Wednesday, August
2, 2017
Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the
ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but
it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds
can make nests in its shade.” Jesus used
many similar stories and illustrations to teach the people as much as they
could understand. In fact, in his public
ministry he never taught without using parables; but afterward, when he was
alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them. Mark 4:30-34(NLT)
Even the
universe was tiny at one time. The big bang theory suggests[ii]
that part of the universe we know, with all the planets, stars and other
heavenly bodies, was merely the size of an atom before God said to it: Get
a move-on! Then the explosion
began and, scientists tell us, the cosmos has been expanding ever since at the
rate of about 41 miles per second. So
the universe gets bigger by the length of about 700 football fields laid end to
end every time you draw a breath.
Scientific string theory was not yet
common knowledge when Jesus taught his disciples about the Kingdom; I’m glad…I
think I can understand a mustard seed growing into a shade tree with bird’s
nests…I think!
If you
noticed the (almost) throwaway line at the end of Mark’s text, you see that
Jesus explained everything
to the disciples at the end of the day when they were alone. I’m glad the disciples were like me, with
Jesus having to draw pictures so they’d understand. To tell you the truth, my mind hurts when I
go deeper into theories and systems.
Elizabeth and I watched a mini-series on the life of Albert Einstein
this spring; even that TV show badgered my sensibilities with the complicated dialogue
of physicists throwing technical terms and concepts back and forth at each
other like intelligence missiles.
So…keeping
it simple (like Jesus did)…the mustard seed is also very small. It also grows really fast, and really big –
big enough for a bird to build a nest.
If the
Kingdom of God is like that, we can begin to understand why, from a small
gathering of Jesus-followers in an upper room there blossomed a church of
3,000+ on the Day of Pentecost, and it spread all over the East and West, until
the Gospel is now being preached in every corner of the world.
That’s the
promise of the parable.
For You Today
If
the soil receives a mustard seed, it will turn into a tree; a really big tree.
If a
human being embraces the Kingdom of God within the soil of his own life, think
what growth can take place like an atom exploding to become a universe!
NOTES
