All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Let us consider the mustard seed.
Let us consider the mustard seed.
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matt 17:20
31 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom from heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field. 32 Although it is the smallest of all seeds, when it is fully grown it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, and the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.” Matt 13:13:31-32
I have heard many ideas about the mustard seed, in my past. As I read these words today I see something else. No matter the size of a mustard seed, it has a job and purpose to do. How many times have we thought we are not “big” enough to do this or that? Yet, the mustard seed does not consider such things. It is only a seed and it will do what a seed is designed to do. It will not waste time with excuses, on how it is not able to do this or that. It longs only to be planted so it can fulfill what it is made to do.
Is Faith all that different? We are told to believe in The Word of God. Where the seed is different is, it has no outside influence try to deceive it’s very nature. We do. We have many outside influences working hard to convince us we are not who we are. We do not have enough Faith; we do not have enough knowledge, on and on. Yet, the seed is single minded. It only knows it’s purpose, and will do everything in it’s power to fulfill it’s design. Are not these very things the tools we require, to be successful in our life of Faith? Are these at least in part, the Words Jesus is telling us? To believe in who are what we are in Christ. Are we to believe the Faith inside of us, is big enough to fulfill what we have been called to do? Is single mindness the Power of the mustard seed?
Views: 379
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Colby on
-
Chris - Thanks for sharing your keen insight into faith and how it ties into Jesus' parable of the mustard seed as well as for raising several excellent questions for us to ponder. Here is the meaning that I unpack from this discussion.Faith is never a finished product, it is constantly being shaped and molded, refined and polished, faith is an ever growing process; as our faith grows and increases, so we grow and increase in God’s love.
Jesus compares the coming of God’s kingdom to the growth of a mustard seed into a tree. Jesus says, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree” (Luke 13:18-19).
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says that “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would spout and grow, and he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk ,then the head, then full grain in the head” (Mark 4:26-28).Obviously, Jesus is referring to the seed as a metaphor. What did he intend by it? In things like the mustard seed and yeast, we something that is very small and yet has a huge impact and creates something magnificent.I find in the parable of the secretly growing seeds an invitation to wonder about a central question of our faith: what is of our doing and what is of God’s? What impact does our knowledge, our understanding have when God is at work? And ultimately, what is our relationship with this God, what is the arc of the curve in which we find ourselves?In looking at the story, I think we are being told that the Kingdom of God is exactly that, the Kingdom of God… A place we are invited to know but not define.This parable both chastens and encourages us. Chastens us because we are obviously not the key player, as proud and accomplished and wise and good as we may be, we do not make the seeds grow. The growth occurs entirely independent of human effort. It is a gift to us. We may build our nations and our towers and our monuments to ourselves, but the seed carries the future of life in its core. The seed is not ours (it is God's gift to us), we do not make it grow. This is a deeply humbling reality.And yet, the parable also encourages us. Encourages us because we are not absent from the picture, encourages us because we can be sowers of the seed, and encourages us primarily because we are to be the beneficiaries of the harvest. The seed is growing for us (sanctification). Paul said, "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns" (Philippians 1:6). We are present to marvel at the mysterious growth and to feed on the ripe grain. It is God’s kingdom, God’s power, God’s creation, but as God’s people we are invited to be active part of its bountiful life.
-
Permalink Reply by a servant (Chris) on
-
Colby
True only God makes things grow. Yet, here the seed only knows to grow, it is it's nature. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Rom 8:5 We also have our nature. As we set our minds on the things of the Spirit, we put ourselves in the position for God to cause us to go Grow. The seed only knows and only does what it's nature leads it to do. However, in our spiritual nature, faith causes us to wait eagerly for the confidence that comes with God's approval. Gal 5:5 So as we look at the seed and it's single mindedness, in Faith and through Faith we gain all and so much more than we could have thought. As in Blessings that over flow, etc.. To consider the seed, and it's complete obedience to it's nature. We are told in Rom 8:5 , Gal 5:5, and so many more places, to obey our Spiritual nature. All to The Glory of The Lord, don't you think?
-
-
Chris, you said it very well: "All to the glory of the Lord."
The hope that we share as Christians is that which Paul summarizes so succinctly and beautifully in Galatians 5:5. To be empowered by a faith that enables us to live in the certainty of the newness and fullness of life in Christ and to await both his coming again in glory and the completion of God's plan for the world.
-
Permalink Reply by JB on
-
Chris, you are referring to the Word of God as being the seed, and our hearts as being the field the seed is being sown in; aren’t we?
JB
-
-
JB
"Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed..." “The kingdom from heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field." In these two examples I am referring to the seed as Jesus has done here. The idea and view point of looking at the seed seemed to hit me the other day. Just that in these examples, as we see the seed only knowing and thinking of it success Lord Willing to grow into a mighty tree.
And yes Colby as in Gal 5:5 and Rom 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. And, so we await with Joy and Confidence for our coming Glory.
-
-
"For you have been born again,
not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,
through the living and enduring word of God."
(1 Peter 1:23)
-
Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
-
Luk 13:18-19 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? (19) It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
-
-
I like Jesus' parables.
In this case, is Jesus a farmer? Is he trying to teach us something about farming and cultivation practices?
The beauty of parables is that they are simple stories that illustrate important ideas about the kingdom of God. As allegories, they use characters and stories to explain abstract ideas and evoke deep symbolism. When we read or hear them, we are called to ponder the allegorical parable's deeper meaning.
So is Jesus a farmer? In a certain real sense, yes! By his life, death and resurrection, he sowed the seeds of grace in us. He is the farmer caring for and cultivating these seeds, and preparing us for an abundant harvest.
Thank you, Chris, for raising some thoughtful questions and for helping us unpack the deeper meaning of this parable.
-
Permalink Reply by Amanda on
-
I was just thinking about John 1:1 and verse 14, too.
What if the seed is Jesus?
-
-
*/Jesus as The Word or Logos /*
Jesus tells us in the parable that the seed is "the word of God" (Luke 8:11). "Word" is how the New Testament Greek term "logos" has been translated into English. [See Interlinear Bible] However, "word" doesn't begin to do justice in conveying the meaning of "logos."
"Logos," in the Bible, means the eternal wisdom or thoughts of God; also, in certain instances, a revelation and personification of God. Paul wrote that "Christ is God's power and God's wisdom" (1Cor1:24). God has revealed himself and his plan of salvation and speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures, which we call the "word of God."
For example, in these verses we read about "the word of God" or "logos" spreading or multiplying due to the Holy Spirit led missionary work of Christ's disciples: Acts 6:7, Acts 12:24, and Romans 9:6. In 2 Timothy 2:5, Paul instructs Timothy in rightly handling the "logos" or "word of truth." James 1:22 calls on believers to be "doers of the word."
Further, as Amanda's response implies, "Logos" or "The Word" can refer to the personification of God. "The Word" or "Logos" is the same term used in the John's Gospel (1:1,14) and 1 John 5:7 [KJV] to describe an eternal divine person: Jesus himself. Jesus Christ is God revealed to us, in the incarnation, as both fully human and fully divine.
A more thoughtful treatment is provided in the ISBE entry for "logos."
See also Got Questions.Org: Question: "What do John 1:1,14 mean when they declare that Jesus is the Word of God?"
-
-
The Written Word and the Living Word.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]” John 3:3, NIV.
"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6, NIV).
1 John 3:9 mentions the "seed" that remains in us because we have been born again of God.
The seed gives life.
1 Peter 1:23 is already quoted. It speaks of the "living" word of God.
These are just thoughts. It was just a thought.
Welcome to
All About GOD
The Good News
Meet Face-to-Face & Collaborate
© 2024 Created by AllAboutGOD.com.
Powered by
