If you Google "parable of the mustard seed" I guarantee you that most of the articles you will find on this subject will tell you that the mustard seed is the kingdom of God and that it is good. I've always looked at this parable (as well as the one about the woman hiding leaven in the fellowship offering--3 measures of meal) as something not quite right in the kingdom of God.
Arthur Pink's interpretation makes a whole lot of sense to me:
Excerpt:
First, it must be steadily borne in mind that these seven parables form part of one connected and complete discourse whose teaching must necessarily be consistent and harmonious throughout. Therefore, it is obvious that this third (parable) one cannot conflict with the teaching of the first two (parables). In the first parable, instead of drawing a picture of a field in which the good Seed took root and flourished in every part of it, our Lord pointed out that most of its soil was unfavorable, and that only a fractional proportion bore an increase. Moreover, instead of promising that the good-ground section of the field would yield greater and greater returns, He announced that there would be a decreasing harvest—"some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.’’ In the second parable, our Lord revealed the field as over-sown with "tares," and declared that these should continue until the harvest-time, which He defined as "the end of the age." This fixes beyond all doubt the evil consequences of the Enemy’s work, and positively forbids the expectation of a world won to Christ during this present dispensation, Christ plainly warned us that the evil effects of the Devil’s labors at the beginning of the age would never be repaired. The crop as a whole is spoiled! Thus this third parable cannot teach that the failure of things in the hands of men will be removed and reversed.
Second, the figure here selected by Christ should at once expose the fallacy of the popular interpretation. Surely our Lord would never have taken a mustard-seed. which afterwards became a "tree," ever rooting itself deeper and deeper in the earth, to portray that people whose calling, hope, citizenship, and destiny is heavenly. Again and again He affirmed that His people were "not of the world." Again, a great tree with its towering branches speaks of prominence and loftiness, but lowliness and suffering, not prominence and exaltation, are the present portion of the New Testament saints. The more any church of Christ climbs the ladder of worldly fame the more it sinks spiritually. That which is represented by this "tree" is not a people who are "strangers and pilgrims" down here, but a system whose roots lie deeply in the earth and which aims at greatness and expansion in the world.
link to this article on the parable of the mustard seed
Link to the entire book on Arthur Pinks Exposition of Jesus's Kingdom Parables
Hi Susan, I like Arthur Pink's explanations, I think this one's especially sound.
ReplyDeleteHi Musemater,
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's expositing scripture with scripture.
Most pastors also make the leaven hidden in 3 measures of meal to be a good thing, but all through scripture leaven is symbolic of sin, and 3 measures of meal was the OT fellowship offering...a woman hiding sin in the fellowship offering? Good? I don't think so.
But it proves that it is God's goodness, not ours, which we need to shine before the world. If we try to make it about our goodness, it is a false front, a facade, and a fraud, and the wrong focus.