Keystone Christian Church - Keystone Christian Church A New Testament Congregation in Export, PA

Flo and her friend Cathy asked me an interesting question the other day.  They had always heard about how small a mustard seed was and had even seen a real seed but never the grown plant.  “How big do they get?”  The answers I dug up made for a nice news letter article.

I thought that the mustard “tree”—some say “weed” grew to a height of about 12 feet.  It turned out I was pretty close.  There are some ancient references to mustard trees being big enough that you could climb them.  Perhaps Jesus was referencing one of those.  However, the evidence for their existence is somewhat weak.  Perhaps Jesus was intending for us to think another way about this.

Normally when you pick a tree as a symbol for a country or organization you pick something large and stately like an oak or cedar, or something valuable like an apple or olive tree.  However Jesus picked a mustard tree.  What are the peculiar characteristics of this plant?  Its seed is extremely small about two millimeters.  It grows quickly at first but then it is slow and steady.  It’s generally not well liked in Palestine and is illegal to cultivate to day because it spreads uncontrollably.  It will grow practically anywhere breaking stone and concrete and up rooting and supplanting other garden plants.

Jesus wasn’t trying to develop an analogy which would impress his hearers.  On the contrary he was conveying that to the world the kingdom would not be well liked nor would it seem stately and grand.  However in the end it would prove successful in its ability to tare down and uproot the world systems and all this from an inconceivably small beginning!

< Prev