What is the meaning of the Parable of the Mustard Seed?

"The kingdom of the heavens is like a grain of mustard which a man took and sowed in his field; which is less than all the seeds, but, when it hath grown, is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches" (vers. 31, 32).

Here the Lord gives us to see the least and lowliest beginning of Christian profession growing to be a power in the earth. In Luke 17:6, He employs the same figure of a grain of mustard; as indeed it was a proverbial expression for what is diminutive. But the grain soon shot up so as to leave the pot-herbs behind, and afford shelter to the birds it notoriously attracts.

So it was to be, so it has long been, with that which bears His name here below. The Lord marks beforehand the surprising contrast between the extreme littleness of its first estate when sown, and the height to which it was ere long to advance. He is not here pronouncing on its inner or moral nature. He shows from the first what all the world can see when it came to pass. It is one of "the mysteries (or secrets) of the kingdom of the heavens," but secrets given for the disciples to know. And the Lord here sets out the fact, in due time palpable to all mankind, that what began the most minute was to develop into a conspicuous and protective power on the earth, according to the well known figure of a nation or political system in Isa. 11:33-34; Ezek. 31; Daniel 4, etc.

The Lord Jesus uses an illustration to explain the outward development of the kingdom of heaven. The field is the world (v. 38). The man who sowed is the Lord Jesus. The black mustard seed is tiny and insignificant[1] and therefore an appropriate illustration of the beginning of the kingdom in its present form as viewed from the outside. It began with only a few people — just the 11 disciples, who had followed the Lord Jesus, plus around 120 believers who were with them in the upper room (Acts 1). Afterwards, we see how the gospel spread and many accepted the Lord Jesus and became part of that kingdom.

However, the Lord Jesus then speaks of a development which does not correspond to what occurs in nature. The black mustard seed does not grow into a big tree. It grows no further than a bush, and certainly not into a tree in which birds build their nests. Of course, the Lord Jesus knew this very well so He drew this illustration with a special purpose behind it. The teaching is hidden in the contrast between what occurs in nature and what He describes.

252 He teaches the people again with another parable. We do not find here the whole story of the kingdom as in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, but only its great principles, and the Lord's work in contrast with His manifestation and the establishment of the kingdom by His own presence. It grows during His absence, no one knows how, at least as regards human knowledge. The kingdom, then, is like a grain of mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds; but as soon as it is sown it grows, and becomes a large plant, even a tree large enough for the birds of the air to rest upon its branches. Thus Christianity, a little seed, that of a man despised by the world, has become a great power upon the earth, and extends its branches everywhere. Here the Evangelist repeats that the Lord spoke to the crowds in parables, and that He did not address them without parables; then He explained the whole to His disciples, when they were alone with Him.

Now it is clear that in this parable of the mustard seed the former of the two senses named is not implied, since fruitfulness is not the point at issue here, though it is in both of the preceding parables. But, as we have already remarked, a tree may also be regarded as an object of verdant beauty in an arid country, all the more noticeable because of its conspicuous size in comparison with commoner and lesser shrubs and herbs; and hence, emblematically, it may be regarded as an object of eminence. In the Old Testament a tree, viewed in this aspect, is used, in more than one instance, as a symbol of political power and earthly greatness. Thus, the Assyrian empire was compared by one of the prophets to a cedar of Lebanon, excelling in height all the trees of the field, the fowls of heaven nesting in the boughs, and great nations dwelling in the shadow. And the prophet applied the same simile to Pharaoh and the hosts of Egypt (Ezek. 31). Again, the rapid rise and the vast extent of the Babylonian empire were presented to its king, Nebuchadnezzar, in a dream under the figure of a tree which "grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth; the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the branches thereof" (Dan. 4). And in the New Testament we read, at this point, that the Great Prophet likened His kingdom to a small seed becoming a great tree, evidently teaching thereby that the kingdom was to develop into an earthly power conspicuous in the eyes of men by the magnitude it would attain in comparison with its initial exiguousness.

(Vv. 30-34). The last parable sets forth the result of the seed-sowing when left to the responsibility of man. Christianity, which in its beginning was very small in man's sight, even like a "grain of mustard seed," becomes in the hands of man a great power on the earth. But in its greatness, it becomes a shelter for evil. "The fowls of the air lodge under the shelter of it." That which at the beginning gathered souls out of this world around the Lord, in the end becomes a vast system which shelters every evil thing.

This is mentioned as something very small to which the faith of the apostles did not rise; and the kingdom of God is spoken of as being like this small seed, which nevertheless grows into a tree large enough for the birds to lodge in its branches. Various surmises have been made as to what tree is alluded to. The one that best answers to the description is the sinapis nigra, a common mustard plant in Palestine. Its seeds are very small, and it grows to a tree of some ten feet high, quite large enough for the smaller birds to lodge in its branches. There is also the salvadora persica, which grows still higher. The teaching of the parable is that the kingdom of God would become elevated in the earth and suitable for emissaries of Satan to find protection under its shadow. Matt. 13:31; Matt. 17:20; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19; Luke 17:6. In Matt. 13 it says that, "when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs," yet it "becometh a tree." This reads as if its normal class was that of a large herb, but by some mysterious means it became a tree.

But if the mustard seed and its growth does not mean the church, what does it mean? It means the Kingdom of the heavens, and this is, as we have seen before, professing Christendom. At once the parable becomes illuminated with light. Looked upon in this light, in full harmony with all the Lord teaches in this chapter, all is easily understood. The little mustard seed, which was not destined to be a tree but only a shrub, easily taken out of the garden where it had been planted, develops against its nature into a tree. That which came from Him, the Son of Man, the Sower, develops, committed into the hands of men, into an unnatural thing -- one might say, a monstrosity -- for such a mustard tree is. This unnatural thing, this monstrosity, is professing Christendom as a system of the world, professing Christ, without possessing Him and His Spirit.

This leads on in verse 18 to the Lord declaring the fact that even in the kingdom of God, which was being introduced, there would be the same opposing principles as were seen then in Israel. As Israel had degenerated into a state where its leaders were hypocrites, so in the kingdom of God such a state would develop. The grain of mustard seed, very small indeed, is a picture of the beginning of that kingdom. But it would grow into a great tree, outdoing the normal growth of a mustard plant. When it became great in the world, the birds of the air would lodge in its branches. Such is the present condition of the kingdom. This is outward Christianity -- Christendom -- for the fowls of the air symbolize Satan's activity, and Satan has today taken advantage of the growth of Christianity to introduce innumerable hypocrites, taking a place as though they were actually Christians. This is the external character of the kingdom today.

That which had been sown as a grain of mustard-seed becomes a great tree; a symbol that represents a great power in the earth. The Assyrian, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, are set before us in the word as great trees. Such would be the form of the kingdom, which began in littleness through the word sown by the Lord, and afterwards by His disciples. That which this seed produced would gradually assume the form of a great power, making itself prominent on the earth, so that others would shelter themselves under it, as birds under the branches of a tree. This has, indeed, been the case.

120 The second parable presents the kingdom as a great power in the earth. (See Daniel 4.) This is what a great tree is always a figure of in Scripture, as Assyria, Egypt. The seed of the word, in appearance insignificant at the beginning, has in fact become a great, and even the greatest, power on earth.