A Look at the Parable of the Mustard Seed

I was recently digging through some old papers and found a couple of papers I wrote for a college class in the early 90's. If I had written them now they probably would have turned out a bit differently. On this one the professor wrote "Most impressive. This is the most thorough interpretation I've ever read of the parable. You never let go until you've explored the limits. Thank You. I always learn something from your responses. A " I was surprised that he wrote that because I didn't think the paper was quite that praiseworthy. Here it is:

A Look at the Parable of the Mustard Seed

as told by Jesus Christ

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The parable of the Mustard Seed is one of only six out of the forty-one in the synoptic gospels that are included in all three. It is found in Matt. 13:31-32, Mk. 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-19. This parable is short enough to quote in full rather than summarize and I shall now quote the version found in Matthew:

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"Another parable he put before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and saved in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."(1)

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The Parable of the Mustard Seed is one of several (like the parables of the Tares, the Seed Growing Secretly, the Net and the Leaven) which seem to focus on growth. Each begins with "the Kingdom of God is like" or "It is as if". A mustard seed when planted, naturally grows up into a large plant. Even though it is one of the smallest seeds, it slowly but surely grows to become "the greatest of shrubs... so that the birds... come and make nests in its branches".

In telling this parable, Jesus probably was concerned with encouraging and reassuring his small company of followers. He wanted to let them know that the movement that they were involved in, even though it had very humble and small beginnings, could yet grow and transform all of society. Perhaps Jesus told this parable because he sensed some doubt and discouragement among his disciples.

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Joachim Jeremias wrote his paraphrase of what Jesus' message in this parable was: "with the same compelling certainty that causes a tall shrub to grow out of a minute grain of mustard-seed...will God's miraculous power cause my small band to swell into the mighty host of the people of God in the Messianic Age".(2)

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According to Albert Schweitzer, it was Jesus' view that God is preparing a secret like one experiences in nature. The parables, he says, are signs of the secret. As the harvest follows sowing the seed, without any apparent explanation, so will the Kingdom of God come in power as a consequence of peoples' "moral renewal": "Repentance and moral renewal in prospect of the Kingdom of God are like a pressure which is exerted in order to compel its appearance. This movement had begun with the days of the Baptist."(3)

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The Mormon scriptorian and Apostle Bruce R McConkie believed that the parable of the Mustard Seed applied to the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the spring of 1830 as well as to the "former-day" church of Jesus Christ being established by Jesus and his apostles. McConkie held this view because he believed that the church that Jesus established went into apostacy before fully fulfilling this parable. He wrote: "Among sectarians this parable is falsely assumed to teach that Christianity, with its small and insignificant beginning, has now grown into a great tree whose members comprise a third of the human race. The evident falsity of this interpretation is seen from the fact that the original, pure Christianity practiced by the primitive saints never did more than sprout its head above ground; within a relatively short time the original plant was trodden down, destroyed, and replaced by those noxious and thorny plants which make up the present churches of so-called Christendom. It is only in this final age that the true gospel message is to roll forth until the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea."(4)

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Joseph Smith, who established the LDS Church, held this same view; after quoting the parable of the Mustard Seed, he wrote: "Now we can discover plainly that this figure is given to represent the Church as it shall come forth in the last days. Behold, the Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto it. Now, what is like unto it? Let us take the Book of Mormon, which a man [the ancient prophet Moroni] took and hid in his field [the hill Cumorah in upstate NY], securing it by his faith, to spring up in the last days, or in due time; let us behold it coming forth out of the ground, which is indeed accounted the least of all seeds; but behold it branching forth, yea, even towering with lofty branches and God-like majesty, until it, like the mustard seed, becomes the greatest of all herbs. And it is truth, and it has sprouted and come forth out of the earth, and righteousness begins to look down from heaven, and God is sending down His powers, gifts, and angels to lodge in the branches thereof. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a mustard seed. Behold, then, is not this the Kingdom of Heaven that is raising its head in the last days in the majesty of its God, even the Church of the Latter-day Saints...?"(5)

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I believe that the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is an "invisible" group of believers within the "visible" church, as St. Augustine held. Even though it is not now a political organization, it will be one day. Jesus said when he was before Pilate "My kingdom is not of this world..."(John 18:36) and yet in Daniel chapter 2 it talks about a stone cut out without hands smiting an image on the feet, which broke it and the image became "like the chaff of the summer threshing floors... and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth". (Dan. 2:35) Verse 44 of Daniel 2 says "And in the days of these kings (6) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever". Also in the Revelation of St. John, Chap. 11, verse 15 it says "...there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."

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In the spring of 1844, shortly before his martyrdom, Joseph Smith began administering Mormon temple ordinances in which worthy recipients are anointed to be kings and priests or queens and priestesses in the Kingdom of God. He then established the Kingdom as an actual organization and was anointed "King over Israel". The Kingdom was to be primarily a spiritual, theocratic/patriarchal organization of a portion of LDS Church members who had been faithful and received the temple ordinances. He expected to be protected in doing this by the U.S. Government, the same way that Native American tribes are allowed to continue their tribal governments within the U.S., but he also ran for U.S. President in 1844 just in case he wasn't. In doing this, he upset many powerful people and was finally, on June 27, 1844, shot by a group of assassins with blackened faces.

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Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, was also anointed "King over Israel" and went on to wield power over both church and state in Utah Territory as the prophet and president of the LDS Church and Governor of the territory. This authority has continued with each successor until the present day, and is now held by Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture in Dwight Eisenhower's cabinet. In my opinion, the Parable of the Mustard Seed will finally be fulfilled when the Kingdom of God fills the whole earth and Christ comes to reign personally here.

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--footnotes--

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1. Matt. 13:31-32, King James Version, LDS Church, Salt Lake City, 1979.

2. Jeremias, Joachim, The Parables of Jesus, 6th ed., NY: Scribners 1963, pg. 149.

3. Schweitzer, Albert, The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, NY: Schocken 1964, pg. 112.

4. McConkie, Bruce R., Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Vol. 1, Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft 1965, pg. 298.

5. Smith, Joseph, Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1835, Kirtland, OH: LDS Church 1835, pg. 227.

6. 10 toes of image = 10 kingdoms = 1. Italy est. 496; 2. France est. 752; 3. England est. 803; 4. Belgium est. 806; 5. Holland est. 922; 6. Portugal est. 1138; 7. Prussia est. 1139; 8. Austria est. 1159; 9. Spain est. 1179; 10. Greece est. 1829.