Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
Reflection
We all love tales of rags to riches; the transformation of insignificant origins into outcomes of greatness; of rising from humble beginnings to mega success! The Parable of the Mustard Seed is all about this contrast between beginnings and ends: – the understated, even unnoticed beginning of the Kingdom and its ultimate, inevitable and glorious fulfilment.
Jesus uses the image of the tiny, unassuming, mustard seed growing into a burgeoning plant to reassure a fallen creation that seems light years away from living Kingdom values. The Kingdom will grow from its small beginnings in the preaching of John the Baptist, of Jesus and his disciples, to a great end embracing the gentiles and the whole world.
Describing the maturing mustard seed as the greatest of all shrubs, is somewhat an exaggeration and is another example of Jesus, the ever-accomplished teacher, using the tradition of Jewish hyperbole in storytelling to great effect. His Jewish listeners would also have recognised that the reference to “the birds of the air come and make nest in its branches” as a quotation from Daniel 4.21. Here the tree is the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and the birds the nations under his dominion. Unlikely though it may have seemed at the time, through Jesus’ gospel message all nations will now be brought within the Kingdom he preaches..
Jesus was sowing the seeds of worldwide change and revolution!
Prayer
God, when we despair that your Kingdom seems hidden and far off, help us to see our everyday interactions with others as opportunities for small beginnings and Kingdom growth. Amen.
Today’s writer
Professor Graham Handscomb is a member of Christchurch URC in Chelmsford and Honorary Professor at University College London (UCL)
