1.05 The Grain of Mustard-Seed
V. THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED.
Matthew 13:31 /.; Mark 4:30 - Mark 4:32; Luke 13:18 /. In St. Matthew this parable follows that of the Darnel among the Wheat, and, as in St. Luke, precedes that of the Leaven. In St. Mark it comes after the parable of the Seed Growing of Itself. St. Mark introduces it with the words: “How shall we liken the kingdom of God, or in what parable shall we set it forth?” St. Luke begins with the formula: “ Unto what is the kingdom of God like, or to what shall we liken it?” In St.
60 THE PARABLES OF JESUS
Matthew we find no introduction. Theparables of the Rabbins present numerous instances of similar variations. Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a grain of mustard-seed which a man took and sowed in his field or garden. Though the smallest of seeds, in course of time it outgrew all the other vege tables, and developed into a tree, so that the birds of the air came and nested in its branches. A grain of mustard-seed was in proverbial use among the Jews to denote anything very small.
It may be said to have been the smallest seed usually sown in Palestine, though scientific botany knows of seeds still more minute. The plant is common about Gennesaret, and it sometimes attains a height of 10 or 12 feet. The point of comparison is obvious. Just as the tiny mustard-seed becomes a tree large enough for the birds to build in its branches, so the Kingdom of Heaven, apparently in significant in its beginnings, would grow almost imperceptibly, and spread far and wide till it attained an extension beyond all hope, and wholly out of proportion with its humble origin. The whole process of the rise and growth of the Kingdom is graduaKand scarcely THE PARABLES OF JESUS 61 noticeable, and is quite incompatible with any Divine intervention of a sudden and cata strophic nature. It thus conveys a truth similar to that taught us in the parable of the Sower, with the difference that in the former there is question of the corporate life of the Church, in the latter of the individual soul. Our parable is a prophecy: on its marvellous fulfilment there is no need to enlarge.
TAGS: [Parables]