Does anyone have a mustard seed I can borrow?
I won’t be giving it back for about twenty years. And it won’t be the same seed I borrow from you now. I hope that’s okay?
Mustard seeds fascinate me. They start as a tiny seed, one of the smallest seeds in the world. The seeds grow into huge trees big enough for birds to nest in. Jesus taught
the parable of the mustard seed in all three synoptic gospels.
“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 seed you plant
in the ground.Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.’ ”Mark 4:30-32 NIV.
And again in Matthew 17:20b Jesus said, “. . . if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Even though the mustard seed is a little-bitty seed, it’s a big deal in the Bible. Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as like one. He also used the mustard seed to describe to his followers how faith works.
The parable teaches many lessons. That’s one thing I love about the Bible:its richness and depth. We can take a passage like the mustard seed parable and apply it in many ways in our lives. I read a blog recently about a Bible Study teacher who challenged his young students to grow their faith in practical, tangible ways, using the parable of the mustard seed.
When I read this parable I’m reminded of something I learned in elementary school about plants and seeds. Before the mustard seed can grow, or produce other mustard seeds, it must die.
When growers plant the mustard seed in the ground, the germination process begins. Only after it dies does it start to grow. It begins the process by growing roots into the soil to anchor the plant to a firm foundation. As the roots anchor the plant we begin to see tiny shoots, then a leaf, then more shoots, then some stems, then more shoots then more leaves. Eventually we see branches and eventually a sapling, that grows into what will eventually become a huge tree that produces more fruit.
All the growth and fruit from that one tiny seed would not be possible unless the seed died.
Does that remind you of someone? We would not be proclaiming the Gospel if Jesus had not died. If he had gone on living for 20 or 30 more years teaching and performing miracles, and died of natural causes in his old age, we would have no Gospel to proclaim. He had to be crucified and die a violent, painful death on the cross and shed His blood at Calvary for you and I to live in Him today and with Him some day in eternity. His death, burial and resurrection put to death the law and ushered us into grace. Just consider the fruit His death has produced. Can we even process that? More than 20 centuries have passed. No one can imagine the number of born from above believers his death has yielded.
Guess what. We have to die too if we are going to bear fruit for God. We can do all sorts of “good” things. We can pray, read the Bible, meditate on Scripture, go to church, serve on committees, usher, et. al. None of it glorifies God, however, if we’re not willing to follow Him to Calvary and be crucified with Him. We have to die first if we’re going to live for Him.
That’s why Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
There’s gonna be a bunch of us dead folks in heaven. How about you? Moved any mountains lately? Are you willing to die to live for Christ?
kainosktisis
4hispraise
rickroehm
debradoo
gardener58
aliveintheword
wdednh
mtsweat
Drusilla Mott
Joyce de vivre
writinggomer
Tagalog Blogs
granbee
Steven Sawyer
cwfkys11
Rob Barkman
jobrobinson
mybroom
Pingback: Mustard Seed Faith in Business | YOU DECIDE
Pingback: Become a Mountain Mover « A Robin Hood's Musing
Thanks, Steven. A great message.
An excellent and inspiring blog. I totally agree.
“I am crucified with Christ” [Gal 2:20] should be the identification mark of all Christians. When Jesus said that if any wanted to be His disciples, they would have to take up the cross, everyone who heard Him knew exactly what He meant: they had to count themselves as dead. This is often mis-used today but His hearers knew that anyone who took up a cross was as good as dead – no way out.
I know you agree that when we are in heaven we will be ALIVE, so I’m sure your closing “There’s gonna be a bunch of us dead folks in heaven” really means “There’s gonna be a bunch of us who are dead NOW but will be very much alive in heaven”
Yes, I agree. You are right. The dead people will be those who have died to Christ here on earth. All His children will be there. The dead ones are the ones who learn their true identity here on earth. Thanks for the comments and the encoouragement.
Steve, thank you for the photos reminding us of what I first became fully aware of at Bible Camp as a youngster: the mustard seed is exceedingly tiny and in the land of Judea where Jesus walked on this earth, the mustard plant is indeed a large tree! Yes, the part of the plant bearing the seed must die and the seed must be buried before new life can spring forth. St. Paul said it best about dying to the flesh and being born again in Christ. Now it is not we but Christ who lives in us. Hallelujah!
Amen, granbee, thanks so much for the kind words and your insight into the mustard seed, and the need for us to die before we can bear fruit for God.
“Please Pass The Mustard Seed”, an excellent hook; it worked for me. The connection between the death of the seed and the death of Christ is very thought provoking.
Keept he Faith!
Isaiah, thank you for your comment and encouragement. God gives me my messages and all the stories (some from my life and some from others I read). God is such a great writer.
Thanks again
Wonderfully told!
Thank you so much, Susan
Great post Steve.. in simplicity and truth. Your specialty. Thank you for your sharing and contribution.
Thank you, Evelyn. I hope everything is going all right with you.
We must die to self in order to live for God. Excellent post, Steven.
Thank you again Drusilla for your kind words and encouragement. It’s comments like yours that keep me going and enthusiastic.
What concerns me is the number of professing Christians who don’t understand their true identity in Christ and believe in having to die to produce real fruit for God. To me, it’s almost as if those folks are another mission field for us.
Thanks again. Always good to hear from you.
Wow, great post, thanks for sharing with us!
Christ is the seed, and we are the tree. Amen.
Thanks, writingmonger for the wonderful comment. This parable has a number of wonderful applications. That’s what is fascinating to me about God’s Word. You can read a passage or a story and get something completely different from my reading, yet God uses the passage in your life in a totally different way than He does in mine. Is that awesome or what?