The Parable of the Mustard Seed
Dr. James Smith
Matthew 13:31-33
24 August 2003
Jesus was a master-teacher and of the 65 parables found in the gospels, he frequently used agricultural or nature themes when he taught the people in parables.
After all, much of His life and ministry took place in the northern region of Galilee in Israel. Galilee was praised by Jews, as a rich area that grew “bumper” crops that were only dreamed about in Judea to the south.
While Jesus learned to be a carpenter, he would have undoubtedly seen countless wheat fields and the tares or darnel that grew alongside. He would have seen lilies of the fields, birds of the air.
He would have enjoyed fresh fish dinners from the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a fresh water lake teeming with dozens of different kinds of fish.
He would have seen flocks of grazing sheep, the shrewd dealings of the market place, tenant farmers as well as the hated tax collectors.
Most of Jesus’ teachings simply use the everyday things found in Galilean life to illustrate deep spiritual truths.
Story telling was an appreciated art form in those days and even if the crowds didn’t completely understand the real point of Jesus’ parables, they were at least treated to some good and entertaining stories in a way that Pharisees could rarely duplicate.
In Matthew 13:31-32, we have a wonderful little parable of Jesus taken right from everyday Galilean life. It concerns a common product that most of us have in our refrigerator doors and don’t ever think about unless we run out of it. (Hold Yellow Mustard bottle)
This parable concerns Mustard. It’s a spicy condiment that so many of us use everyday on sandwiches and in cooking.
Today in the United States, we commonly use yellow mustard, but in Jesus’ day, they used something darker. They used black mustard.
Black mustard was grown along the Sea of Galilee and cultivated in both gardens and fields as well.
Of all the seeds planted in Jesus’ day, the mustard seed was among the smallest. Even the rabbi’s of Jesus’ day used the mustard seed to characterize something very small. (Distribute mustard seeds)
These tiny seeds could produce shrubs that were four feet tall and under favorable growing conditions they could grow quickly and soon resemble a small spindly tree of up to fifteen feet.
(I myself have grown yellow mustard from seed and it usually sprouts within a couple of days of planting). (Show yellow mustard seedlings)
A shrub-like plant that was several feet tall could easily lodge birds of various types as Matthew 13:32 says or at least provide food for hungry birds that enjoyed their spicy seeds.
Its tiny seeds were ground for spice and oil and flavored otherwise bland and simple food of the common people.
As westerners of the modern world, if we were to walk through a plowed and planted field, our minds would probably turn to what’s going on beneath the soil. We would probably think about the biological process.
But it is not only the purpose of the parable to describe a process of planting, germination and growth.
The people who originally heard this parable of Jesus would not have thought about a biological process but rather the great paradox of two successive yet different situations.
Jesus’ audience would have instinctively thought about the mystery of life, out of death. On one hand, the tiny and “dead” little mustard seed and on the other hand a large bush filled with chirping birds.
What a contrast! The tiniest of seeds - the mustard seed becomes the largest plant in the garden! In fact, it has branches large enough for birds to perch in its shade.
On one hand, death, on the other hand, life through the mysterious power of God.
The person of Jesus’ day would look at a handful of seeds that came off the mustard bushes in the family garden and see a miracle of God in a way that the spiritually dull and calloused hearts of modern people would totally miss.
We as followers of Jesus are called to clearly understand that out of the most insignificant beginnings, that which is nothing before the human eye, God has and will raise up His mighty kingdom.
And all kinds of birds, from both Jewish and Gentile lands will find shade, food and refuge in its branches.
While modern Christians’ sense of the miraculous, particularly in the case of growing mustard seed may be somewhat dull, hindsight is usually 20/20.
Could those followers of Jesus have known that the Kingdom of God would spread throughout the world?
Could they have envisioned men and women from such fabled lands as India, China and unknown areas on the other side of the ocean calling Jesus, Savior as they had?
Could they have believed that the Romans, their gentile overlords who would crucify their Master, would in only three short centuries call Jesus, Lord?
The great German New Testament scholar, Dr Joachim Jeremias, in his monumental work on the parables stated,
“How different were the beginnings of the messianic age from what was commonly expected! Could this wretched band, comprising so many ill-reputed characters, be the wedding guests of God’s redeemed community? Yes, says Jesus. With the same compelling certainty with which a tall shrub grows out of a tiny mustard seed.” (Rediscovering the Parables, 118).
With the same compelling certainty that a tiny mustard seed can grow into a fifteen foot tree, so the Kingdom of God has and will continue to spread in this world.
In Matthew 17:20, Jesus further reminds us that if we have faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, mountains can be moved.
What is the size of your faith in God? Have you built your nest in that tree like the birds? Don’t you realize that from insignificant beginnings you have grown in the Lord and the kingdom of God has spread throughout this world?
And isn’t that enough for our faith to approach the size of a mustard seed?
You may not think of yourself as a great witness for Jesus Christ, but the truth and power of God is contained in ordinary things like mustard seeds. You have the privilege of living in the tree, feeding on seeds and quietly spreading those seeds wherever you fly during the day.
And as we quickly approach the fall, people will return from vacations, routines will be re-established and new relationships will made.
So I want to encourage you to petition God in prayer, that He would reveal to you 1 or 2 people that you can begin to specifically pray for. People for whom you will have a burden to see the Kingdom of Heaven grow in their lives.
Because this is how the kingdom of heaven will grow, by spreading one mustard seed at a time.
Let’s Pray
