The Mustard Seed, Mark 4:30-34

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” ³³ With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

In Palestine, the tiny mustard seed can grow to a height of three metres. Jesus uses this fact to illustrate the kingdom of God. It may look unimpressive at the start but great things will happen.

Probably few people at the time saw the kingdom of God breaking into our world through a rag-tag group of villagers wandering around the countryside. Jesus’ relatively poor and uneducated followers had little power so they seemed unlikely candidates to change the world. Mark shows us clearly that few understood the importance of what was going on. Many of those outside the disciples discounted the movement while those within it were impatient to see change – particularly the change that they wanted. Mark’s point here is that God moves in his own way and does not follow our timeline. But the seed will grow.

The final verses of this section repeat what we’ve already been told: Jesus tells parables to everyone but leaves the explanations only for the disciples. We might be tempted to think that Jesus does not want everyone to understand, that he wants some people outside, but Mark adds the phrase: “as much as they could understand”. This echoes the parable of the sower and the ability of people to really listen.

As one scholar has pointed out, Mark gives us a threefold progression in responding to the word. First we must hear the word, then accept it and then we will bear fruit. This is a model for true discipleship. If we follow the model of Jesus we will bear a bountiful harvest.

And yet evil still exists for we live between the resurrection and the second coming, between the planting and the harvest. The kingdom is here and yet its full manifestation is in the future. We are living in the now and the not yet. However, there are great grounds for hope, for the future will be so much greater than the present. There is a contrast between appearance and reality for the seed is growing, even if it is not always obvious to the eye.