The life and death of Christ did not catch the world’s attention any more than a mustard seed would lying on the ground by the road. How significant could the short ministry of Christ be? He had but a handful of followers, He was a man of no rank and without means, and He lived in what everyone considered a backwater region of the world. The point of the Parable of the Mustard Seed is that something big and blessed-the kingdom of God-had humble beginnings. The mustard seed is quite small, but it grows into a large shrub-up to ten feet in height-and Jesus says this is a picture of kingdom growth. In this parable, Jesus predicts the amazing growth of the kingdom of heaven. The Parable of the Mustard Seed is contained in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 13:31–32 Mark 4:30–32 Luke 13:18–19). This storytelling approach also promotes practicing principles rather than inflexible adherence to laws. Jesus’ parables are brilliant in their simplicity.
We can still understand the concept of a growing seed. Two thousand years later, the imagery is still vivid. Literal, detailed narratives are more susceptible to becoming archaic or obsolescent. One of the possible practical reasons that Jesus used parables such as this is that, by depicting concepts in word pictures, the message is not readily lost to changes in word usage, technology, cultural context, or the passage of time. 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” (Matthew 13:31–32).
The Parable of the Mustard Seed is a short one: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. While the elements themselves do have importance, an overemphasis on the details or literal focus on an element usually leads to interpretive errors and missing the main point of the parable. As with all parables, the purpose of the Parable of the Mustard Seed is to teach a concept or “big idea” using various narrative elements or details that are common, easily recognized, and usually representational of something else.
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