The Mustard Seed, Becomes So Great a Tree, That Birds May Shelter in Its Branches
Wait … what?
This is the second article to deal with the four possible parables that could be identified by the label: The Seed. The first article can be found here and it deals with the parables The Growing Seed and The Weeds.
This article will focus on the parable of The Mustard Seed.
A nice and short parable that can be found in all three synoptic Gospels. Mark gives us the first version. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed in that it is really small when it is planted, but it becomes greater than all the herbs and shoots out massive branches so large that birds can roost in their shadows.
Matthew changes things a little bit by comparing things to the kingdom of heaven. Also, Matthew’s birds live in the branches and not in their shadows. Luke splits the difference by using Mark’s kingdom of God with Mathew’s birds' lodging in the branches.
Rather than focus on the parable’s meaning, which is apparently that the kingdom of God or heaven grows from small beginnings, I feel that the parable's literal impossibility should be…
