mixed with a large amount of flour until it works through all the dough."
"Ah for God's sake. Come on. We're out of here. I've enough of this," said the man to his friend. They left, as did most of the crowd. By which time Jesus was in intense conversation with his friends.
"Jesus! Why oh why do you have to talk to the people in parables. Why in God's name can't you just tell it to them straight. Did one person out there understand what you were talking about?" they asked. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," said Jesus. "The seed is the word of God. Some people are like the seed on the pathway. As soon as they hear it, it is snatched away by the devil. Those in a rocky place cannot hold onto it. Others, like the seed among thorns, are distracted by life's worries and temptations. And the seed on good soil? . . . well you can figure that out for yourselves. It's obvious," he said.
"As for the weeds . . . the field is the world and the good seed is good men like you. The weeds are sons of the devil, planted by him. And just as the farmer pulls the weeds and has them burned so it will be at the end of time. These bad men will be thrown into the fiery furnace and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but the good will shine like the sun. He who has ears, let him hear," he said.
"Now why didn't you say that in the first place?" asked one of his friends.