<p>13:32&nbsp;<em>Which indeed is smaller than all seeds- &nbsp;</em>Gk.&nbsp;<em>mikros</em>, the tiniest, the least. Mark adds that it was the tiniest of all seeds&nbsp;<em>in the earth</em>&nbsp;(Mk. 4:31). It was the tiniest seed known in the land- and the term often refers to the land promised to Abraham. It was the tiniest imaginable seed. And it would grow into the greatest imaginable tree. The point has been made that orchid and other seeds are actually smaller than mustard seeds (H. N. Moldenke and A.L. Moldenke,&nbsp;<em>Plants of the Bible</em>&nbsp;(Waltham, Mass.: Chronica Botanica Company, 1952) p.61). But the Bible is written from the perspective of its original hearers, it never claims to present global scientific truth, and the mustard seed was the smallest seed known to the Lord&rsquo;s audience.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>But when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree</em>- Not &lsquo;grows into&rsquo; a tree. The tiniest seed was only supposed to grow into a bush, but this unusual seed &lsquo;became&rsquo; a tree,&nbsp;<em>ginomai</em>&nbsp;carrying the sense of being &lsquo;caused to become&rsquo;. This was another element of the unreal- a shrub became a tree. It is AV &quot;The greatest&quot;; but the mustard bush is not the greatest herb and it is far from the tallest tree. The emphasis is on the word &ldquo;it&rdquo;- when&nbsp;<em>this&nbsp;</em>particular tiny seed grows&hellip; The point is that this particular tiny seed had extraordinary growth. This on one hand speaks of the amazing growth experienced by the believer from the apparently tiny beginnings of the Gospel. And yet the specific language of&nbsp;<em>the greatest</em>&nbsp;suggests the entire parable may refer to the Lord Jesus, the ultimate seed, tiny and despised, yet who grew to become the Kingdom of God under whose branches the Gentile world would find blessing. For 'the Kingdom' was a legitimate title for Jesus, the King of the Kingdom who embodied it in His very person (Lk. 17:21). If here the Lord (as elsewhere) is speaking parables to and about Himself, it would in this context be in encouraging others as to the huge extent of growth possible. For Jesus is the parade example of how something which began so small- an egg within the womb of a barefoot unmarried teenager- could become so great.</p>
<p><em>So that the birds of the sky come and lodge in its branches-</em>&nbsp;Mark records that the Lord emphasized that the branches were &quot;great&quot;,&nbsp;<em>megas</em>&nbsp;(Mk. 4:32). The&nbsp;<em>mikro</em>&nbsp;seed became&nbsp;<em>mega</em>; but the greatness of the tree was because of the greatness of the individual branches. A mustard bush doesn't have 'great' branches, but in this unreal story, it does have them. According to the Lord's parable of Jn. 15:5, the branches represented the disciples: &quot;I am the vine, you are the branches&quot;. The total greatness of the Lord Jesus depends to some extent upon the degree to which we grow into great branches. The disciples were depressed at the lack of response to their message, and the failure of John's ministry in first century Palestine. The Lord is encouraging them personally that from their&nbsp;<em>mikro</em>, tiny beginnings, they would become great branches, and be able to provide shelter for the birds of the Gentiles; although the &quot;birds&quot; in the earlier parable of the sower were representative of the Jewish religious leaders. When the disciples later baptized priests and Pharisees, the Lord's ambitious vision began to come true.<br />
There are a number of insights throughout the parables into how the Lord perceived His future Kingdom. Significantly, His emphasis in the parables of the Kingdom is upon our spiritual status then, rather than on the physical wonders which His reign will bring on the earth. He&nbsp;foresaw how although our faith is so puny now, as a mustard seed, we will be those who will be as a solid tree, a real place of refuge, to the nations of the Millennium (Mt. 13:31,32 = Ez. 17:23,24).&nbsp;</p>