The Mustard Seed Series

Mustard Seed (Luke 13:18-19)

Jesus came preaching one message: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near!” Then He backed it up with 31 separate and distinct stories that gave us snapshots of what the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is like. We call these parables: para ballo stories thrown down beside truths to illustrate those truths.

A few weeks ago we talked about the parable of the soil; that there are 4 different kinds of hearts that the gospel message can fall on: the indifferent heart, the uncommitted heart, the distracted heart, and the receptive heart. Last week we looked at the parable of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. Each of these 31 parables gives us some keen insight as to what the kingdom is like and who will be included in that kingdom. Today we’ll study the parable in Luke 13:18-19.

When you think about Kingdom, you think about the Last Kingdom (pic), a series that takes place in about 850 AD. It covers Alfred the Great’s desperate attempt to keep the last portion of England, the kingdom of Sussex from the hands of the Vikings. Features Uhtred, son of Uhtred, of Babbenberg. Or Magic Kingdom (pic) or the animal kingdom (pic of lion). But on the minds of Jesus’ listeners, they might have been thinking of the Assyrians or Babylonians 600-700 years earlier and torn down the cities and tore down the temple and raped and slaughtered 10s of 1000s and carried many of the survivors off in captivity. Or maybe the Greeks who also committed atrocities including one Antiochus Ephiphenes who slaughtered a pig and put it in the holy of holies. Or the Romans who ruled the entire known world at that time with an iron fist. Or maybe the kingdom of Israel in its glory days under Kings David and Solomon. In fact, they would be thinking that the promised Messiah would come and do away with the Romans and reinstate that Kingdom that had enjoyed so much power and splendor and favor of God.

But instead, this Jesus was painting a different picture than what they had been hoping for for almost 1,000 years. This kingdom that Jesus talked about would dominate the world, alright; but not in a political sense, not in an economic sense, and certainly not in a military sense. So what was kingdom then? What is the kingdom of God? Remember, Jesus told Pilate at his trial that “My kingdom is not of this world” John 18:36. Did Jesus mean the kingdom is not in this world? No, He said it’s not OF this world. It’s a different kind of kingdom, with a different set of values and a different set of rules and a different objective. He didn’t all say that His kingdom wouldn’t be IN this world, just not OF this world.

Jesus came to usher in a new kingdom. He was and is the king. Jesus inaugurated this kingdom when He came the 1st time; He’ll consummate it when He comes the 2nd time. But make no mistake: this kingdom is mighty and powerful. It started small, but it’s influence and dominance has spread literally around the world.

That’s the point of this brief but insightful parable Jesus told in Luke 13:18-19 (on screen).

The mustard seed was used by Jesus in 5 different instances making two different but related points. In one instance, He uses the mustard seed as hyperbole, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, go jump in the ocean, and it would. His point is that it’s not the size of your faith that makes a difference; it’s the size of your God that makes a difference. Here in this text Jesus says that the kingdom is like a mustard seed. A mustard seed, you may know, is one of the tiniest seeds that there is. (attached Pic). It’s like 1 mm in size. Now the gospel according to Mark says that Jesus said this seed was the smallest in the world. Some skeptics have said Jesus got it wrong; there are many other seeds that are smaller: some orchid seeds are smaller. I guess Jesus could have said, “The kingdom of God is like an orchid…” Jesus didn’t get it wrong. Remember the #1 rule in interpreting the Scripture and that is context. Context rules. Jesus is talking about a garden. But not a garden that has orchids. This would be a garden or field where you sow seeds for food. Of those kinds of sown seeds, the mustard seed is the smallest. And when fully grown, rises to 10-12’ with branches that birds rest in.

But Jesus isn’t giving us a gardening lesson. He’s schooling us on what the kingdom of God is like. And in this parable, it’s all about starting small and getting big.