THE PARABLE OF THE
MUSTARD SEED – THE
EXTREMES OF GOD’S
KINGDOM
Penge Baptist Church
21st August 2011
The Parable
• He 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 your seeds,
yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden
plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds
of the air come and perch in its branches.”
(Matthew 13:31-32)
The kingdom
• Disciples expected a warlike Messiah who
would eject the Roman occupiers….
• ….how could Jesus convince them that his
kingdom was “not of this world” – and far
more important?
The image
• One of Jesus’ favourites:
– I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as
a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.’ (Matthew
17:20)
– He replied, “If you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will
obey you. (Luke 17:6)
The initiative
• “a mustard seed,
which a man took
and planted in his
field”
The intervention
• “when it grows”
Extremely small
• “it is the smallest of all your seeds”
• “Who despises the day of small things?”
(Zechariah 4:10)
• “He grew up before him like a tender
shoot,and like a root out of dry ground.”
(Isaiah 53:2)
Extreme variation
• “it is the smallest of all your seeds…. it is
the largest of garden plants”
• Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and
said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be
the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark
9:35)
• “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground
and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if
it dies, it produces many seeds. The man
who loves his life will lose it, while the man
who hates his life in this world will keep it
for eternal life.” (John 12:24-25)
Extremely fruitful
• “becomes a tree, so that the birds
of the air come and perch in its
branches”
• you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)
• “that the creation itself will be
liberated from its bondage to decay
and brought into the glorious
freedom of the children of God”
(Romans 8:21)
Extremely slow
• “when it grows”
• “But if we hope for what we do not yet
have, we wait for it patiently.” (Romans
8:25)
• “What if God, choosing to show his wrath
and make his power known, bore with great
patience the objects of his wrath—prepared
for destruction?” (Romans 9:22)
God’s kingdom is underway!
• “as the Lord has assigned to each his task, I
planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but
God made it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)
• “the people living in darkness have seen a
great light; on those living in the land of the
shadow of death a light has dawned.”
(Matthew 4:16)