Bible Studies

A new look at the old mustard seed

by Douglas Eckert
10/07/16
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A new look at that old mustard seed-

I've heard a few Bible teachers and pastors recently say that the commonly held beliefs about many of Jesus' parables, including the "mustard seed" parable in this instance, in Mark chapter 4, is not really all that correct. So I thought I'd look into this idea.

I'm glad that I did.

In the mustard seed parable, is Jesus really giving us all a warning of what the church can grow up to become?

It's all right there in Jesus' own words. He even says "consider very carefully my words".

Jesus gives us His (the correct) interpretation of His parable (Now how awesome is that?) and then basically goes on to say in essence "you can apply this interpretation to ALL pertinent parables" when He says in Mark 4:13 NIV:

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?

He then goes on to illustrate through the parable that it is ALL about the understanding, application and acceptance of "The Word" (which is Him... The Way, the TRUTH and the Life)

In his interpretation of His earlier "sower and the seeds" parable,
He goes on to say that
birds in the parable represent Satan:

Mark 4:14-15 NIV
The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

After His interpretation and breakdown of the parable, He then goes into a "seemingly" strange and unrelated area when He talks about the lampstand :

Mark 4: 14-23 NIV
He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

This passage is NOT about shining the light of God's love as seems the common thought. In its context it is totally about understanding and the exposing of truth (exposing things that are hidden in the darkness...or lies.)

He even then goes on to talk about our understanding, and not material wealth when He says in verses 24-25 NIV:

“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” This is obviously referring to understanding and not any kind of material things.

So then to apply Jesus' own interpretation to the next parable he gives he says:

Mark 4:30-32 NIV:

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

Now, what did Jesus JUST tell us in His own interpretation, what birds are in His parable? that's right ...Satan. And what is this bird doing in this parable? Why... he is perching in the big branches of the mustard plant's shade. Now WHAT did Jesus also just tell us about light and darkness (shade) according to the lampstand parable? hmmmm..... very interesting.

A very established and accepted idea of what this "kingdom of God like" mustard seed represents in Jesus' parable is "the Church".
Here's a great article illustrating this idea:

http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/mark/4_30-34.htm

Now looking at this parable:
with the perched bird sitting in the "shade" of the church... as I said before, is this maybe Jesus issuing a warning to the church?

My own experiences, some quite unbelievably painful and illustrative of the "perched bird (Satan) sitting in the shade", and then coupling THAT idea with the very observable to all of us, present state of much of the modern church; I'd say it most definitely was a warning.

Given the hermeneutical viewpoint that every single word in the Bible is there for a very specific reason, there IS much more to the verse than just the simple and innocuous seeming idea of "A bird simply doing what a bird does...gloriously perched in the plant's shade". (Thus I am now struck with the parallel idea of "Satan just doing what Satan does...")