Small but Mighty
Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches. Matthew 13:32
When Jesus began His ministry, He said, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Although He didn’t establish the kingdom in its fullest, His presence, His teachings, and His miracles inaugurated a tiny portion of it.
Just as the tiny mustard seed grows into a small tree-like plant, so the kingdom Jesus brought to
earth has grown and spread. No, it doesn’t fill the world—not all people have become His followers—but the gospel of the kingdom has been preached throughout the world and continues to be preached thousands of years later.
“The Mustard Seed,” the third parable of Matthew 13, follows “The Sower,” in which most of the soils receiving the seed were unproductive. Moreover, the yield of the good soil produced a decreasing crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown (13:8). But the crop continued. Likewise, God has preserved a remnant faithful to Him.
“The Tares,” the second parable of Matthew 13, declared that the evil planting of the tares by the devil and the good wheat sown by the sower would grow together until the harvest (13:30). That is the situation of the kingdom of heaven on earth in its present form: the good growing together with the bad.
Our faith had tiny beginnings like the mustard seed, and our walk with the Lord contains tares. We won’t be sinless in this life; we’ll still struggle with our old nature. Nevertheless, Jesus said that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move a mountain (Matthew 17:20). Paul said, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
The growth of our faith, invisible at first, manifests itself in our changed lives and in the fruit we bear (Galatians 5:22-23). As we nurture and feed our faith on the Word of God, it matures and grows like a tree rooted firmly in the ground with spreading branches that God uses to bless others through us.
Are you nurturing your faith? Ready to move a mountain?
DIG DEEPER:
Read 1 Corinthians 1:25-29. How are these verses encouragement when you feel tiny and weak?
Read Luke 13:18-19. Where does Luke’s version of this parable say the seed was sown? What might he have had in mind? Would you want a tree growing in your vegetable garden? What problems might it cause?
In Luke 13:23-30 what was Jesus’s response to a question about the number who will be saved?
Nancy Baker
This devotion is part of a series, The Parables.