The Grain of Mustard Seed (4:30-32).
The grain of mustard seed was a favourite illustration of Jesus (Matthew 13:31; Matthew 17:20; Luke 13:19; Luke 17:6). It was a tiny seed and yet it would quickly grow into a large bush, often well over two metres high, in which birds could take shelter. Indeed they were very fond of its small black seeds, and birds would have been a common sight around a mustard bush.
Analysis.
a And he said, “How shall we liken the Kingly Rule of God, or in what picture (parabolos) shall we set it forth? It is like a grain of mustard seed which,
b When it is sown on the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,
b Yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs,
a And puts out sizeable branches so that the birds of the air can shelter under their shadow
Note that in ‘a' the Kingly Rule of God is like a grain of mustard seed, and in the parallel this results in sizeable branches in which the birds can shelter. In ‘b' it commences as the smallest of all the seeds used by Palestinian farmers, and in the parallel its resultant bush becomes greater than all the herbs.
‘And he said, “How shall we liken the Kingly Rule of God, or in what picture (parabolos) shall we set it forth? It is like a grain of mustard seed which, when it is sown on the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out sizeable branches so that the birds of the air can shelter under their shadow.” '
The contrast here is one of size. The commencement seems very small but the growth is rapid so that it quickly becomes a place of shelter and even a nesting place (birds have incredible abilities to nest in what may seem to us unlikely places). And that is what will happen to the Kingly Rule of God. From small beginnings it will grow to a huge size and become a shelter to the nations. The emphasis is not on the process of growing but on the great contrast between the tiny seed and the large bush. There may well be in mind here, in the fully grown bush, the idea of the parousia, the final coming of Christ to receive His own, when all the elect will be gathered from the four winds, from the uttermost part of earth to the uttermost part of Heaven (Mark 13:27) and the Kingly Rule of God in its final phase will be established.
The picture of birds in a tree is familiar from the Old Testament. See for example, Ezekiel 17:22-24; Ezekiel 31:1-14; Daniel 4:10; Daniel 4:21. There the tree illustrates a great empire in which the nations (the birds) find shelter. So this may be declaring that the Kingly Rule of God will become the equivalent of a great empire sheltering many peoples within it, and they will all be one people as the Old Testament prophets had themselves declared (Isaiah 27:12-13). It is this fact above all that points us to our seeing it as finally speaking of the end of the ages when the Rule of God is consummated.
‘Less than all the seeds that are on the earth.' It would seem that the mustard seed was proverbially so in Palestine. This was not intended as a scientific statement. The point was that it was the smallest as compared with the others with which they were familiar. It is deliberate exaggeration. And indeed while it was not necessarily so in size, it was in significance. It seemed tiny and unimportant. But what a contrast with the huge bush which was a favourite of the birds of the air.
‘Sown on the earth --- the birds of the air.' An alternative possibility is that there is a hint here that what was earthly was coming in contact with the heavenly and coming under heavenly protection in the same way as with the birds that fed Elijah. But the fact that the birds take shelter under the branches is against this.
We should note that these parables are often seen as pictures of the growth of the church. But this is not strictly their idea if we mean by the church a human organisation. The idea is rather of the word of God which produces life within many peoples in many individual hearts, bringing them under His shelter and making them one together, resulting in the final gathering of His own at the coming of Christ. It is the living church, the true Israel, that it pictures.