In the ‘The Parable Of The Growing Seed’, Mark 4:26-29, we see how Jesus explained how the spiritual kingdom of God grows. We see that this kingdom’s growth was orderly. Just like our physical growth, we grow through infancy, childhood, youth and manhood. In other words, it takes time and we need to be patient.
We also see how the kingdom’s growth is from God Himself. We plant the seed and water it when we get the chance but it’s God who causes the seed to grow. And we don’t know how God does this but we know He does because we’re Christians today.
Jesus is going to teach us another aspect of this kingdom’s growth but from a different point of view, from the view point of a garden or the field, Luke 13:18-19 / Matthew 13:31-32 / Mark 4:30-32. Everything God created has a purpose and we can learn many lessons from nature, and that includes the mustard seed.
During Biblical times, it was very common practice to talk about the mustard seed as one of the smallest seeds, Matthew 13:32 / Mark 4:31. Strictly speaking it wasn’t the smallest seed around at this time but the tiny mustard seed was used to speak of anything minute. For example, Jesus spoke of faith, as a grain of mustard seed, Matthew 17:20 / Luke 17:6.
Let me say a few words about the mustard plant before we go on because this will help us in our understanding of the parable. The Palestinian mustard plant, because of its size wasn’t usually found in the garden, it was usually found in an open field, and these plants grow to between ten and twelve feet in height.
When it comes to shrubs, this was the giant, its branches were so large they would spread out like a tree. And so because of its size, it would very often attract many birds, Luke 13:19 / Matthew 31:32 / Mark 4:32. During the time of Jesus, birds would often be seen in the branches of the mustard plant as they fed on the small black seeds of the mustard pods. And like we know about all of Jesus’ parables, He reveals a secret about how the kingdom of God grows from an everyday event. I’m going to share with you three points on this parable.
1. Just because something is little, doesn’t mean it’s not important.
When we look at the small mustard seed and we see how microscopic it is, we might be forgiven for thinking it’s not worth much. But when we talk to someone who grows these plants, we will find exactly how valuable it really is. As a spice, mustard is sold in seed or powder form and even today we can buy it in paste form. In other words, the little mustard seed by itself doesn’t look so important, but our experience teaches us not to minimise it.
I guess what I’m saying is that the little things in life should never be discounted. When we look at the world today, it’s obsessed with bigness. The Great Wall of China is seventeen-hundred miles long. The Alaskan Pipeline runs for eight-hundred miles. The Empire State Building, which was built in New York in 1931, is one-hundred and two-story high. So many of our modern-day skyscrapers dwarf the tower of Babel. When we think about our farmers, they’re termed as successful according to the bigness of their operations.
So to a world obsessed with magnitude, Jesus says, ‘pay attention to the little things’. A cup of cold water, Mark 9:41, a visit to the sick, a welcome to a stranger, a lost sheep, Jesus says, ‘these are the little things’. In Matthew 25:35-36, when Jesus is talking about the great division which will happen on judgement day, notice He doesn’t want us to feed the world, He doesn’t want us to solve world poverty. It’s not big things He wants from us, it’s little things.
Give a hungry person someone to eat, give a thirsty person something to drink. Give someone who needs clothes, some clothes, look after and visit the lonely and sick. These aren’t big tasks, they’re little mission fields that we all can do. Just because someone has a small task within God’s kingdom doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. Doing a good deed for someone spreads the Gospel faster than 100 sermons. That’s because just like a grain of mustard seed, they increase in size beyond imaginable proportion.
2. However important little things may be, the parable focuses on the consequences of little beginnings.
The Egyptians were famous and still are famous for their pyramid buildings and one of the greatest pyramids built was built at Giza. It contained an inner chamber where the Pharaohs were buried. His followers were usually buried in there too, along with some of his personal artefacts. The rest of the pyramid complex consisted of a large enclosure, an adjacent mortuary temple, and a walkway leading down to a pavilion. And when we look at these magnificent structures, we can’t help but stand in awe. But when we think about it, these structures started with one brick.
Vincent Van Gogh has got many famous paintings but each one started with a single stroke of the brush. The German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven started his great symphonies and concertos with a single note.
In literature, every book ever written, every essay, and every poem all comes from the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. In fact, the world’s biggest things have generally had small beginnings. Momentous deeds and earth circling revolutions can be traced back to a speck, like a germ of mustard seed.
When we think about Christianity, the world’s greatest movement had its beginnings in a manger in Bethlehem, Luke 2:10-12. The proud and busy Roman world didn’t take any notice of the day when Jesus was born. And it casually took notice of His life, and even when Jesus died, the Roman world didn’t care much, why? Because Jesus was born in a manger, He was a carpenter from Nazareth and when He died, He was now gone, so much for a great leader!
Certainly, in outward appearances, Jesus looked less than the least of all seeds, His followers were counted by the dozen, not by the thousands. And yet, from only a handful of disciples, and in spite of their leader’s death on a cross. There sprang into existence the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which you and I are members of today.
Twenty-one centuries have come and gone, and today, He still remains the central figure for much of the human race. We should learn the lesson from the mustard seed. A thing may be small, almost without hope but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to succeed. Jesus is saying that small beginnings can succeed because it’s God who is behind it. Do we honestly think that the first-century disciples ever thought that their small faith would have had such an impact on the world today?
Their faith began unnoticed, just like the tiny mustard seed but look at it now, it has gone all around the world, Colossians 1:5. Jesus said with faith like that, ‘we can move mountains, we can tell a tree to go and plant itself in the sea,’ Mark 11:23. That’s faith, that’s leaving things in God’s hands because we know that God is in control.
3. Don’t miss the point of this parable.
Some people like to believe that the branches, which Jesus talks about here, Luke 13:19 / Mark 4:32 / Matthew 13:32, are symbolic of modern-day denominations. In other words just as the birds come and sit in the branches of the trees, it’s said that people can come and enter the different branches or denominations of the church.
But there are a few problems with this interpretation. They fail to ask the questions we have been asking with every parable we’ve looked at. Who was Jesus speaking to and what did it mean to them? Jesus was speaking to His disciples, Matthew 13:10 / Mark 4:10. Was denominationalism around in Jesus’ day? No!
Some people try to understand the parable by looking at Christianity today. What they need to do is look at Christianity as we find it in the first century. It’s all too easy to make something mean something, which Jesus never meant it to mean. It’s too easy to speak of branches of the church, but in the days of Christ and His apostles, these different so-called branches or divisions of Christianity were unknown.
The Bible nowhere teaches that there are many churches, the Bible always talks about the unity of the church as in singular, Ephesians 4:4-6. Jesus didn’t say, ‘on this rock, I will build my churches.’ He said, ‘I will build my church,’ singular, Matthew 16:18.
There are other people who like to say that this parable was a prophecy of Jesus. In other words, this parable remained unfulfilled until the recent rise of denominationalism, rubbish! This takes their interpretation too far, there’s no need to make everything in the parable mean something. The branches of the mustard tree aren’t the main focus of Jesus’ attention any more than the man who sowed the mustard seed or the nests that were made in the tree’s branches.
The point of the parable is simply that the microscopic mustard seed grows into a tree large enough for the birds to come and nest in it. The man who sowed the seed, the field or garden, the nests, and the birds themselves, are all incidental to the one central truth of the parable.
And that’s this, the kingdom of God, Luke 13:18 / Matthew 13:31 / Mark 4:30, even with a small beginning would prosper and prevail over all other kingdoms. That’s what Jesus is getting at, that’s what He is teaching His disciples.
Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel 2:31-45, is important because it helps us in our understanding of this parable. Let me give you a quick rundown of what this dream means. Daniel 2:32, talks about ‘the head’ as being made of pure gold, this is talking about The Babylonian Empire. Daniel 2:32, also talks about ‘the chest and arms’ as being made of silver, this is talking about The Medo-Persian Empire.
Daniel 2:32-33, also mentions ‘the belly and thighs, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.’ as being made of bronze, this is talking about The Roman Empire. And in Daniel 2:34, he talks about ‘this rock’, which is not made by human hands. The stone cut not by human hands, struck the image down and became ‘a great mountain and filled the whole earth,’ Daniel 2:35. In other words, Daniel prophesied that God’s kingdom was destined to conquer all other kingdoms.
Did Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream come true and was it accurate? Yes, it did, all we have to do is read our history books and we will see how accurate it was. And we will read about how one kingdom fell after another, all the great historian writers tell us all about it.
What can we learn from this parable? Let me give you a couple of things to think about. Do you realise that you are a part of a kingdom that will never be destroyed and will last forever? But don’t take my word for it, take God’s word, Daniel 2:44. If you’re a Christian today then you’re a part of God’s spiritual kingdom right now.
Notice that Paul doesn’t say, concerning our citizenship, ‘will be in heaven’ but ‘is in heaven’, that’s present tense, Philippians 3:17-20. Now you may be thinking to yourself that you would like to become a part of this kingdom but you haven’t got much to offer, well just remember what we’ve learned today.
Jesus says that it’s the little things we have got to offer that can make all the difference. We might not be able to preach or teach, but we can certainly write a letter of encouragement to other Christians in Jesus’ name. We might not be able to song lead, but we can come to worship and encourage everyone with our friendly smile in Jesus’ name.
In a world where people say that size matters, Jesus says, ‘give me what you can and I will do wonders with it.’ Look at what He did with a couple of fish and five loaves of bread, Matthew 14:13-21 / Matthew 15:32-39. Look at what He did with six stone water jugs after they have been filled with water, John 2:1-11. Imagine what He can do with you if you would only give yourself to Him first.