A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED

The first two parables of ‘the kingdom of the heavens’ picture its commencement and course, using figures of sowing and reap­ing. The third and fourth are likewise linked, and depict its development and corruption. The third parable portrays princi­pally the Pergamos era of church history, Rev. 3. 12. In the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries, following the Emperor after Constantine, Christianity became the state religion. Small churches became a mighty organisation under a human pope. The ‘mustard seed’, ‘the sower’, 13. 3, and ‘the householder’ and ‘the vineyard’, 21. 33, are key parables, occurring in all three synoptic gospels.

In contrast to the sower’s multiple seeds and plants, here there is but one ‘grain of mustard seed’ which a man, Christ, ‘took and sowed in his field’, ‘cast into his garden’, Luke 13. 19. It speaks of faith, the foundation principle of the mystical ‘king­dom of the heavens’. Our Lord likens the faith of His followers to ‘a grain of mustard seed’, which, however miniscule, would have mountain-moving power, Matt. 17. 20.

This particular mustard seed, however, when sown, under­goes monstrous development to become ‘greatest among herbs’, ‘waxed a great tree’, Luke 13. 19, shooting out ‘great branches’, lodging birds and providing shelter ‘under its shadow’, Mark 4. 32. Monster trees harbouring birds and wildlife, representing nations, had formerly pictured Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Sennacherib of Assyria, and Pharaoh of Egypt, Dan. 4. 10; Ezek. 31. All three were felled by God because of their vaunting impe­rialism. Modern Christendom is like this large tree with its roots in the earth. The tiny seed hidden in the soil has become a vast, visible, organised, lauded, tree of secular power and glory. Into the invisible grain of faith has been grafted Christendom’s gos­pel of good works. Instead of mustard’s pungency and practicality, there is the blandness and banality of a large- branched, but fruitless tree. Instead of germinal unity and exclu­sivity, there is ecumenicalism, accommodating every heretical opinion and ‘birds’ representing Satanic influences, 13. 19. So, this parable tells not of the all-conquering power of the gospel, but of the progressive corruption of the kingdom.