A mustard seed is very small, in fact it is only about 1-2 millimeters in diameter. To put it into prospective, a mustard seed is as small as a pin head, a pencil tip or a grain of sand. Something so small that if you dropped it, you would have a hard time finding it. The interesting thing about a seed is that when planted, they don’t stay small for very long. If you have ever planted a garden by seed, you know that it doesn’t take very long for most seeds to germinate and start to sprout. Depending on the quality of the soil, water, sunlight and temperature, seeds can germinate and grow into a plant very quickly. The plant will eventually grow and mature if taken care of and will produce more seeds.
In my Bible study today, we read Luke chapter 8. If you look at verses 4 through 8 Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. The basic concept of the parable was to show how planting seeds in different locations do not always yield a stable plant. Environments which they are cultivated in can either cause the plant to flourish or cause the plant to fail. The metaphor of the seed is the salvation of Jesus. Seeds described in the parable are humans. This parable illustrates how people respond to the Gospel and message of Jesus. You can take a group of people and tell them the same thing. Not everyone in the group is going to process and act on the information at the same pace or in the same way.
Many times, sharing the Gospel with others will fall on deaf ears. People often get angry when a Christian starts talking about Jesus. The same message rejected by one person could end up being accepted by another. When we plant the same seed over and over again, we never know when something will take root. Anyone that gardens knows that not every seed that is planted will germinate and turn into something magnificent. Sometimes the seed withers away shortly after germination. Other times when the plant starts to grow, drought sets in, or insects attack the plant. Not every plant makes it to maturity.
Why a mustard seed?
The concept of the mustard seed is used in the Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These books all have something to say about a mustard seed. Let me show you what these Gospel’s say.
Matthew 17:20 New American Standard Bible
20 And He *said to them, “Because of your meager faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you]”
Mark 4:30-32 New American Standard Bible
Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 And He was saying, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”
Luke 13:18-21 New American Standard Bible
Parables of Mustard Seed and Leaven
18 So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.”
I believe that Jesus uses the concept of a mustard seed for several different reasons. First, is obviously the size of the seed. The seed is extremely small in nature but is capable of producing a huge plant once mature. Other plants like a strawberry produce small seeds as well. Except the impact of these seeds is very miniscule in comparison to the growth of a mustard seed. Both seeds start at relatively the same size, but mature plants vastly differ in size. The impact of using the mustard seed in the parable is to signify how just a small amount of the spoken word of God can create a ginormous change in someone’s life.
The second reason why I think Jesus used the concept of a mustard seed is because it is something that can last the test of time. The metaphor is still as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. We can still visualize a mustard seed vs a mature mustard plant. The visual experience is just as clear as it was since Jesus spoke the words. When we can identify with parts of the Bible, it undoubtedly draws us in. When we can visualize what the Bible is talking about it engages us. Being able to identify a metaphor that makes sense to us, we sharpen our attention.
Why Christians get planting the seed wrong.
Jesus was very specific about the seed in his parable. Like I described above, there is a reason why Jesus used the example of a mustard seed. Telling a story about a peach seed would not have had the same effect. When many Christians hear the word “seed” they cling to whatever seed fits their narrative. Lots of times the seeds used are way too big. The seed that they are trying to plant is not the seed that they want the plant to mature into. Conflicting polar spectrums of confusion do not lead to the Gospel. Most of the time they push people away. Let me explain what I am talking about.
The purpose of Christians planting a seed of the Gospel is to share the good news with others. Our job is not to make the seed mature, but to just help establish it as it grows. When we share the Gospel with others, we are introducing the other person to Jesus. We are a representative of the Kingdom and through our example, sow many seeds leading back to the foundation of Christ. God is the one that does all of the heavy lifting through nurturing the seed, giving it fertile soil, protecting it as it grows and ultimately making the seed into something new. That is not our responsibility. We can demonstrate what the relationship with Jesus looks like as we mature in our walk.
The more seeds we cast, meaning the more we share the Gospel with others, the greater chance that we will reach more people. The seeds that we sow don’t need to be huge, as we know that any seed regardless of its size, will ultimately grow into something else. Why plant a peach seed when you are trying to grow a mustard plant? It is never going to work. Remember that the size of the seed doesn’t matter. All that matters is how the seed is sowed and cared for. We can do our part of caring for the seed by continuing to sow more seeds. The repetitive process of sowing seeds not only cultivates more growth opportunities in the individual but also increases the harvest as well.