Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 4:30
And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
30 34. The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30. Whereunto shall we liken ] This method of asking a question before beginning a discourse was not unknown to the Rabbis. See the parallel in Luk 13:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whereunto shall we liken … – This shows the great solicitude which Jesus had to adapt his instructions to the capacity of his disciples. He sought out the most plain and striking illustrations – an example which should be followed by all the ministers of the gospel. At the same time that the instructions of the pulpit should be dignified as our Saviours always were they should be adapted to the capacity of the audience and easily understood. To do this the following things are necessary in a minister:
1.Humility. A freedom from a desire to shine, and to astonish the world by the splendor of his talents, and by his learning and eloquence.
- Good sense. A satisfaction in being understood.
- Acquaintance with the habits of thought and manner of speaking among the people. To do this, frequent contact with them is necessary.
- A good sound education. It is the people of ignorance, with some smattering of learning, and with a desire to confound and astonish people by the use of unintelligible words. and by the introduction of matter that is wholly unconnected with the subject, that most often shoot over the heads of the people. Preachers of humility, good sense, and education are content with being understood, and free from the affectation of saying things to amaze and confound their auditors.
The kingdom of God – See the notes at Mat 3:2.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mar 4:30; Mar 4:32
It is like a grain of mustard seed.
The parable of the mustard seed
In the parable before us, the unity of the kingdom becomes conspicuous, the individuality of its members subordinate. The figure is changed accordingly. The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree. The kingdom is a tree; its subjects are as birds sheltering under its shadow. As it grows and spreads out its branches, it is shown that it has been planted by God for the spiritual good of men. The kingdom here appears as an organic whole, a source of blessing for all who come under its shade. Taking the illustration in its earliest stages, we must have regard not only to the grain of mustard seed, but also to the presence and action of the man who took it and sowed it in his field. That the agent in sowing this grain of seed is the Son of Man, admits of no doubt. The Saviour is not here represented by the tree; for then would His disciples be the branches, as in the fifteenth chapter of Johns Gospel. He is the Man who sowed His seed in His field. Our Lord having thus a distinct place in the parable, we are precluded from thinking of the tree as a symbol for Christ Himself, and afterwards for His people collectively as His representatives on the earth. Further, we are prevented from seeing here any allusion to the lowliness of the Saviours birth, or the feebleness of His infancy, understood by some to be implied in the image of the little seed. The incongruity of the description, the least of all seeds, as attributed to the Divine Redeemer, is so glaring as to warn us against such methods of interpretation. The kingdom is here represented as something to which men come, and in coming to which they receive shelter and comfort. At first sight this might seem to point to the Church, as the outward manifestation of the kingdom-a view which might have been accepted, had the branches of the tree represented the members of the Church. But when the members are not the branches, but are sheltered among the branches, something distinct from the Church seems intended. Both in this parable, and in that of the leaven, the reference is clearly to the truth of the kingdom, as in the parable of the sower the seed is the Word of the kingdom. This parable is concerned with the outward exhibition of the truth; the leaven, with the inward and hidden application of it. The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of truth; this truth is displayed to the world in outward manifestation, and also applied to the souls of men as an unseen influence. We have accordingly two parables: the one representing the visible, the other the hidden, operation of the truth revealed in Jesus. The truth of the gospel-the truth as to the pardoning mercy and renewing grace provided in Jesus, was as a very little seed, planted in the earth by the Messiah, and that so quietly that the act hardly attracted the attention of the world. The significance of the act was not understood even by those who observed it. To the future was entrusted the discovery of the importance for the world of this little seed. It was destined to spring up and attain a great stature, spreading itself forth on every side, attracting attention all around. (Dr. Calderwood.)
An encouraging parable
No doubt other figures might have been chosen in abundance, more suggestive of the great after-development of the kingdom of Christ-such forest trees, e.g., as the oak of Bashan or cedar of Lebanon; but the acorn and cone were both far less adapted to represent the littleness of its initial state. The mustard was probably the smallest seed from which so large a shrub or tree was known to grow. It is not without a purpose that the contrast between the first beginning of His kingdom and its expected future should have been put before the apostles in such a striking form. The parables which had preceded it must have had a most depressing effect upon their minds. They showed that of the seed sown in mens hearts, three parts would be lost to one saved; and that the field carefully planted with the best of seeds too often mocked all the husbandmans hopes of a goodly crop by a simultaneous growth of noxious weeds. Well then might this parable be spoken to encourage them in their despondency. No doubt the main object of the parable was simply to predict the future increase of the kingdom; but there is surely a side lesson to be learned from the natural properties of the mustard seed-from its internal heat and pungency, and from the fact that it must be bruised ere it yield its best virtues. Its inherent stimulating force finds its parallel in the quickening vitality and vigour derived from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and the necessity of crushing it is no inapt figure of the principle which has been embodied in the familiar proverb, The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
The mustard plant
As I was riding across the plain of Akka, on the way to Carmel, I perceived, at some distance from the path, what seemed to be a little forest or nursery of trees. I turned aside to examine them. On coming nearer, they proved to be an extensive field of the plant (mustard) I was so anxious to see. It was then in blossom, full grown, in some cases six, seven, and nine feet high, with a stem or trunk an inch or more in thickness, throwing out branches on every side. I was now satisfied in part. I felt that such a plant might well be called a tree, and, in comparison with the seed producing it, a great tree. But still the branches, or stems of the branches, were not very large, nor, apparently, very strong. Can the birds, I said to myself, rest upon them? Are they not too slight and flexible? Will they not bend or break beneath the superadded weight? At that very instant, as I stood and revolved the thought, lo! one of the fowls of heaven stopped in its flight through the air, alighted down on one of the branches, which hardly moved beneath the shock, and then began, perched there before my eyes, to warble forth a strain of the richest music. All my doubts were now charmed away. I was delighted at the incident. It seemed to me at the moment as if I enjoyed enough to repay me for all the trouble of the whole journey. (H. B. Hackett, D. D.)
Small beginnings
Some few monks came into Brittany in ages past, when that country was heathen. They built a rude shed in which to dwell, and a chapel of moor stones, and then prepared to till the soil. But, alas! they had not any wheat. Then one spied a robin redbreast sitting on a cross they had set up, and from his beak dangled an ear of wheat. They drove the bird away, and secured the grain, sowed it, and next year had more; sowed again, and so by degrees were able to sow large fields, and gather abundant harvests. If you go now into Brittany, and wonder at the waving fields of golden grain, the peasants will tell you all came from robin redbreasts ear of corn. And they have turned the redbreasts ear of corn into a proverb. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)
The Church as an organization
A prophecy which has been fulfilled to the letter. In the course of little more than one century after it was uttered, there was not a city of any size in the Roman Empire which had not its bishop, with his priests and deacons preaching the Word of God, baptizing (and so admitting men into the new kingdom), celebrating the Eucharist, and exercising discipline over the faithful. It was not the spread of a philosophy, or of a system of opinions, or even of a gospel only. It was the spread of an organization for purposes of rule and discipline, of exclusion of the unworthy, and of pastoral care over the worthy. And it went on progressing and prospering till it became a great power in the world, though not of it. For centuries emperors, kings, and people had to take it into account in every department of government and civil policy. Its present weakness is a reaction against its former abuse of its power when it had become secular, and failed to fulfil some of the chief purposes of its institution. (M. F. Sadler.)
The Church giving rest and shelter
In all ages the Church has afforded to men what the Lord foretold, rest and shelter. No human philosophy has afforded any rest or refuge for the wandering spirit. Only the Church has done this, and the Church has been able to do this because the foundation of all her doctrine has been the Incarnation of her Lord. She teaches the soul to look for the foundation of her hope, not into herself, her frames and feelings, but to the historical facts of the Incarnation, Death, and consequent Resurrection and Ascension of the eternal Son, together with the Church system and sacramental means which are the logical outcome of that Incarnation; and because of this, and this only, she is an abiding refuge. (M. F. Sadler.)
The seedling of Iona
Far out in the western main, is a little island round which for nearly half the year the Atlantic clangs his angry billows, keeping the handful of inhabitants close prisoners. Most of it is bleak and barren; but there is one little bay rimmed round with silvery sand, and reflecting in its waters a slope of verdure. Towards this bay one autumn evening, 1,300 years ago, a rude vessel steered its course. It was a flimsy bark, no better than a huge basket of osiers covered over with the skins of beasts; but the tide was tranquil, and as the boatmen plied their oars, they raised the voice of psalms. Skimming across the bay they beached their coracle and stepped on shore-about thirteen in number. On the green slope they built a few hasty huts and a tiny Christian temple. The freight of that little ship was the gospel, and the errand of the saintly strangers was to tell benighted heathen about Jesus and His love. From the favoured soil of Ireland they had brought a grain of mustard seed, and now they sowed it in Iona. In the conservatory of their little church it throve, till it was fit to be planted out on the neighbouring mainland. To the Picts with their tattooed faces, to the Druids peeping and muttering in their dismal groves, the missionaries preached the gospel. That gospel triumphed. The groves were felled, and where once they stood rose the house of prayer. Planted out on the bleak moorland, the little seed became a mighty tree, so that the hills of Caledonia were covered with the shade; nor must Scotland ever forget the seedling of Iona, and the labours of Columba with his meek Culdees. (James Hamilton, D. D.)
The growth of the little seed
This suggests the treatment we ourselves should give the truths of God. An acorn on the mantelpiece, a dry bulb in a dark cupboard, a mustard seed in your pocket or in a pill box, wont grow. So texts or truths in the memory are acorns on the shelf, seeds in the pillbox. It is good to have them, but dont leave them there. Ponder over it till it grows wonderful-till its meaning comes out, and you feel some amazement at its unsurmised significance. Ponder it till, like the phosphorescent forms of vegetation, the light of its expanding falls on other passages, and revelation is itself revealed. (James Hamilton, D. D.)
The small germ expanded
This is a great encouragement for those who are trying to find favour for any useful plan or good idea. As long as it remains in your own mind it is the seed in the mustard pod; but cast it into the field, the garden, it will grow. Thus John Pounds little scapegrace, bribed by a hot potato to come for his daily lesson, has multiplied into our Ragged Schools, with their thousands of teachers and myriads of scholars. Thus David Nasmiths notion of a house-to-house visitation of the London poor has grown into those Town and City Missions which are the salt, the saving element, in our overcrowded centres. (James Hamilton, D. D.)
Spiritual growth
Impressions growing into resolutions constitute conversion, or the beginning of the Divine life in man. These impressions may appear insignificant, but when they produce thought, and thought produces action, the result is so great that it creates attention.
I. Vitality. The small seed of the mustard is brimful of life. This we discover not by microscopical analysis, but by observing the changes that are wrought, and the growth which follows. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Divine thoughts are full of life because the Spirit of God is in them.
II. Assimilation. The seed was sown, and when life reappeared, the properties of the soil, the rain, the light, and the air, were assimilated to build up the herb.
III. Expansion. The statue does not grow. The mountain does not expand. Growth is a quality of life only. The process is hidden, but expansion is manifest. The roots spread in the earth, the branches in the air. The growth of devotion is God-ward, that of usefulness man-ward. The power of the gospel creates intellectual, moral, and social expansion. Christ in the heart enlarges its capacity for purity, love, and goodness. Be ye also enlarged.
IV. Maturity. There are ends to piety; it is not a cycle eternally revolving in the same way, but a definite action with definite results. The life of the believer steps forward, by slow degrees, until it reaches the measure of the stature of Christ. There are initial conditions of faith, but these make way for the stronger stages of entire consecration to God. (Anon.)
The growth of the kingdom
I. The kingdom of heaven was small at its establishment.
1. Its numbers were limited.
2. Its subjects were destitute of resources of a visible kind.
3. Its smallness only disguised its real resources. The Churchs strength is not to be judged of by sense.
II. In the end it shall be very great. It soon grew among the Jews-was enlarged to embrace the Gentiles-was soon spread into all the world-is destined to a great enlargement-its magnitude will appear at the last day. (Expository Discourses.)
The design of the parable is obvious; the underlying thought is simple and single. A little germ and a large result, a small commencement and a conspicuous growth, an obscure and tiny granule followed by a vigorous vegetation, the least of all seeds, and the greatest of all herbs, such is the avowed contrast of the parable. Is it not so when we glance at the history of real religion?
I. In the world.
II. In communities.
III. In the individual soul. (James Hamilton, D. D.)
The gospel originally small and ultimately great
The gist of the representation lies in the largeness of the produce as compared with the smallness of the original. Of course, had our Lord merely wished to show that the gospel, in its maturity and efflorescence, would overtop other systems and overshadow the creation, he might have led His hearers into the forests of the earth, and selected some monarch of the woods. Even in Eastern countries the mustard plant, though it reaches a size and strength unknown in our own land, would not be used as a symbol by a speaker whose object was to shadow stateliness and dominion. But, when you compare the size of the seed with the size of the shrub-and wish to illustrate the production of great things from small-it would seem probable that in the whole range of the vegetable kingdom there is not to be found a more apposite image. The degree in which the shrub expands in size as compared with the seed, is, perhaps, greater in the case of the mustard plant than in any other instance. And in this, we again say, must be thought to lie the gist of the parable-the chief object of Christ being to show that there never had been so mighty a consummation following on so inconsiderable a beginning; that never had there been so vast a disproportion between a thing at its outset, and that same thing at its conclusion, as was to be exhibited in the case of that kingdom of heaven, the setting up of which was His business on earth. (H. Melvill.)
Little seeds soul saving
But to pass from these general observations on the imagery drawn from the vegetable world to that particular figure which Christ employs in our text. Observe, we pray you, the minuteness of the seed, which is ordinarily first deposited by Gods Spirit in mans heart. If you examine the records of Christian biography, you will find, so far as it is possible to search out such facts, that conversion is commonly to be traced to inconsiderable beginnings. We believe, for example, that proceeding on the principle that He will honour what He has instituted, God ordinarily uses the preaching of the gospel as His engine for gathering in His people. But then it is perhaps single sentence in a sermon, a text which is quoted, a remark to which, probably, if you had asked the preacher himself, he attached less consequence than to any other part of his sermon-this is the seed, the inconsiderable grain, which makes its way into the heart of the unconverted hearer. We just wish that a book could be compiled, registering the sayings, the words, which, falling from the lips of preachers in different ages, have penetrated that thick coating of indifference and prejudice which lies naturally on every mans heart, and reached the soil in which vegetation is possible. We are quite persuaded that you would not find many whole sermons in such a book, not many long pieces of elaborate reasoning, not many protracted demonstrations of human danger and human need; we have a thorough belief that the volume would be a volume of little fragments, that it would be made up of simple sentiments and brief statements; and that, in the majority of instances, a few syllables would constitute that element of Christianity which gained a lodgment in the soul. (H. Melvill.)
The maxims of human philosophy not so productive as Divine truth
We shall not enlarge further on the parable as sketching Christs religion in its dominion over the individual. We can only remark, in passing, that none of the maxims of human philosophy have shown themselves capable of yielding such produce as we thus trace to the seed of a solitary text. There is much truth and beauty in many of those sayings with which writers on ethics have adorned their pages; but the most weighty proverbs that ever issued from the porch of the academy, and the most sententious maxims which lecturers on morals ever delivered to their people, have always failed to work anything approaching to that renovation of nature which can distinctly be traced to some gospel truth quoted with authority from God. Take the result of a hiding in the heart a sentence which asserts the excellence of virtue, and one which sets forth Gods love in the gift of His Son. Now sentences may be likened unto seeds, not only because both are small, but because, if rightly planted and watered, and developed, they are capable of producing fruit in the life and conversation. But who, unless ignorant of facts, or determined to be deceived, would assert the holiness of the best heathenism to be comparable to the holiness of Christianity, or who that has ever tried theory, by the touchstone of experience, would declare, that a man who was a cultivator of virtue, because excellent in its nature, will ever reach as high a standard of morality as one who, having hope in Christ, seeks to purify himself even as Christ is pure? We give it as a truth, which the history of the world presses forward to substantiate, that no maxims, except Scriptural maxims, have been long efficacious in withholding man from vice, or have ever nerved him to the striving after a high-toned and elevated morality. And if, then, we must admit that the sayings of a sound moral philosophy may be figured by seeds, because they contain elements which, under due culture, may be expanded into something like righteousness of deportment, we still contend that when the amount even of possible produce is contrasted with the original grain, the tree which, under the most favourable circumstances, can spring from the seed, and that seed itself-there are no sayings, but those of Christianity, just as there are no particles, but those of Divine grace, which deserve to be compared with the grain of mustard seed; for in no case but that, we must believe, would there be such disproportion between what was cast into the soil of the heart, and that spreading over of the whole district of the life, as to warrant the employment of the imagery whose design it has been our effort to delineate. (H. Melvill.)
The visible growth of the gospel
Christs kingdom also grows outwardly and visibly as the hidden mustard seed grows into a great tree. Christ not only taught new truth, but He also founded a new society, which is to he like a living, growing tree. That society is sometimes called the Visible Church, and it is very visible in our day, quite as visible as the biggest garden tree is among garden plants. (J. Wells.)
Christs religion a refuge for all
As the tree is for every bird from any quarter of heaven that wishes its shelter, so Christs religion is for all sorts of people. The religion of the Chinese is only for the Chinese; the religion of Mahomed is only for those who live in warm countries; a Hindoo loses his religion by crossing the seas; but the religion of Jesus of Nazareth is for people of every class, clime, and nation. It is like the tree that offers lodging to all the birds of the air. (J. Wells.)
Fiery energy
Darius sent to Alexander the Great a bag of sesame seed, symbolizing the number of his army. In return, Alexander sent a sack of mustard seed, showing not only the numbers but the fiery energy of his soldiers. (DHerbelot.)
Building and growing
To see the stateliest pile of building filling the space which before was empty, makes an appeal to the imagination: that kind of increase we seem to understand; stone is added to stone by the will and toil of man. But when we look at the deeply-rooted and wide-branching tree, and think of the tiny seed from which all this sprang without human will or toil, but by an internal vitality of its own, we are confronted by the most mysterious and fascinating of all things, the life that lies unseen in nature. (Marcus Dods.)
The mustard seed and leaven
The parable of the grain of mustard seed must be taken in close connection with that of the leaven, and both are meant to illustrate the small beginnings, the silent growth, and the final victory of the grace of God in the human soul. But they belong to different points of view. The one is extensive, the other intensive. The parable of the grain of mustard seed shows us the origin and the development of the kingdom of God, in communities and in the world: the parable of the leaven shadows forth its unimpeded influence in the soul of each separate man. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
All great movements have had trivial commencements
Look at history, and see how true the doctrine is, not only of the kingdom of heaven, but of every other power that has really held sway among men. In almost all cases the great, the permanent work has been done, not by those who seemed to do very much, but by those who seemed to do very little. Our Lords founding of the Church was but the most striking instance of a universal rule. He seemed to all outside spectators to do almost nothing. The Roman rulers hardly knew of His name. What was He doing? He was sowing the seed; the seed whose fruit was not yet, whose perfect fruit was not to be gathered, as it has since turned out, for many centuries; the seed which seemed small and perishable, but was certain to grow into a great tree. All the greatest work has been done both before and after, not often by producing immediate results, but by sowing seeds. So have sciences all grown, not from brilliant declarations to the world, but from patient labour, and quiet thought, and language addressed to the few who think. So has all growth in politics always begun in the secret thoughts of men who have found the truth, and have committed it to books or to chosen learners. The true powers of human life are contained in those seeds, out of which alone comes any real and permanent good. (Bp. Temple.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?] How amiable is this carefulness of Jesus! How instructive to the preachers of his word! He is not solicitous to seek fine turns of eloquence to charm the minds of his auditors, nor to draw such descriptions and comparisons as may surprise them: but studies only to make himself understood; to instruct to advantage; to give true ideas of faith and holiness; and to find out such expressions as may render necessary truths easy and intelligible to the meanest capacities. The very wisdom of God seems to be at a loss to find out expressions low enough for the slow apprehensions of men. How dull and stupid is the creature! How wise and good the Creator! And how foolish the preacher who uses fine and hard words in his preaching, which, though admired by the shallow, convey no instruction to the multitude.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We met with this parable in Mat 13:31,32, where the reader will find we have given the sense of it. It is a prophetical parable, foretelling the great success that the gospel, which at this time was restrained to a little corner of the world, and there met with small acceptance, should have after Christs resurrection from the dead; which prophecy we find was fulfilled in the apostles time, and hath been further fulfilling in all ages of the world since that time.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he said,…. Still continuing his discourse on this subject, and in order to convey to the minds of his disciples clearer ideas of the Gospel dispensation, the success of the Gospel, and the usefulness of their ministration of it, for their encouragement, how unpromising soever things might then be:
whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what comparison shall we compare it? It was usual with the Jewish doctors, when about to illustrate anything in a parabolical way to begin with such like questions; as, , “to what is this thing like” d? when the answer is to such or such thing, as here.
d T. Hieros. Bava Bathra, fol. 16. 2. T. Bab. Zebachim, fol. 82. 1. & Sabbat, fol. 108. 1. & passim.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
How shall we liken? ( ?) Deliberative first aorist subjunctive. This question alone in Mark. So with the other question:
In what parable shall we set it forth? ( ;). Deliberative second aorist subjunctive. The graphic question draws the interest of the hearers (we) by fine tact. Lu 13:18f. retains the double question which Mt 13:31f. does not have, though he has it in a very different context, probably an illustration of Christ’s favourite sayings often repeated to different audiences as is true of all teachers and preachers.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Peculiar to Mark.
With what comparison shall we compare it? [ ] . Lit., In what parable might we put it? Rev., In what parable shall we set it forth? Note the we, taking the hearers, with a fine tact, into consultation.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED, V. 30-34
1) “And He said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?” (kai legen pos homoiosomen ten theou) “And He said (unto them),” His apostles and the church. “How may we liken the kingdom of God?” The parable relates to “the kingdom of heaven,” (the church), as definitively described by Matthew, which is frequently referred to under the broader term, as used here by Mark, Luke, and John.
2) ”Or with what comparison shall we compare it?” (he en tini auten parabole thomen) “Or by what kind of parable may we place or identify it?” This New Covenant Church order of worship, and ministry of service, was much simpler than the yoke of law worship and service, so that it is said to be easy and light, in comparison with the Old Covenant and Law, Mat 11:28-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mar. 4:30-34
(PARALLELS: Mat. 13:31-32; Luk. 13:18-19.)
The rise and progress of Christianity.
I. Christianity is insignificant in its beginning.
1. Its Founder assumed a humble form.
2. Its first advocates were obscure.
3. Its sphere of action was confined.
4. Its first converts were few.
5. Its mode of operation was unassuming.
6. Its reception was unpopular.
II. Christianity is gradual in its progress
1. The difficulties with which it has to contend are tremendous.
2. The means which it adopts are moral.
3. The change which it attempts is radical.
4. The field in which it works is extensive.
5. The time at its disposal is long.
6. The results which it contemplates are eternal.
III. Christianity will be great in its consummation.
1. It will be the mightiest display of Gods energy.
2. It will be the holiest manifestation of Gods character.
3. It will be the truest exhibition of Gods faithfulness.
4. It will be the wisest revelation of Gods intelligence.
5. It will be the most benevolent expression of Gods love.
6. It will be the sublimest source of Gods glory.
(1) It will be the acknowledged instrument of His complete overthrow of sin.
(2) It will be times sole surviving wonder for the admiration of the spiritual universe.
(3) It will be the redeemeds theme of sweetest song of gratitude to God.
(4) It will be the climax of Christ. Then God will be all in all.
Lessons.
1. Despise not the day of small things.
2. Exercise patience.
3. Be active.
4. Draw upon the glorious future.B. D. Johns.
I. The comparative insignificance of Christianity at the first.
1. Contrast the gorgeous ritual of the Temple with the unostentatious worship inculcated by Christ.
2. Contrast the elaborate systems of philosophers with the simple teaching of our Lord.
3. Contrast the social position of the priests with that of the apostles.
4. Contrast the multitudes who followed priests and philosophers with the few who were the disciples of Jesus.
II. The careful implantation of Christianity.
1. Not a handful, but a solitary seed (Act. 4:12).
2. Not accidentally but designedly sown. Christ personally performed the work.
3. In a chosen and appropriate spot.
III. The rapid growth of Christianity.
1. In three or four centuries it had spread so far and wide that Christians were found in Rome, Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, Russia, Germany, Gaul, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, Arabia, Abyssinia, and indeed in almost every known land.
2. It became so great a tree, that persecution could not uproot or even injure it; so great, that the eyes of three continents looked on in amazement; so great, that the trees of idolatry and superstition had no room for growth.
3. Every obstacle malice could throw in its way had been employed. All classes laid their axe to its root. Philosophers brought their satire, priests their anathemas, kings their laws. All in vain. The tree not only resisted every blow, but shattered to atoms every axe which assailed it. Its devotees were nailed to crosses, and, dying, cried, It must grow. Thousands at the stake exulted as they said, We burn, but it cannot wither.
IV. The natural phenomenon resulting.Mar. 4:32 ult. Observe, the very same class of men who sought to destroy Christianity at its introduction afterward gladly espoused it for their own personal ends. The tree was planted by God to give shelter to the weary and sad; it was not designed for such birds of prey; and sooner or later all the mercenary ones shall be driven away by the power of Him who planted it.R. A. Griffin.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar. 4:30-32. Christianity a living organism.Hitherto the Christian kingdom has been represented by a crowd of distinct though similar cornplantscontiguous yet individual. Now the deeper truth is hinted at that all Christian men and women make up in some sense a single living organism, with its root deep hid in the earth, of whose fatness we all partake. It enters into the very idea of a tree that its various parts are the outcome of the same life-force, which originally was shut up in a tiny unpromising seed, which yet before it has spent itself creates that umbrageous fruitful whole, from gnarled root to topmost, outmost twig. The glories of midsummer leafage, on which the breezes play low airs, while the sunbeams dance a dance of green and gold; riches of autumn berry dropping to the gatherers hand; subtle harmony of curve as the boughs lean to balance one another; mystic new birth as often as the spring sends a reviving tide of sap through every branch; unwearied effort to put forth fresh lines of growth from each budding point; while the records of a hundred seasons of storm and contest and victorious life are graven on its furrowed sides and stubborn limbs,how wonderful, how endless in delight and mystery, is the world of life to be found within a single tree; and yet its age-long growth and all its splendours come from the forces hid in one smooth brown rind over which a boys fingers could be clasped in sport! This beautiful figure for an organised community of men bound by a common life, sprung from small beginnings, and lasting through many generationsthe figure of a treewas not a new one in the hands of Jesus. He found it in the literature of His people. As far back as the age of the Captivity it had become usual with the great prophets to compare the kingdom of Judah to a vine, and the mighty empire which threatened it to a cedar tree. But the figure had disappeared from Hebrew literature till our Lord revived it in the words before us. With characteristic homeliness, He selects from the vegetable creation a plant whose lowly appearance contrasts strangely with the vine of Isaiah, the cedar of Ezekiel, or the olive of St. Paul. It was not for its homeliness, however, that He chose it, although conspicuously His emblems are all taken from the most familiar objects of common life. It was because, for another reason, it suited His purpose best. We measure roughly with the eye the power of growth which resides in a plant, by the disproportion we discover betwixt the smallness of the seed and the largeness of the perfect plant. When a comparatively minute seed develops into a comparatively big tree, you are much struck by the force of life there was in it. Now of this the mustard formed an excellent familiar instance. It was, in fact, the least of the seeds usually sown by people in Palestine, and therefore passed in the proverbial speech of the country-folk for the least thing in the world. Yet, strange to add, the full-grown mustard plant was the largest of garden herbs: nay, greater than all herbs, since sometimes it shot out branches so as to pass fairly beyond the rank of a herb and become quite a tree, under whose shadow the field birds could perch. Precisely so is it found growing wild to this day by the Lake of Galileea tall shrub, or dwarf tree, some ten feet in height. On this point of comparison rests the stress of the parable. Christianity is not only a creation of the Saviours own life; it is the work and monument of the most extraordinary spiritual force we know. The kingdoms of the world were round Him where He satrelics of ancient empires, which, in their day, Ezekiel had likened to the grand mountain cedar, with a shadowing shroud and a lofty stature. Yet now these all lay fallen and broken and left, as Ezekiel had foretold; while over them towered one world-empire huger than any of its forerunners, whose very fragments constitute our modern empires. Rome filled the wide earth with its shade as He spoke. Tiny beside the mighty bulk of overshadowing Rome, as a very mustard seed, was this carpenters Son and the handful of followers He left behind Him. Yet who does not know how unexpectedly the little spiritual kingdom of Jesus grew up out of His own grave to develop the mightiest force which history has to tell of; how speedily it thrust out its branches into every land, and sent its roots along every water-course; how it reckons at this hour a larger census of citizens than the most populous of secular sovereignties? By its own inward force of Divine life did it grow so large. And still it grows, and sees the old poison plants of heathendom, beneath whose deadly boughs the people sat, droop and die around its feet, and welcomes to its grateful shade the wandering souls of men who crave for rest and for refreshing. It yields its fruit every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.J. O. Dykes, D.D.
A parable of promise.This is a parable of promise, speaking to the heart and to the community. It says, Hope for much, but expect it only little by little. When Livingstone had measured his work and his powers, he said this as his last word: It is but little we can do, but we lodge a protest in the heart against a vile system, and time may ripen it. And whenever we do our best, and trust and pray our best, though that best be but little, still we also may hope that God will favour it, and that time will ripen it. For the little of our day is often the seed of much in a day to come; and no one who works in his place can tell what his work will grow to, or how much God may make of it.T. F. Crosse, D.C.L.
Mar. 4:33-34. The duties of the Christian teacher.
1. He must adapt himself to his hearers. Are they young? are they educated? are they courageous? are they surrounded by any peculiar circumstances?
2. He must consider his hearers rather than himself. This was Jesus Christs method. The question should be, not what pleases the preachers taste, but what is most required by the spiritual condition of the people.
3. He must increase his communication of truth and light according to the progress of his scholars. Reticence is power. In teaching children the teacher should not dazzle them by the splendour of his attainments; he adapts the light to the strength of their mental vision. The preacher should always know more of Divine truth than the hearer. Christs method of imparting knowledge is, so far as we can infer, unchanged. He has yet more light to shed upon His Word.J. Parker, D.D.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Mar. 4:31-32. Great things from small.Many great histories of blessing may be traced back to a very small seed. A woman whose name is forgotten dropped a tract or little book in the way of a man named Richard Baxter. He picked it up and read it, and it led him to Christ. He became a man of saintly life, and wrote a book entitled A Call to the Unconverted, which brought many persons to the Saviour, and among others Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge in his turn wrote The Rise and Progress of Religion, which led many into the kingdom of God, among them the great Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote A Practical View of Christianity, which was the means of saving a multitude, including Legh Richmond. In his turn Richmond wrote The Dairymans Daughter, which has been instrumental in the conversion of thousands. The dropping of that one little tract seemed a very small thing to do; but see what a wonderful, many-branched tree has sprung from it!
Faith in the power of truth.When Charles Darwin wrote his Origin of Species, did he believe it would be received by the scientific world? Most certainly he did. But the scientific world, with rare exceptions, received it with a storm of derision and opposition. To others it was the height of unreason. But to him it was not unreasonable. Where was the difference? He knew it best, saw its truth, and therefore had faith in its acceptance, and in some thirty years the scientific world has, in the main, come round to his belief. They who know Christianity best have most faith in its power to upheave the world. It still requires a great deal of faith to believe that the world will actually become a Christian world. This is partly because the world has always been a stiff soil for any kind of noble husbandry. It is slow to yield its produce, and there are some terribly tough roots to be stubbed up. It is partly because of imperfection in the means employed. But God works by imperfect means, or how would He use men at all? He wins His victories with maimed soldiers. The workmen have all manner of crotchets of their own, and all manner of ridiculous notions of the shape of the building, and a nice piece of architecture it would be if all their structures were to stand; but the Divine Architect has His plan matured in heavenly wisdom, and He will look to it with sleepless eye that the New Jerusalem keeps its symmetry. What one man with a crotchet has built awry or with perishable material, He sends another man with an opposite crotchet to pull down, and, as there is a little bit of right work in every worker, He takes that out of him too, and the fair structure rises in impregnable righteousness.G. T. Candlin.
Seed served by the tempests.Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, when obliged to quit the city in consequence of increasing persecutions, went with one of his disciples to a region in the vicinity. In the cool of the evening the bishop was walking under the shade of the magnificent trees which stood in front of his rural abode; here he found his disciple sitting under an oak tree, leaning his head upon his hand, and weeping. Then the old man said, My son, why weepest thou? The disciple replied, Shall I not mourn and weep when I think of the kingdom of truth upon earth? Tempests are gathering round it, and will destroy it. Many of its adherents have become apostates, and have denied and abused the truth, proving that unworthy men may confess it with their lips, though their hearts are far from it. This fills my heart with sorrow and my eyes with tears. Then Polycarp smiled and answered, My son, the kingdom of Divine truth is like unto a tree which a man reared in his garden. He set the seed secretly and quietly in the ground and left it; the seed put forth leaves, and the young tree grew up among weeds and thorns. Soon the tree reared itself above them, and the weeds died, because the shadow of the branches overcame them. The tree grew, and the wind blew on it and shook it, but its roots clung firmer and firmer to the ground, taking hold of the rocks downward, and its branches reached unto heaven. Thus the tempest served to increase the firmness and strength of the tree. When it grew higher, and its shadow spread farther, then the thorns and weeds grew again round the tree, but it heeded them not in its loftiness. There it stood, in calm, peaceful grandeura tree of God!
Triumph of the gospel.Far out in the western main is a little island round which for nearly half the year the Atlantic clangs his angry billows, keeping the handful of inhabitants close prisoners. Most of it is bleak and barren; but there is one little bay rimmed round with silvery sand, and reflecting in its waters a slope of verdure. Towards this bay one autumn evening, thirteen hundred years ago, a rude vessel steered its course. It was a flimsy bark, no better than a huge basket of osiers covered over with the skins of beasts; but the tide was tranquil, and as the boatmen plied their oars they raised the voice of psalms. Skimming across the bay, they beached their coracle and stepped on shoreabout thirteen in number. On the green slope they built a few hasty huts and a tiny Christian temple. The freight of that little ship was the gospel, and the errand of the saintly strangers was to tell benighted heathen about Jesus and His love. From the favoured soil of Ireland they had brought a grain of mustard seed, and now they sowed it in Iona. In the conservatory of their little church it throve, till it was fit to be planted out on the neighbouring mainland. To the Picts with their tattooed faces, to the Druids peeping and muttering in their dismal groves, the missionaries preached the gospel. That gospel triumphed. The groves were felled, and where once they stood rose the house of prayer. Planted out on the bleak moorland, the little seed became a mighty tree, so that the hills of Caledonia were covered with the shade; nor must Scotland ever forget the seedling of Iona, and the labours of Columba with his meek Culdees.
The Churchs expansion.There is a fairy tale which speaks of a magic tent, no bigger than a walnut shell, whose powers were very wonderful. Placed in the kings audience chamber, it expanded into a gorgeous canopy over his throne. Placed in the courtyard, it became a spacious tent, which provided accommodation for the royal household. Placed without the gates, it widened its borders until the plain was covered by a glistening encampment, beneath whose shelter a great army might find ample room. And so it was capable of infinite expansion according to the requirements of its owner. Well, that magic tent may serve as an emblem of the Church of Christ. At first it was only a little one, but with every year it has expanded, and widened its borders, and become more ample and majestic. Multitudes whom no man can number, from every nation under heaven, have sought its shelter. And it shall continue to grow until all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
F. THE PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 4:30-32.
TEXT 4:30-32
An he said, How shall we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds upon the earth, yet when it is sown, groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 4:30-32
194.
Once again settle in your mind just what is represented by the expression kingdom of God. Can you see the fulfillment of this expression in the church? We refer to the church described in the book of Acts.
195.
Why select the mustard seed for comparison? Is it the smallest seed on the earth?
196.
Who are the birds and what are the branches?
197.
What is the principle point of this parable?
COMMENT
This is the fourth and last parable here recorded by Mark. Like the previous three it was given in the autumn of A.D. 28 while Jesus sat in a little boat in the Sea of Galilee.
A Picture of the Kingdom
OUTLINE1. Like a grain of mustard seed, Mar. 4:30-31. 2. When grown is greater than all the herbs, Mar. 4:32 a. 3. A place for the birds of the heaven, Mar. 4:32 b.
ANALYSIS
I.
A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED, Mar. 4:30-31.
1.
Just like the kingdom of God.
2.
Sown upon the earth.
3.
Less than all the seeds.
II.
WHEN IT IS GROWN, Mar. 4:32 A.
1.
Greater than all the herbs.
2.
Putteth out branches.
III.
A PLACE FOR BIRDS, Mar. 4:32 B.
1.
In branches.
2.
Under the shadow.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
I.
A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED, Mar. 4:30-31.
Whereunto (or how) shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison (or parable) shall we compare it? In using the plural, we, our Lord seems to conceive of his disciples as deliberating with him in the choice of a comparison; not that he was in doubt as to how the gospel could be illustratedcomparisons thronged upon himbut because he would have them also watch for comparisons. The world was full of them, and they, the teachers of men in higher things, must learn, as well as their Master, to find them. Yet possibly he may sometimes, like any one of them, have had to feel after an illustration in nature that was suited to his thought,A grain of mustard-seed. There seems to be no good reason for looking elsewhere than to the ordinary mustard of the East. Thomson (The Land and the Book) has seen it as high as a horse and rider, (See also the beautiful incident in Dr. Hacketts Illustrations of Scripture, p. 124.A.H.) This is the Sinapis nigra; but some have thought that the Salvadora Persica was more probably the herb that Jesus had in mind. The former, however, meets all the real requirements of the case, and was the more familiar plant to his hearers. It (the Sinapis nigra) is a small grain producing a large result; the least of the husbandmans seeds, becoming the greatest of the husbandmans herbs. This is the point of the parable, and gives the only sense in which the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard-seed (The Bible Educator, 1. 121).Less than and greater than are not to be pressed to the point of minute precision. There may be smaller seeds in existence without giving us reason to stumble at our Saviours words. The mustard-seed was commonly spoken of as the smallest of seeds, and that is enough.
II.
WHEN IT IS GROWN, Mar. 4:32 A.
Becometh greater than all the herbs. Matthew, is greater than the herbs, and becometh a treei.e., of course, a tree in appearance, not botanically. The great branches are such as one would think impossible upon an herb that sprang from so small a seed.The comparison calls for very little explanation, the lessonsmall beginnings and great resultsbeing very plain. Such is the kingdom, begun obscurely, with no human prospect of greatness, no seeming possibility of success. It began among the Jews, a disappointed people chafing under foreign masters; it was the smallest of sects among them; it contradicted their ideas, and was rejected by them; it seemed to be powerless at home, and without opportunities abroad; and its founder died on the cross. Even after the day of Pentecost it seemed but a feeble sect. Yet compare the strong language of Paul in Rom. 16:26; Col. 1:23 as to the wide extension of the gospel within the apostolic times.
III.
A PLACE FOR BIRDS, Mar. 4:32 B.
Consider also the power of the name and principles of Jesus in the world today, and the ever-widening circle of Christian influence. The kingdom has grown out of all resemblance to its humble beginning. Such is the kingdom; and the same rule is to be observed in its agencies. They are often obscure and yet mighty. A single act of a quiet person often seems possessed of a germinant power of usefulness that brings most unexpected fruit to the glory of God. Christian history is full of illustrations. Notice that this comparison does not set forth the greatness of the kingdom absolutely, as destined to fill the earth, but only relatively, in contrast with the insignificance of its apparent promise. (W. N. Clarke).
FACT QUESTIONS 4:30-32
226.
Who does the planting of the mustard seed? Where?
227.
Does it help us in our work for Christ to know the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds? How?
228.
When was the seed of mustard first planted?
229.
Show how this parable has been fulfilledis being fulfilled and can be fulfilled.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(30) With what comparison shall we compare it?Literally, By what parable shall we set it forth? The question which introduces the parable is in St. Mark and St. Luke, but not in St. Matthew. It gives us the impression of a question asked, in order to put the minds of the hearers on the stretch, so that they might welcome the answer.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Grain of Mustard Seed (4:30-32).
The grain of mustard seed was a favourite illustration of Jesus (Mat 13:31; Mat 17:20; Luk 13:19; Luk 17:6). It was a tiny seed and yet it would quickly grow into a large bush, often well over two metres high, in which birds could take shelter. Indeed they were very fond of its small black seeds, and birds would have been a common sight around a mustard bush.
Analysis.
a
b When it is sown on the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,
b Yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs,
a And puts out sizeable branches so that the birds of the air can shelter under their shadow
Note that in ‘a’ the Kingly Rule of God is like a grain of mustard seed, and in the parallel this results in sizeable branches in which the birds can shelter. In ‘b’ it commences as the smallest of all the seeds used by Palestinian farmers, and in the parallel its resultant bush becomes greater than all the herbs.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘And he said, “How shall we liken the Kingly Rule of God, or in what picture (parabolos) shall we set it forth? It is like a grain of mustard seed which, when it is sown on the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out sizeable branches so that the birds of the air can shelter under their shadow.” ’
The contrast here is one of size. The commencement seems very small but the growth is rapid so that it quickly becomes a place of shelter and even a nesting place (birds have incredible abilities to nest in what may seem to us unlikely places). And that is what will happen to the Kingly Rule of God. From small beginnings it will grow to a huge size and become a shelter to the nations. The emphasis is not on the process of growing but on the great contrast between the tiny seed and the large bush. There may well be in mind here, in the fully grown bush, the idea of the parousia, the final coming of Christ to receive His own, when all the elect will be gathered from the four winds, from the uttermost part of earth to the uttermost part of Heaven (Mar 13:27) and the Kingly Rule of God in its final phase will be established.
The picture of birds in a tree is familiar from the Old Testament. See for example, Eze 17:22-24; Eze 31:1-14; Dan 4:10; Dan 4:21. There the tree illustrates a great empire in which the nations (the birds) find shelter. So this may be declaring that the Kingly Rule of God will become the equivalent of a great empire sheltering many peoples within it, and they will all be one people as the Old Testament prophets had themselves declared (Isa 27:12-13). It is this fact above all that points us to our seeing it as finally speaking of the end of the ages when the Rule of God is consummated.
‘Less than all the seeds that are on the earth.’ It would seem that the mustard seed was proverbially so in Palestine. This was not intended as a scientific statement. The point was that it was the smallest as compared with the others with which they were familiar. It is deliberate exaggeration. And indeed while it was not necessarily so in size, it was in significance. It seemed tiny and unimportant. But what a contrast with the huge bush which was a favourite of the birds of the air.
‘Sown on the earth — the birds of the air.’ An alternative possibility is that there is a hint here that what was earthly was coming in contact with the heavenly and coming under heavenly protection in the same way as with the birds that fed Elijah. But the fact that the birds take shelter under the branches is against this.
We should note that these parables are often seen as pictures of the growth of the church. But this is not strictly their idea if we mean by the church a human organisation. The idea is rather of the word of God which produces life within many peoples in many individual hearts, bringing them under His shelter and making them one together, resulting in the final gathering of His own at the coming of Christ. It is the living church, the true Israel, that it pictures.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Our Glorification) ( Mat 13:31-32 , Luk 13:18-19 ) In Mar 4:30-32 Jesus tells us the Parable of the Mustard Seed. This parable tells us the end result of our faithfulness to preach the Gospel; for it will cause the Kingdom of God to grow into the greatest kingdom upon the earth. This parable reflects our glorification during and at the end of our journey.
Interpretation of the Parable – The full maturity of the mustard seed reflects the believer who has reached his divine calling and bearing fruit in the Kingdom of Heaven. Andrew Wommack explains that such a large herb requires a large root system to support its growth. He then explains that a child of God should focus on developing the roots of his faith in God and godly character, which are hidden, rather than the immature Christian who takes great effort to present himself before others as some great Christian. He uses the illustration of the tree planted by the rivers of water in Psa 1:3 to explain the important role of strong roots in the Christian life. [98]
[98] Andrew Wommack, “Laying a Sure Foundation,” in the series “A Sure Foundation,” [on-line]; accessed 4 January 2010; http://www.awmi.net/podcasts/television/MP3 Audio; Internet.
Psa 1:3, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed also represents the fullness of the Kingdom of God upon the earth, which will take place at the Second Coming of Christ Jesus when He will rule and reign from Jerusalem. Thus, the fowls of the air that lodge under its shadow could symbolize the nations who come to Jerusalem to honor the Lord and find rest and peace as a result of doing so.
Old Testament Analogies – The analogy of a great tree providing shelter for the animals is used a number of times in Scriptures. Note a similar analogy in Eze 17:22-24 of a great tree providing shade and shelter for animals.
Eze 17:22-24, “Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.”
In addition, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream in which a tree grew to be the greatest among trees, reaching to the heavens, with the beasts finding shade under it and the birds nesting in its branches (Dan 4:12).
Dan 4:12, “The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.”
Mar 4:32 “so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it” – Comments We too are able to rest in faith towards God alone.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Parable of the grain of mustard-seed:
v. 30. And He said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what comparison shall we compare it?
v. 31. It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth;
v. 32. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. It is not a matter of indifference, but of anxious concern to the Lord, as it should be to all true teachers of the Word, in what way He can make clear to His disciples the great truths which they must understand and be thoroughly familiar with, for themselves as well as for their hearers. He wants some comparison, some parable that will bring out still more strongly the lesson of the last parable, but in its application to the entire Church. He chooses a mustard-seed for His purpose. The characteristic feature of this seed is its small size, rendering it almost insignificant in comparison with others as it is sown into the ground. The results, however, are little short of marvelous. In the proper soil, and with the right conditions, it will grow up to be the largest of the garden vegetables, becoming almost treelike in its proportions, extending its boughs in every direction, so that the birds will welcome its shade and be glad to use the protection of its branches for a roosting-place. Thus the preaching of the Gospel is considered insignificant before men. It is despised in the sight of those that prefer the philosophy and wisdom of this world. But when it comes to results, to spiritual life and strength, then human wisdom cannot even come into consideration. For the Word of God alone can take hold of a man’s heart and renew it entirely, change his entire life and manner of thinking. And the same effect may be observed in the history of the Church. A mere handful of disciples assembled in the upper room in Jerusalem has grown to a body whose size is such as to be known to God only, although even the number of those that profess Christianity is very large. That fact is a source of constant comfort to all believers, whether they be pastors or not: their labor cannot be in vain, since they have the living Word to deal with.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mar 4:30-32 . See on Mat 13:31 f. Comp. Luk 13:17 f.
] how are we to bring the Messianic kingdom into comparison?
. (see the critical remarks): or in what parable are we to place it, set it forth? The expression inclusive of others ( we ) is in keeping with the deliberative form of discourse. The hearers are formally taken into the consultation. The deviation from the normal order of the words places the principal emphasis on .
.] is correlative to the of Mar 4:30 : so as it is likened to a grain of mustard seed .
The following [89] is not a parable in the stricter sense (not a history), but a comparison generally, the representation of the idea, borrowed from the region of sense. Comp. Mar 3:23 , Mar 7:17 . See on Mat 13:3 .
Observe the twofold , Mar 4:31-32 . In the first the emphasis is on , in the second on . “Exacte definit tempus illud, quum granum desinit esse parvum et incipit fieri magnum,” Bengel.
[89] From the collection of Logia, and in a shape more original than Matthew and Luke, who add the historical form. Mark would least of all have divested it of this, if he had found it in existence. Comp. (in opposition to Holtzmann) Weiss in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol. 1864, p. 93.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1424
THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED
Mar 4:30-32. And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? it is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
VERY excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of God. There is nothing either in heaven or earth which may not well serve to shadow forth thine excellencies. Our Lord had already illustrated the nature of his kingdom by a great variety of most instructive parables; and now stretches, as it were, his invention, in order to find other similitudes whereby to make it more fully understood. But choosing, as he always did, to bring his illustrations from things most obvious and familiar, he compares his Church and kingdom to a grain of mustard-seed. We shall,
I.
Illustrate this comparison
The kingdom of God means, in this as in a multitude of other places, the visible kingdom of Christ established in the world, arid his invisible kingdom erected in the hearts of men. We must illustrate the comparison therefore,
1.
In reference to the Church of Christ in the world
[The mustard-seed is the smallest of all those seeds which grow to any considerable size: and such was the Church of Christ at its first establishment in the world. It consisted at first of our Lord and his twelve Disciples; and even after our Lords ascension, their number was only one hundred and twenty. Soon however it spread forth its branches. As the mustard-seed, notwithstanding its smallness, grows up (in the eastern countries) into a tree of some magnitude, so did the Church, notwithstanding its unpromising appearances, extend its limits with astonishing rapidity. In the space of but a very few years, it filled, not Judsea only, but the whole Roman empire. Nor is it yet grown to its full dimensions. It will in the latter days overspread the whole earth. All the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. And as Jews and Gentiles have already taken refuge under its shadow, so shall the people of all nations and languages in Gods appointed time [Note: This by the spirit of prophecy is beautifully described as passing More the prophets eyes, and as exciting great astonishment in the church itself. Isa 49:18-21.].]
2.
In reference to the grace of God in the heart
[Grace, when first implanted in the soul, is often very small, shewing itself only in some glimmering views, slight convictions, good desires, faint purposes, and feeble endeavours. But in process of time it grows in every part; it shoots forth its roots into the soul, and becomes stronger in all its branches. The faith which was weak, is confirmed; the hope that was languishing, is made lively and abundant; and the love that was but cold and selfish, displays itself with purity and fervour. And all, who come within the sphere of its influence, receive rest and refreshment from its salutary shade [Note: Hos 14:7.]. Indeed its full growth cannot be seen in this world. For that glorious sight, we must ascend to heaven, where every tree of righteousness flourishes with unfading beauty, and exhibits in the brightest colours the power and efficacy of the Redeemers grace.]
Such being the import of the comparison, we shall now proceed to,
II.
Improve it
The parts of our improvement must necessarily have respect to the different views in which the parable has been explained.
We shall draw from it therefore some observations;
1.
For our encouragement respecting the Church at large
[It is to be lamented that infidelity and profaneness have overrun the world; and that this tree which the Lord hath planted, has been so wasted and devoured by the wild beasts of the field [Note: Psa 80:8-13.]. But still the stock remains, nor shall it ever be rooted up. It shall yet shoot forth its roots downward and bring forth fruit upward [Note: 2Ki 19:30.]. At various seasons the Church has been contracted within very narrow limits; yet has always been preserved. In the days of Noah and of Abraham, the branches were cut down, and nothing remained but the mere stem; yet it put forth fresh branches, and extended them far and wide. So shall it do yet again, till at last it cover the whole earth. Where there is nothing now but idolatry and every species of wickedness, there shall one day be holiness to the Lord inscribed upon the very bells of the horses [Note: Zec 14:20.]. Let us then water this tree with our prayers and tears. Let us help forward its growth by every means in our power; and look with confidence to that period, when all the nations of the world shall come and sit under its benign shadow.]
2.
For our consolation under personal doubts and apprehensions
[From the smallness of our attainments we are sometimes ready to doubt whether the little seed of grace in our hearts will ever grow up to any use or profit. But there is not a saint in heaven whose grace was not once comparatively weak. All were once as new-born babes; nor was it till they had learned many humiliating lessons, that they attained to the age of young men and fathers [Note: 1Jn 2:12-13.]. Thus in the natural world, the largest oak was once an acorn, and the largest mustard-tree a little and contemptible seed. Why then should any despond because of present appearances? Why should not we hope that in process of time our graces shall be strengthened, and our wide-extended branches be filled with fruit? Our God assures us that he does not despise the day of small things [Note: Zec 4:10.]; why then should we? Let us trust, and not be afraid. Let us look up to heaven for the genial influences of the sun and rain: nor doubt but that God will accomplish the work he has begun [Note: Php 1:6.]; and fulfil in us all the good pleasure of his goodness.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(30) And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? (31) It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: (32) But when it is sown, it groweth up, and be cometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. (33) And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. (34) But without a parable spoke he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
These verses are so many different similitudes, to illustrate the progressive work of grace in the soul. A child of GOD is apt to make false conclusions, in forming his view of such scriptures, by what passeth in his own experience. He feels at times such a deadness to divine things, that he is at a loss to ascertain any growth in the divine life. But the truth is, the growth he is looking for, is to be found in the reverse of what he expects to find. He supposes to find himself more holy: whereas, the holiness, the HOLY GHOST is ripening him in, is in CHRIST. He doth indeed make great progress, when, from making every day more discoveries of his own unholiness, he becomes more and more longing for the holiness in JESUS. When a sense of the remains of indwelling sin, makes him more out of love with himself, and more its love with CHRIST. This is indeed, from small beginnings, to arise to large attainments; because, as it begins in CHRIST, so it ends in CHRIST. And CHRIST is the tree of life, under whose branches, his people find both a banquet and a shadow. Son 2:3-4 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
Ver. 30. Whereunto shall we liken, &c. ] The wisdom of God, the great Counsellor, seems to be at fault for a fit expression low enough for our slow apprehension.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 34. ] PARABLE OF THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED. Mat 13:31-35 .Luk 13:18-19Luk 13:18-19 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
30. ] This Rabbinical method of questioning before beginning a discourse is also found in Luk 13:18 , without however the condescending plural , which embraces the disciples, in their work of preaching and teaching, and indeed gives all teachers an example, to what they may liken the Kingdom of God.
, as , of Hephstus, Il. . 541, &c., ‘sollers nunc hominem ponere, nunc deum,’ Hor. Od. iv. 8. 8, see also de Art. Poet. 34.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 4:30-32 . The Mustard Seed (Mat 13:31-32 , Luk 13:18-19 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 4:30 . ( vide above). This introductory question, especially as given in the text of W.H [29] , is very graphic = how shall we liken the Kingdom of God, or in (under) what parable shall we place it? The form of expression implies that something has been said before creating a need for figurative embodiment, something pointing to the insignificance of the beginnings of the Kingdom. The two previous parables satisfy this requirement = the word fruitful only in a few, and even in them only after a time. What is the best emblem of this state of things?
[29] Westcott and Hort.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 4:30-32
30And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.”
Mar 4:30 This is paralleled in Mat 13:31-32.
Mar 4:31 “a mustard seed” The rabbis said it was the smallest of seeds. Yet the bush grew to over twelve feet tall. This parable parallels the one above. Spiritual growth may start small, but the results are enormous! As the seed of the gospel grows in the heart of an individual into Christlikeness, so too, the kingdom of God grows into a universal kingdom (cf. Mat 13:33).
Mar 4:32 The end of this verse may be an allusion to the huge trees in the OT texts of Eze 17:22-24 and Dan 4:11-12 that represent a kingdom.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
comparison = parable.
shall we = are we to.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
30-34.] PARABLE OF THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED. Mat 13:31-35. Luk 13:18-19.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 4:30. , whereunto shall we liken) The plural; comp. Joh 3:11.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Mar 4:30-32
6. PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED
Mar 4:30-32
(Mat 13:31-32)
30 And he said, How shall we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth?–That is, what other parable or illustration than the ones already used shall be used showing and enforcing some other feature of “the kingdom of God”?
31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds that are upon the earth,–Matthew (Mat 13:31) says: “Which a man took, and sowed in his field.” Luke (Luk 13:17-27) says: “His own garden.” It is a garden plant. It is the least of all seeds which were sowed in the field or garden in that country–not really the least of all seeds known to botanists. It was proverbially used to denote any small seed.
32 yet when it is sown, groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof.–From this very small seed grows a very large herb, “greater than all the herbs” grown in that country, “and becometh a tree”–not like the cedar or fir or oak, but so large that birds lodge in its branches. We are told by those who have traveled through that country that “in the proper season the traveler on Gennesaret may ride by mustard bushes as high as his horse, and alive with flocks of merry bullfinches or of rock pigeons feeding upon the seeds.” The points of resemblance in the parable are the smallness of seed and the greatness of the production from it. So the kingdom of God, from an insignificant beginning, has grown to a huge magnitude. From a babe in a manger has grown this mighty kingdom.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
CHAPTER 18
The Parable Of Mustard Seed
And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
(Mar 4:30-34)
Here our Savior employs another of his parables to teach us spiritual truth. It is the same parable recorded by Matthew (Mar 13:31) and Luke (Mar 13:19). Remember, parables are common, familiar earthly illustrations of spiritual, heavenly truths. In this case the parable is drawn from a commonly used proverbial expression during the days of our Lords earthly ministry.
Faith Illustrated
Though it is never mentioned in the Old Testament, many varieties of mustard plants grew in abundance in and around Palestine. Some grew in the wild. Others were cultivated for various purposes. In the New Testament it is mentioned only by our Savior. In two other places he compares true faith to a grain of mustard seed (Mat 17:14-21; Luk 17:3-6). In both of these places our Lord uses mustard seed to illustrate faith. Our Saviors use of mustard seed to illustrate faith teaches us four specific things about the character of true faith.
1.True, saving faith begins as a very small thing. A Grain of Mustard Seed.
True believers always recognize that their faith is a small, a very small thing. We often look upon our brothers and sisters in Christ as being men and women of great faith; but anyone who thinks he has great faith probably has no faith at all.
2.It is not the greatness of our faith, but the greatness of our God and Savior, the Object of our faith, that gives it merit, power, and efficacy.
Far too many have faith in their faith; which is to say they have faith in themselves. We must never imagine that there is some mystical power to faith. The power of our faith is Christ, the Object of our faith. It is not our faith that moves the mountain of our sins or plucks up the sycamore tree of trouble; but the blood of Christ and the power of Christ, who is the Object of or faith. The question is not, How much faith do I have? but, What is the object of my faith? Great faith in an idol is as useless as spitting in the ocean; but faith even as a grain of mustard seed in the God of glory is mighty, effectual, saving faith.
3.With God, nothing is impossible; and therefore, Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mar 9:23).
Nothing can stand in the way of, hinder, or defeat that man and those people who, being called of God, believe him. It was impossible for Egypt to destroy Israel because Moses believed God. It was impossible for the Red Sea to stop the march of Gods elect because Moses believed God. The walls of Jericho had to fall. Joshua believed God. The land of Canaan had to be possessed. Caleb believed God. The Philistine giant had to die because David, defending the cause of Gods glory and his people, believed God. Jairus daughter had to live. He believed God. The centurions servant had to rise. That centurion believed God. Our Savior was not lying when he said, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.
4.Yet, nothing is more abominably wretched than the paralyzing effect of unbelief.
When the Lord Jesus came into his own land, among his own people, we read, He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief (Mat 13:58). Just in proportion as we believe God, we experience his power and grace. Just in proportion as we believe him, we see his glory. Nothing is as costly as unbelief (Isa 48:16-19).
The Purpose
The purpose of the parable is to assure us of the certain growth and blessedness of Christs church and kingdom in this world. Robert Hawkers brief summary of the parable is excellent.
These verses are so many different similitudes, to illustrate the progressive work of grace in the soul. A child of God is apt to make false conclusions, in forming his view of such scriptures, by what passeth in his own experience. He feels at times such a deadness to divine things, that he is at a loss to ascertain any growth in the divine life. But the truth is, the growth he is looking for is to be found in the reverse of what he expects to find. He supposes to find himself more holy: whereas, the holiness, the Holy Ghost is ripening him in, is in Christ. He doth indeed make great progress, when, from making every day more discoveries of his own unholiness, he becomes more and more longing for the holiness in Jesus. When a sense of the remains of indwelling sin makes him more out of love with himself and more in love with Christ This is indeed, from small beginnings, to arise to large attainments, because, as it begins in Christ, so it ends in Christ. And Christ is the Tree of Life, under whose branches his people find both a banquet and a shadow (Son 2:3-4).
The Veracity of Holy Scripture
Ignorant men who think themselves wise, reprobate men who think themselves spiritual, pass judgment upon the Word of God. They claim to be Christians, to be people of faith, and claim to honor Christ, while denying the veracity of the Bible. I once heard a man in an interview with ABC News say, I believe the Bible; but I dont take it word for word. A woman in the same segment said, I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God; but I do not think you have to take it all literally. Regrettably, those comments fairly well represent the opinions of most who profess to be Christians in our day.
In this day of spiritual darkness and perversion there is almost a universal abandonment of belief in the verbal, plenary inspiration of Gods holy, inerrant Word. Rejecting the veracity and, consequently, the authority of Holy Scripture, men and women everywhere are turning to necromancy, astrology, and sorcery for spiritual counsel and aid. Isaiah specifically addressed such evil (Isa 8:19-20). John Hazelton warned, Satan assumes the garb of an angel of light and his deceptions in this disguise are deadly.
Frequently, those who think they are smarter than God point to this parable to show that our Savior was either ignorant or misinformed, because he spoke of the mustard seed as the smallest of all seeds and of the mustard plant as a tree. Those who make such judgments are ignorant and misinformed. When our Lord said that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds in the earth, he was not talking about all seeds without exception, but all the seeds a man sows in his garden. Though we usually think of mustard plants as bushy, leafy plants, there is a variety of mustard that grows into a good size, tree like plant, similar to a banana tree in size.
We must never allow men, with their imaginary proofs of inaccuracies in the Bible, shake our faith in the Word of God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2Ti 3:16-17).
The Growth of Gods Kingdom
Like faith in the heart, the church and kingdom of God in this world began as a very small thing. The expression, as a grain of mustard seed, was a common, proverbial saying among the Jews, referring to anything small and insignificant. As a rule, Gods works in the world are always looked upon by men as trivial and insignificant. Certainly, that is the way it was with the Church of the New Testament.
Those who were chosen to be the foundational apostles of Christs kingdom were poor, unlettered fishermen. He who is the Lord and Master of this Church, the King of this Kingdom, was a despised Nazarene, a crucified Jew. The doctrine proclaimed by this Church, the doctrine, which they preached everywhere, was the doctrine of grace, life, and eternal salvation by the merit and efficacy of a crucified Substitute.
In the eyes of men, nothing could have been less likely to be successful, nothing could have been more despicable, nothing could have been more offensive. Yet, this was Gods work, Gods Church, and Gods Kingdom. Once planted, this Church and Kingdom grew into a great Kingdom.
Our Lords parable here was prophetic. He was telling his disciples not to despise the day of small things. Though it appeared a small, despicable thing, like mustard seed, the Lord here prophesied that his Church would become a great, large Kingdom. He said, As the mustard plant grows to be the greatest of all herbs, so shall my church grow to be the greatest of all kingdoms.
So it has come to pass. It began to grow on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand were born into his Kingdom on that day. The Church grew so rapidly, that nothing can account for it except the finger of God. A few days after Pentecost, five thousand were added to the Church at once. Wherever Gods servants went preaching the gospel, it proved to be the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:14-17).
Today the Church of God is the greatest Empire the world has ever known. It is not done growing yet. And our God still employs the same means today as he did in the beginning for the building of his Church, the preaching of the gospel (1Co 1:21-31; Mat 16:18). As J. C. Ryle put it, In spite of all the predictions of Voltaire and Payne, in spite of foes without and treachery within, the visible Church progresses, the mustard plant still grows!
As Hawker observed in his summary of this parable, that which is true of the Church as a whole is true of each member of it. The beginnings of grace in the life of a believer are very small; but where there is life there is growth; and those who are born of God are grown by God. The more they grow, the smaller they appear in their own eyes. Yet, when God is finished with us, we shall at last be transformed into the very likeness of the Son of God.
The Sanctifying Influence of the Church
Though no one in the world knows it, and few in the Kingdom of God realize it, the Church and Kingdom of God has a profoundly sanctifying effect upon the rest of society. That is, at least in part, what is meant by the birds of the air flocking to and nesting in the mustard plant. The Church and Kingdom of God, like a great tree, provides shelter for the world and influences it for good. We have an example of what I am talking about in 1Co 7:14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
As in a home, the unbelieving are sanctified by the believing in a moral sense, so in the world, the unbelieving are sanctified by the believing. Read your history books. Education did absolutely nothing to improve the moral condition of the Greek and Roman worlds. Plato and Aristotle made absolutely no impact upon society for moral good. That which has improved every society, every culture, every family, and every relationship under its influence is the gospel of Christ.
The Mixed Inhabitants of Zion
The fowls of the air also represent the mixed multitude in the visible Church and Kingdom of God in this world. The visible Church has always been inhabited by both the clean and the unclean. There is no such thing as a perfect Church in this world. Every true Church has within its fold both goats and sheep. It is a nesting place for birds clean and birds unclean. It is a garden enclosed, but a garden with wheat and tares growing side by side.
What are we to do about this? Nothing! Do not try to scare off the crows. If you do, you will drive away the red birds. Do not try to pull up the tares. If you do, you will pull up wheat every time. Never try to separate sheep from goats. We are not equipped for it. Only the Lord God himself is able to distinguish the true from the false. It is his work and prerogative alone to do the separating.
The Method of Our Lords Teaching
When the Lord Jesus preached, he always preached in the plainest, simplest manner imaginable. He who is the embodiment of wisdom and knowledge never used complicated words and phrases. He never once referred to the original language, or even defined a word. He did not use words that required definition. Instead, he told stories and illustrated the truths he taught by parables.
And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples (Mar 4:33-34).
In contrast with todays preaching, our Lords example of preaching speaks volumes. He preached in such a way that people understood what he preached. He never tried to impress his hearers with how smart a man he was, or with how much he knew. He did not display knowledge. He taught knowledge. There is a huge difference. Those who follow the Masters example do not try to impress men. They instruct men.
Our Master taught with plainness and simplicity. He did not preach what he could not illustrate; and when he was finished, the people who heard him understood what he had said. Our Savior taught with knowledge and understanding. He knew exactly what they needed, and what they could bear, and taught them accordingly. And every pastor called and gifted of God preaches as he did (Jer 3:15). The Son of God expounded all things to his disciples. He kept back nothing from them. He expounded to them all the Word of God. Faithful men follow his example.
The parable of the mustard seed teaches us that we should never despise the day of small things. God is building his Church, gathering in his elect, and establishing his Kingdom. The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him (Isa 56:8).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Lam 2:13, Mat 11:16, Luk 13:18, Luk 13:20, Luk 13:21
Reciprocal: Mat 13:24 – The kingdom Mat 13:31 – The kingdom Luk 7:31 – Whereunto Luk 10:9 – The kingdom Act 5:24 – this
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
MARKS OF THE CHURCH
Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? It is like a grain of mustard seed.
Mar 4:30-31
What are the characteristics of the Church which would possess the future? What are the conditions under which alone the mustard seed, which has grown so high already, shall fill the world?
I. Proclaims the love of God.The future can only belong to a Church which believes and preaches the forth-reaching, energising, and active love of God. To be out of the warmth of the love of God is to be in the darkness, and how great is that darkness no one painted more clearly than Jesus Christ Himself. After all, why did God make anything except in love? No Church will save the world, and especially those thousand millions who have not yet had a chance of making up their minds as to the truth of Christianity, except a Church that believes and proclaims and lives out the love of God to every child that He has made.
II. Preaches a free salvation.With the Gospel of the Love of God must go the message of a free salvation. It may be that in the past we may have allowed a legalising spirit to creep over the Church and therefore lost such great communities as the Wesleyans, because they thought the old bottles would not hold the new wine. But to-day, High Church and Low Church vie to preach a gospel of a free salvation, tidings so great that they dwarf into insignificance every dividing line that keeps them apart.
III. Possesses the historical ministry.But it may be said: Every orthodox Christian community in the world preaches the Gospel of the Love of God and of a free salvationin what sense are we justified to-day in the Anglican Communion in keeping our own organisation separate from the great non-episcopal bodies on the one hand, and the Roman Church on the other? We do not keep aloof from either in any spirit of unbrotherliness or pharasaical pride. We long to be one; we pray to be one; we honour and admire all that they have done for the cause of Christ. But in spite of this we are bound to maintain, in opposition to the great non-episcopal bodies, that the historical ministry cannot lightly be set aside in the Christian Church, that just as every plant has lines of its own on which it develops, so the Divine grain of mustard seed carries within itself the organisation by which it was meant to spread throughout the world. Again and again has this, as well as the Gospel of free salvation, been shown effective in the history of the Church. It was the ordered ministry and strong organisation of the Church which saved the Christian religion for Europe when the Goths burst upon Rome and swept it away; and it was the Church which, as a matter of fact, converted the conquerors. The Church of the future must undoubtedly possess the unbroken ministry and the historic Sacraments. Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
IV. Preserves the exact truth.But I turn to the far more delicate question as to why we do not seek re-union under present conditions with that great historic Church which undoubtedly shares with us the gifts of an unbroken tradition and Sacraments consecrated by duly ordained ministers. To quote Bishop Edward King, of Lincoln, the special function of the Anglican Communion is to preserve the exact truth. She much protests against any additions to, or subtractions from, the teaching of the Holy Scripture and the early and undivided Church. The Church of Rome appears to us to err in the use of authority in relation to the truth. The universal supremacy of a single see and the infallibility of an individual bishop are extreme instances of this. The ecclesiastical use of authority, in relation to individual conduct, seem to endanger the freedom of individual action. We wish people to say, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. I believe it would be difficult to state in clearer words the difference between the fatherly authority as given to the Church by the Anglican Communion and the authority as taught and practised in the Church of Rome.
V. Unworldliness.It must clearly and unmistakably and before all the world be unworldly itself. The mustard seed is planted in the earth, but it will never grow and expand and flourish without the light and air of Heaven. The greatest danger of the Church is worldliness. Only a Church whose weapons still are faith and hope and love and prayer can hope to win the world.
Bishop A. F. Winnington-Ingram.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Here are two objects: a very minute seed and a very large plant. The great golden lily of Japan comes from a bulb no larger than the apple. We may apply the parable to
I. The religion of Christ.Its beginning was very small. There were two disciples of John the Baptist, and one of the two brought another to Christ, and then Jesus finds Philip, and Philip finds Nathanael, and so the Kingdom grew.
II. Any Christian enterprise.Sometimes a tiny seed grows to a forest. There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon (Psa 72:16). A handful of corn becomes a mighty harvest.
III. The Divine life in the soul.How faint and feeble life may be! There is a child just taken out of the waterdrowned. She is thought by all bystanders to be dead; they all say, She is dead! And as the eyes do not see, as the ears do not hear, as the hearts beat cannot be felt, as the form is so still and ghastly, you might well suppose that life had flown. But, see! There is the faintest possible quiver of the lipso faint that none have seen it but that anguish-stricken, quick-eyed mother! Precious sign; it means life! So there may be in your soul just a little quiver, just a faint pulsation of love to Christ, just a dawning interest in things Divine. Do not think little of it. Count it, rather, inestimable treasure. It is a germ of infinite potentiality; it is the minute seed of life eternal.
Rev. F. Harper.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Chapter 29.
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
“And He said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.”-Mar 4:30-32.
Discouragement and Encouragement.
This, like the Parable of The Seed Growing Secretly is a parable of encouragement and good hope. There had been in the Parable of the Sower, as I have already pointed out, a great deal to discourage and depress. It seemed to suggest that of the seed sown in men’s hearts, three parts would be lost. For it records three cases of failure for one of success. And, according to Matthew’s account, the parable of the Sower had been followed by a more discouraging parable still, viz., the parable of the Tares. In addition to the perversity of the human heart, our Lord told His disciples that they had to reckon with an adversary who was just as tireless sowing the seeds of noxious weeds, as they were in sowing the good seed of the Kingdom. Between the parable of the Sower and the parable of the Tares I can well believe the disciples were sorely discouraged and depressed. They may have wondered whether it was worth while to sow the seed of the Kingdom at all. And so our Lord followed up those two parables about the difficulties and discouragements of Christian work, with these two about the encouragements and glorious results of it. First, the parable of the fruit-bearing earth, and the seed growing secretly. And secondly, this parable of the mustard seed, which from tiny beginnings developed and grew until it became greater than all the herbs in the garden, and almost attained to the dimensions of a tree.
The Main Lesson of the Parable.
The broad lesson of the parable is simple and obvious enough. It is that, as Dr. Hamilton puts it, of “a little germ and a large result, a small commencement and a conspicuous growth, an obscure and tiny granule followed by a vigorous vegetation, the least of all seeds becoming the greatest of all herbs.” It was meant to teach the disciples not to despise the day of small things. The Kingdom of God, as they now saw it, was so unlike their anticipations, and so insignificant in its appearance; there was such a difference between their Master-a humble carpenter from Nazareth-and the conquering Prince of their dreams, that they may well have been filled with gloomy anticipations. It may have been the “mustard seed” appearance of the Kingdom that made Judas turn traitor. So this parable was spoken to correct any doubts in their minds, and to give them the assurance of a mighty future, in spite of the small and obscure beginnings.
The Tiny Seed.
And now let us turn to the parable itself. Our Lord begins with fine oratorical tact, as Dr. Morison puts it, by asking a question. He invites His hearers to think of suitable similitudes. He invites them to let their minds play upon the subject. How shall we liken the Kingdom of God? He asked. Or in what parable shall we set it forth? And then, perhaps, He paused, as if waiting for a reply. I wonder what were the similitudes that suggested themselves to His hearers. If I had to guess, I should guess that they were all ambitious, grandiose, high-flown. For you must remember that these men had been brought up on the glowing imagery of the prophets. All their conceptions of the Kingdom they had derived from their impassioned pages. They would naturally and inevitably think, therefore, of those splendid pictures of Zion exalted on the tops of the mountains, and all the nations flowing into it (Isa 2:2); of that glorious city whose walls were Salvation and whose gates Praise, into which all nations poured their wealth, and to which the Kings of Sheba and Seba offered gifts (Psa. lxxii). It was some such majestic and ambitious picture as that, that presented itself to the disciples’ minds. Judge, therefore, of their surprise, very likely of their disappointed surprise-when, after a gentle pause, Jesus answered His own question, and said, “It is like a grain of mustard seed.” The disciples were thinking of something very great. Jesus Himself compared it to something very small. For the smallness of the mustard seed had passed into a proverb. It was indeed, as Jesus says Himself, “less than all the seeds” i.e., all the seeds in common use. And the Kingdom of God, Jesus says, is like that.
The Insignificant Beginnings of Christianity.
Now, what our Lord has in mind here is the insignificance of the historic beginnings of Christianity. And what really could be more insignificant? Think of Jesus Christ Himself-since, as Archbishop Trench says, He Himself is really the Mustard Seed, for from Him all subsequent developments of Church and Kingdom have issued. What could be lowlier, humbler, more insignificant, judged by men’s ordinary standards, than the career of Jesus? Growing up, as Trench says, in a distant and despised province; working in His town as an ordinary carpenter, He did not till His thirtieth year emerge from the bosom of His family. Then for two or three years He preached and taught in the neighbouring towns and villages, with occasional visits to Jerusalem; gathered about Him a small band of disciples, for the most part fisherfolk; and at length, falling into the hands of His enemies, with no resistance on His part or on that of His followers, died a malefactor’s death upon the Cross. What could have been more insignificant? The life and death of Jesus scarcely made a ripple in the life of the great world. Csar in his palace never heard His name, and probably would not have given a second thought to it, if he had heard it. The story of a Jewish provincial who had died a slave’s death would be regarded as quite beneath notice. The insignificance and humbleness of the whole movement which Christ initiated were, indeed, cast up as a reproach against Him. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?” (Joh 7:48) was the taunt flung at Him by unbelieving Jews. Here Christ quite freely and frankly admits that insignificance. There was nothing striking or obviously great about the Kingdom, as represented in Himself and His tiny band of disciples. “It is like a grain of mustard seed.”
Other Characteristics of the Seed.
Some commentators find a lesson in the fact that it is to the mustard seed Christ compares His Kingdom. Trench, for instance, thinks that our Lord chose the mustard seed not simply because of its tiny size, but also because of its heat and fiery vigour; and the fact that only through being bruised and broken does it give out its best virtues, all of which makes the mustard seed a fit type of the destinies of that Word of the Kingdom which centres in the preaching of Christ crucified-a Saviour who gave His body to be broken and His blood to be shed for us-a preaching which seemed to the Greek foolishness, and was to the Jew a stumbling-block, but which, as a matter of fact, proved itself to be the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Seed and its Growth.
But while such analogies may be true and helpful, I do not think they were in the mind of Christ when He uttered this parable. He had one single lesson which He wished to teach, and that was that very tiny beginnings might have great endings. Very likely the disciples were discouraged by the small show the Kingdom was making. They looked for thrones, and here they were a band of wandering preachers dependent on charity for support. Christ admits the insignificance; they were indeed but a “little flock,” but He lifts their eyes to the great and glorious future. “It is like unto a grain of mustard seed,” He said, but the mustard seed has this quality about it, that “when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches” (Mar 4:32, R.V.). Some people have felt that the grown mustard herb was too insignificant a figure to describe the majestic growth of the Kingdom. The great oak or the cedar of Lebanon, they feel, would have been a more fitting simile. But it is not so much the majesty of the Kingdom that Christ is emphasising here as the contrast between beginnings and endings, the difference between the seed and the product. And while the difference between the acorn and the oak is conspicuous enough, the difference between the mustard seed and the mustard herb is more striking still. For in the East, according to the testimony of travellers, the mustard will grow till it overtops a man on horseback. And that is the truth Christ wishes to drive home-great results may follow from tiny beginnings.
The Large Result.
Christ never had any fears about the future. The fewness and the poverty of His disciples never dismayed or daunted Him. The fact that His career was to end upon a cross did not stagger Him. He looked away from the discouraging, depressing, insignificant present to the great and glorious future. He knew that, in spite of seeming weakness and defeat, the future was His. He knew His disciples were but a “little flock,” few in numbers, almost beneath contempt in position and social influence, and yet He dared to say to them, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luk 12:32).
He knew that the cross was preparing for Himself, and yet, when thinking of it, it seemed to be transformed into a throne. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (Joh 12:32). And here He is bidding His disciples remember that from tiny and insignificant beginnings great results may flow; the seed, the least of seeds, may become a tree.
The “Great Tree” of To-day.
Has not our Lord’s prophecy come true? No movement had any more insignificant beginning-no movement has ever had more stupendous results. It is the “great tree” we see to-day. The Kingdom which began with Jesus and His handful of Galilean disciples, is now the mightiest force in the world. It has spread into every land. It numbers its subjects by the million. It differs from every earthly kingdom. They often make a great beginning, but come to a miserable and shameful end. Christ’s Kingdom came without observation, but it is advancing by steady and persistent growth to its glorious consummation. The mustard seed has become greater than all herbs. That is always the way with the Kingdom of God. Its beginning is always insignificant, but none can compute its results.
The Growth in the Individual.
It is so with the individual. The Word of the Kingdom drops into a man’s heart. There is perhaps but little immediate and striking outward change. The Word is like a mustard seed, promising but little, but if allowed to grow, what mighty results it will produce! It will transform a man’s whole life. It will affect all his activities. The Kingdom grows and grows until, body, soul and spirit, the man becomes the servant of King Jesus.
-And in the Community.
And as it is in the case of the individual so is it also in the case of communities, and perhaps it is this aspect of the growth of the Kingdom that is specially in Christ’s mind. Numbers of illustrations of this rapid and striking growth of the Kingdom suggest themselves. Thirteen hundred years ago Colomba and a dozen companions sailed from Ireland in a frail little skin-covered boat for Scotland. They landed in Iona, and built a tiny Christian temple there. That was the beginning of Christianity in Scotland. The Kingdom of God was a grain of mustard seed. But from Iona, Colomba and his companions went and preached to the dwellers on the mainland, to the Picts with their painted faces, to the Druids in their groves. And modern Scotland, with its innumerable houses of prayer and its widespread religion, is the result. The mustard seed has grown into the tree. Four hundred years ago the seed of the Gospel found a lodging in the heart of Martin Luther. It was a case of the mustard seed in those days, when Luther, a humble and unknown monk, travailed in soul. But from Martin Luther and his spiritual conflicts the Protestantism of half Europe and America and Australia has sprung. The grain of mustard seed has become a great tree. A hundred and fifty years ago John Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed,” in the little meeting-house in Aldersgate Street. The Kingdom of God in this case was like a grain of mustard seed. The great world never knew that anything extraordinary had happened. But from that experience sprang the great Evangelical Revival and the Methodist Church of to-day. The grain of mustard seed has become a great tree. A little over a hundred years ago William Carey’s soul was filled with concern about the heathen. He was a man of no great position and of little influence. Even his brother ministers poohed-poohed William Carey and his notion of converting the heathen. The Kingdom of God was like a grain of mustard seed. But from that passion in William Carey’s heart the whole modern mission enterprise has sprung. The Northampton cobbler poring over his map of the world, that is the grain of mustard seed. The noble army of missionaries who have gone forth to plant in every land the banner of the Cross, the immense and incalculable work of missions in well nigh every quarter of the globe, that is the great tree. I need not multiply examples. The little one, as Dr. Glover says, when it is Divine, always becomes a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon” (Psa 72:16).
A Message of Encouragement.
What an encouragement all this is! We have our depressing and discouraging times. We are almost in despair at the weakness and insignificance of our efforts. But we may share our Lord’s radiant faith. The future is ours! Despise not the day of small things. The Kingdom may be like the grain of mustard seed, but that tiny thing has life in it, indestructible life. The forces of evil cannot crush or destroy it. It will grow in spite of them. It will out-top and outlive them. “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” (Isa 9:7).
The Shelter of the Kingdom.
“And putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof” (Mar 4:32, R.V.). What are we to make of this sentence? Is it added merely for picturesque effect? Or did our Lord mean it to add something to our conception of the Kingdom? I believe He meant it to add something to our conception of the Kingdom. “It putteth out great branches,” He says, and I think we may, without being fanciful, see here a reference, shall I say to the collateral blessings and benefits of the Christian faith? The prime business of the Church is to witness to the Unseen, the Spiritual; religion is its central, concern. But the Church has continually put forth branches from the main stem; in addition to its purely religious function, the Church has started and still maintains all manner of philanthropic and social agencies. Very early it began to care for the sick, the poor and the orphan. A little later it made the education of the child its charge. To-day it is providing pure and healthy recreation for our young people in the large cities. Our hospitals and infirmaries, they are just a branch; our orphanages and homes, they are just a branch; our institutions and schools, they are just a branch; our Young Peoples’ Clubs and Y.M.C.A.’s are just a branch. All kinds of ameliorative and redemptive agencies owe their very existence to the Christian Church. As it has grown, it has put forth “great branches.”
-And its Rest.
“So that the birds of the heavens can lodge under the shadow thereof.” And that suggests to me the Kingdom, the Church of God as a place of rest. You remember that prophecy in Ezekiel about the tender twig which the Lord shall plant; it shall bring forth boughs, said the prophet, and bear fruit and be a goodly cedar and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing. “In the shadow of the branches thereof they shall dwell.” I think our Lord had a similar thought in his mind when He uttered these words. He thought of His Church as a shelter and rest. He thought of men flying to it for protection and peace. And such a shelter the Church has been. Read the records of the past, and you will see how in the past the Church has been the great bulwark against tyranny and oppression, and that quite literally the poor and friendless fled to it for protection. But in a still deeper sense is the Church a shelter to men. It is a shelter to the man who is oppressed and harassed by temptation. Think what a difference it would make to many a tempted soul if all the holy and restraining influences of Christianity were removed. Men and women who are sorely tried out in the world yonder are strengthened for duty by communion with God’s people. They find shelter in the tree. It is a shelter to men who are pursued by their sins. They come up to God’s house, they enter the fellowship of Christian people, and they hear of the cleansing blood of Christ, and their sins cease to pursue them. They are under the shelter of the Great Rock. I saw men not long ago, weary men, asleep in St. Paul’s Cathedral. They were evidently poor. They had probably been walking hither and thither looking for work, and there, tired out, they were asleep in the great cathedral. But there is a better rest than that, which men find in the Kingdom. “Come unto Me,” says Jesus, “all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28)-rest to the soul, perfect satisfaction; and I can see men coming from every part of the world seeking it. “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” (Isa 60:8). They are the many children of men seeking rest in the shadow of the tree. By her we shall be covered from the heat, and in her glory shall we dwell.
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
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These questions were asked to get the attention of the hearers.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THE parable of the mustard seed is one of those parables which partake of the character both of history and prophecy. It seems intended to illustrate the history of Christ’s visible church on earth, from the time of the first advent down to the judgment day. The seed cast into the earth, in the preceding parable, showed us the work of grace in a heart. The mustard seed shows us the progress of professing Christianity in the world..
We learn, in the first place, that, like the grain of mustard seed, Christ’s visible church was to be small and weak in its beginnings.
A grain of mustard seed was a proverbial expression among the Jews for something very small and insignificant. Our Lord calls it “less than all the seeds that be in the earth.” Twice in the Gospels we find our Lord using the figure as a word of comparison, when speaking of a weak faith. (Mat 17:20; Luk 17:6.) The idea was doubtless familiar to a Jewish mind, however strange it may sound to us. Here, as in other places, the Son of God shows us the wisdom of using language familiar to the minds of those whom we may address.
It would be difficult to find an emblem which more faithfully represents the history of the visible church of Christ than this grain of mustard seed.
Weakness and apparent insignificance were undoubtedly the characteristics of its beginning. How did its Head and King come into the world? He came as a feeble infant, born in a manger at Bethlehem, without riches, or armies, or attendants, or power.-Who were the men that the Head of the Church gathered round Himself, and appointed His apostles? They were poor and unlearned persons-fishermen, publicans, and men of like occupations, to all appearance the most unlikely people to shake the world.-What was the last public act of the earthly ministry of the great Head of the Church? He was crucified, like a malefactor, between two thieves, after having been forsaken by nearly all His disciples, betrayed by one, and denied by another.-What was the doctrine which the first builders of the Church went forth from the upper chamber in Jerusalem to preach to mankind? It was a doctrine which to the Jews was a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. It was a proclamation that the great Head of their new religion had been put to death on a cross, and that notwithstanding this, they offered life through His death to the world!-In all this the mind of man can perceive nothing but weakness and feebleness. Truly the emblem of a grain of mustard seed was verified and fulfilled to the very letter. To the eyes of man the beginning of the visible church was contemptible, insignificant, powerless, and small.
We learn, in the second place, that, like the mustard seed, the visible church, once planted, was to grow and greatly increase.
“The grain of mustard seed,” says our Lord, “when it is sown, groweth up and becometh greater than all herbs.” These words may sound startling to an English ear. We are not accustomed to such a growth in our cold northern climate. But to those who know eastern countries, there is nothing surprising in it. The testimony of well-informed and experienced travelers is distinct, that such an increase is both possible and probable. [Footnote: To show the size to which the mustard plant will grow in eastern countries, Lightfoot quotes the following passage from Rabbinical writers. “There was a stalk of mustard in Sichim, from which sprang out three boughs, one of which was broken off, and covered the tent of a potter, and produced three cabs of mustard.” Rabbi Simeon Ben Chalapta said, “a stalk of mustard seed was in my field, into which I was wont to climb, as men are wont to climb into a fig-tree.”
The enormous size to which the rhododendron, the heath, and the fern will grow, in some climates which suit them better than ours should be remembered by an English reader of this parable.]
No figure could be chosen more strikingly applicable to the growth and increase of Christ’s visible church in the world. It began to grow from the day of Pentecost, and grew with a rapidity, which nothing can account for but the finger of God. It grew wonderfully when three thousand souls were converted at once, and five thousand more in a few days afterwards. It grew wonderfully, when at Antioch, and Ephesus, and Philippi, and Corinth, and Rome, congregations were gathered together, and Christianity firmly established. It grew wonderfully, when at last the despised religion of Christ overspread the greater part of Europe, and Asia Minor, and North Africa, and, in spite of fierce persecution and opposition, supplanted heathen idolatry, and became the professed creed of the whole Roman empire. Such growth must have been marvelous in the eyes of many. But it was only what our Lord foretold in the parable before us. “The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed.”
The visible church of Christ is not yet done growing. Notwithstanding the melancholy apostasy of some of its branches, and the deplorable weakness of others, it is still extending and expanding over the world. New branches have continually been springing up in America, in India, in Australia, in Africa, in China, in the Islands of the South Seas, during the last fifty years. Evils undoubtedly there are many. False profession and corruption abound. But still, on the whole, heathenism is waning, wearing out, and melting away. In spite of all the predictions of Voltaire and Paine, in spite of foes without and treachery within, the visible church progresses-the mustard plant still grows.
And the prophecy, we may rest assured, is not yet exhausted. A day shall yet come, when the great Head of the church shall take to Himself His power, and reign, and put down every enemy under His feet. The earth shall yet be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea. (Hab 2:14.) Satan shall yet be bound. The heathen shall yet be our Lord’s inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth His possession. And then this parable shall receive its full accomplishment. The little seed shall become “a great tree,” and fill the whole earth. (Dan 4:11.)
Let us leave the parable with a resolution never to despise any movement or instrumentality in the church of Christ, because at first it was weak and small. Let us remember the manger of Bethlehem, and learn wisdom. The name of Him who lay there, a helpless infant, is now known all over the globe. The little seed which was planted in the day when Jesus was born, has become a great tree, and we ourselves are rejoicing under its shadow. Let it be a settled principle in our religion, never to “despise the day of small things.” (Zec 4:10.) One child may be the beginning of a flourishing school-one conversion the beginning of a mighty church-one word the beginning of some blessed Christian enterprise-one seed the beginning of a rich harvest of saved souls. [Footnote: It is fair to say that the view which I have adopted of the meaning of this parable, is not the view which is held by some interpreters.
Some think that the parable is intended to show the progress of the work of grace in the heart of an individual believer. I am not prepared to say that this may not have been in our Lord’s mind, in speaking the parable. I think it quite possible that the parable admits of a double interpretation; for the experience of a believer and the experience of the whole church, are much the same. My principal objection to this view is, that it does not appear to suit the language of the parable so well as that which I have maintained.
Some few interpreters think that the mustard seed signifies the principle of evil and corruption, and that the main object of the parable is to show how insidiously apostacy would begin in the church and how completely it would at last overgrow and fill the whole body. I own that I cannot for a moment see the soundness of this interpretation. To say nothing of other reasons, there seems an excessive harshness in this sense, when we consider the opening words of the parable, “Wherewith shall we liken the kingdom of God?” One would rather expect the question to have been “Wherewith shall we liken the kingdom of the devil?” if the whole parable is occupied with describing the progress of evil.
I confess that I think the meaning of “the fowls of the air,” is a point which admits of some question. Many think that it signifies the number of converts to Christianity, who, as the church increased, joined themselves to it, and came “as doves to the windows.” (Isa 60:8.) Some think that it signifies the number of worldly and false professors who joined the church from mere carnal motives, when it began to be great and prosperous, as in the days of Constantine. When we remember that the “fowls of the air,” in the parable of the sower (Mar 4:4-15), are declared by our Lord Himself to mean “Satan,” we must admit that there is considerable force in this interpretation.]
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Mar 4:30. How shall we liken? Opening a discussion with a question seems to have been a usual mode with Jewish teachers. Here our Lord graciously includes His disciples (we) who were also to teach about the kingdom of God,a hint that Christs way of teaching is still to be followed.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The design of our Saviour in this parable is to show how the gospel-church, from small and little, from unlikely and contemptible beginnings, should spread and increase, fructify and grow up, like as mustard-seed, one of the smallest of grains, grows up to a considerable tallness; even so Christ foretells that the gospel should spread and increase, nations and countries becoming Christians.
Hence learn, That how small beginnings so ever the gospel had in its first plantation, yet by the fructifying blessing of God it has had, and shall have a wonderful increase.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mar 4:30-34. Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, &c. See notes on Mat 13:31-32. He spake the word unto them as they were able to hear it Adapting it to the capacity of his hearers, and speaking as plainly as he could without offending them. A rule never to be forgotten by those who instruct others. But without a parable, &c. See note on Mat 13:34-35.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LIV.
THE FIRST GREAT GROUP OF PARABLES.
(Beside the Sea of Galilee.)
Subdivision E.
PARABLES OF THE MUSTARD SEED AND LEAVEN.
aMATT. XIII. 31-35; bMARK IV. 30-34.
a31 Another parable set he before them, saying, b30 And he said, How shall we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth? [These questions are intended to emphasize the superior excellence of the kingdom.] 31 It aThe kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: ba grain of mustard seed, which, [337] when it is sown upon the earth, though aindeed bit be {ais} bless than all the seeds that are upon the earth [that is, the smallest of all the seeds that are sown in a garden], abut b32 yet when it is sown, groweth up, and awhen it is grown, it is {bbecometh} greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; aand becometh a tree [in Palestine it attains the height of ten feet], so that the birds of the heaven come and bcan lodge under the shadow thereof. ain the branches thereof. [This parable sets forth the smallness of the beginning of the kingdom, and the magnitude of its growth.] 33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened. [In Oriental housekeeping, yeast is not preserved in a separate form. A piece of leavened dough saved over from the last baking is added to the new dough to ferment it. Three measures contained the quantity usually taken for one baking. Leaven represents the quickness, quietness, thoroughness, and sureness with which gospel truth diffuses itself through human society. A woman is named because baking was part of her household duty.] 34 All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; b33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it [that is, as they had leisure or opportunity to listen]; 34 and without a parable spake he not {anothing} unto them [that is, he used nothing but parables on that occasion, for both before and after this he taught without parables]: 35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet [at Psa 78:2 which is usually attributed to Asaph, who is called a seer ( 2Ch 29:30). His teaching typified that of Christ], saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. [Jesus fulfilled this prophecy in a notable manner, being the only teacher in history distinguished in any marked degree by the use of parables.] bbut privately to his own disciples he expounded all things. [338]
[FFG 337-338]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED
Mat 13:31-32, & Mar 4:30-32. And He said, To what must we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable may we expound it? It is like a grain of mustard, which, when it may be sown upon the earth, is the smallest of seeds which are upon the earth, and when it may be sown and becomes greater than all the herbs, and produces great branches, so that the fowls of the air are able to lodge under its shadow. Mark says, And when it may grow up, it is the greatest of herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the fowls of the air come and lodge in its branches. Our Savior was speaking on the bank of the Galilean Sea, near Capernaum, where the mustard plant grows spontaneously, very numerous, and quite large, high as a mans head, with spreading branches, so as to shade the birds, as Mark says, or even bear some of them on its branches. As it is designated an herb, it is highly probable that was the mustard to which our Savior made the allusion. The dragomen who escorted us in that country gave it as their opinion that the herb was really the mustard here used to symbolize the kingdom. It is also a matter of fact that there is a tree in Palestine called mustard, from the pungency of the seed, imparting a burning sensation when taken into the mouth, and thus resembling the mustard plant. This tree grows up about thirty feet high, spreading out its branches very copiously, and thus fulfilling the description with reference to the lodgment of the aerial tribes. You will find specimens of this tree at the Fountain Engedi, at the southern terminus of the Dead Sea. (Eze 47:12.) In the Parable of the Sower, which is a part of this same sermon, you see the fowls gathering up the seed sown by the wayside emblematized devils. We see no reason why we should change the application in this parable. While the kingdom of grace, originating in a community from the smallest beginning, will gradually spread throughout the whole country. Fifteen hundred years ago, St. Patrick was carried by kidnapers into Ireland, and sold into slavery, quite in his boyhood. This godly youth preached the gospel, which spread over the entire island. You know how corrupt, superstitious, and priest-ridden Romanism has blighted that country a thousand years. Can you not see how the filthy, destructive fowls of the air-i.e., the demons from the bottomless pit–came and took possession of the gospel-tree, lodging in its branches and devouring the fruit? The gospel is rapidly spreading throughout the whole earth. Yet if you will follow in its track, you will see the air darkened by the black wing of the ravens, devouring the fruit, and polluting the tree by their contaminating touch. The great Churches of the Old World, which numerically throw Protestant America into eclipse, have long ceased to show up a trace of spirituality, having apparently degenerated to the level of mere politico-ecclesiastical institutions.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 30
And he said; that is, afterwards and perhaps on some different occasion. There was often a wide interval, in fact, between conversations which appear in juxtaposition in the narrative.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: 32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
The Lord continues in his declaration via another illustration. The kingdom of God is like a small seed planted that grows to give forth great benefit. The kingdom seed was planted when the Lord shed His blood for our sins. The great benefit has been going on for centuries, but will have a culmination when all will see the grand kingdom set up in the Millennium when all mankind will fall under the rule of God on earth.
There is great discussion about the validity of the science behind the mustard seed being the smallest and it being able to produce a tree. The Life Application Bible New Testament Commentary may shed light on this discussion. Some suggest that there are smaller seeds than the mustard seed, though the writers of this commentary specify that this was the smallest seed a farmer would use. They tell us that it takes 12,000 mustard seeds to make an ounce of seed. Truly small seeds.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
4:30 {5} And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
(5) God uses a method that men never do, beginning with the least and ending with the greatest.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The parable of the mustard seed 4:30-32 (cf. Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19)
The third and last parable that Mark recorded Jesus giving to the multitudes stressed the contrast between the kingdom’s insignificant beginnings and its final impressively large size. When Jesus came declaring that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, He began preparations for the inauguration of the kingdom. He planted the seed. That beginning was a very inauspicious one. Even though Jesus had a popular following, He had few disciples who followed Him faithfully. Nonetheless this parable assured the multitudes that the kingdom would one day be impressively large. The Old Testament predicted that it would cover the earth and incorporate Gentiles as well as Jews (Psalms 2; Eze 17:22-24; Eze 31:6; Dan 4:12; et al.). The final form of the kingdom is at the end of the kingdom, not at its beginning when Jesus comes at His second coming to begin it. The parable describes the kingdom, not the church (all genuine Christians) and not Christendom (all professing Christians).
The beginnings of the kingdom were small and discouraging. Jesus experienced rejection and left this world as an apparent failure. Nevertheless God will eventually establish the kingdom that the Old Testament prophets and Jesus predicted as a worldwide organization that will dominate all aspects of life. This hope encourages believers, especially believers who are suffering for their faith. We can press on knowing that our labor in spreading the gospel is not in vain.
"The example of the mustard seed should prevent us from judging the significance of results by the size of the beginnings." [Note: Nineham, p. 144.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER 4:30-34 (Mar 4:30-34)
THE MUSTARD SEED
“And He said, How shall we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds that are upon the earth, yet when it is sown, groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof. And with many such parables spake He the word unto them, as they were able to hear it: and without a parable spake He not unto them: but privately to His own disciples He expounded all things.” Mar 4:30-34 (R.V.)
ST. Mark has recorded one other parable of this great cycle. Jesus now invites the disciples to let their own minds play upon the subject. Each is to ask himself a question: How shall we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth?
A gentle pause, time for them to form some splendid and ambitious image in their minds, and then we can suppose with what surprise they heard His own answer, “It is like a grain of mustard seed.” And truly some Christians of a late day might be astonished also, if they could call up a fair image of their own conceptions of the kingdom of God, and compare it with this figure, employed by Jesus.
But here one must observe a peculiarity in our Savior’s use of images. His illustrations of His first coming, and of His work of grace, which are many, are all of the homeliest kind. He is a shepherd who seeks one sheep. He is not an eagle that fluttereth over her young and beareth them on her pinions, but a hen who gathereth her chickens under her wings. Never once does He rise into that high and poetic strain with which His followers have loved to sing of the Star of Bethlehem, and which Isaiah lavished beforehand upon the birth of the Prince of Peace. There is no language more intensely concentrated and glowing than He has employed to describe the judgment of the hypocrites who rejected Him, of Jerusalem, and of the world at last. But when He speaks of His first coming and its effects, it is not of that sunrise to which all kings and nations shall hasten, but of a little grain of mustard seed, which is to become “greater than all the herbs,” and put forth great branches, “so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow of them.” When one thinks of such an image for such an event, of the founding of the kingdom of God, and its advance to universal supremacy, represented by the small seed of a shrub which grows to the height of a tree, and even harbors birds, he is conscious almost of incongruity. But when one reconsiders it, he is filled with awe and reverence. For this exactly expresses the way of thinking natural to One who has stooped immeasurably down to the task which all others feel to be so lofty. There is a poem of Shelley, which expresses the relative greatness of three spirits by the less and less value which they set on the splendors of the material heavens. To the first they are a palace-roof of golden lights, to the second but the mind’s first chamber, to the last only drops which Nature’s mighty heart drives through thinnest veins. Now that which was to Isaiah the exalting of every valley and the bringing low of every mountain, and to Daniel the overthrow of a mighty image whose aspect was terrible, by a stone cut out without hands, was to Jesus but the sowing of a grain of mustard seed. Could any other have spoken thus of the founding of the kingdom of God? An enthusiast over-values his work, he can think of nothing else; and he expects immediate revolutions. Jesus was keenly aware that His work in itself was very small, no more than the sowing of a seed, and even of the least, popularly speaking, among all seeds. Clearly He did not overrate the apparent effect of His work on earth. And indeed, what germ of religious teaching could be less promising than the doctrine of the cross, held by a few peasants in a despised province of a nation already subjugated and soon to be overwhelmed?
The image expresses more than the feeble beginning and victorious issue of His work, more than even the gradual and logical process by which this final triumph should be attained. All this we found in the preceding parable. But here the emphasis is laid on the development of Christ’s influence in unexpected spheres. Unlike other herbs, the mustard in Eastern climates does grow into a tree, shoot out great branches from the main stem, and give shelter to the birds of the air. So has the Christian faith developed ever new collateral agencies, charitable, educations, and social: so have architecture, music, literature, flourished under its shade, and there is not one truly human interest which would not be deprived of its best shelter if the rod of Jesse were hewn down. Nay, we may urge that the Church itself has become the most potent force in directions not its own: it broke the chains of the Negro; it asserts the rights of woman and of the poor; its noble literature is finding a response in the breast of a hundred degraded races; the herb has become a tree.
And so in the life of individuals, if the seed be allowed its due scope and place to grow, it give shelter and blessing to whatsoever things are honest and lovely, not only if there be any virtue, bur also if there be any praise.
Well is it with the nation, and well with the soul, when the faith of Jesus is not rigidly restricted to a prescribed sphere, when the leaves which are for the healing of the nations cast their shadow broad and cool over all the spaces in which all its birds of song are nestling.
A remarkable assertion is added. Although the parabolic mode of teaching was adopted in judgment, yet its severe effect was confined within the narrowest limits. His many parable were spoken “as they were able to hear,” but only to His own disciples privately was all their meaning expounded.