The mustard seed, according to Pliny the elder, was the most invasive of all garden plants. It wasn’t illegal, as some would lead us to believe, but certainly not popular. It could get over walls, into neighbouring fields…and just about everywhere. Once in, you couldn’t get it out. This parable of the mustard seed illustration is to show the invasive properties of this seed…
When Jesus spoke of the mustard seed that grew into a plant so large that the birds could nest being like the kingdom of heaven, I think that we happily get a feeling of something like an apple tree, all nicely pruned. No, the reality of the plant Jesus spoke of was a huge plant that had runners going off everywhere that you couldn’t get out no matter how hard you tried.
It was a nuisance that benefitted God’s creation. How could it do that? Cross reference into the idea of the mustard seed that the birds of the air are completely looked after by God, in which case why should we, who God cares about even more than birds, have any worries. So the kingdom of heaven is invasive and is evidence of God’s caring.
Which would you rather be part of: a nice little pruned tree…or radical invasive part of God’s provision for the whole of his creation.
I know which I am going for!
