The kingdom of God is truly present in your life in lots of “mustard seed” size actions.
He said, therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
Today, you may not be engaged in “big tree with bird nests” kingdom work, but if you seek God’s guidance in all you do, if you are committed to doing everything in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17), then the kingdom of God is truly present in your life in lots of “mustard seed” size actions.
When a king or queen shows up somewhere, it’s time to pull out all the stops. And when the Crown puts on a royal wedding, it isn’t what you’d call subtle.
The association of kingdom and bigness isn’t anything new, and it isn’t reserved for the British. In the first century A.D., when the Jewish people envisioned the coming of the kingdom of God, they pictured something even more spectacular than a British royal wedding. The King of kings would come with earthquakes and fire, with thunder and lightning. The whole world couldn’t miss it. Every nation would take notice.
Thus, when Jesus talked about the coming of the kingdom of God, his listeners were surely confused. Yes, many were also intrigued. But what Jesus said about the kingdom didn’t match their expectations. For example, when he said that the kingdom of God is “like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden,” this would have been perplexing. Mustard seeds were tiny. And when sowed in a garden, they would have been completely invisible, at least for a season. The kingdom as a tree big enough for bird nests might have gotten traction with Jesus’s audience, but it takes a long time for a tiny seed to become a bit tree. This just wasn’t what faithful Jews were expecting or hoping for.
Though we live in a different time and culture, and though we may not have much experience of royal galas, we may also expect God to do it up big. We’re impressed by big churches, big concerts, big preachers, and big results. Things the size of a mustard seed just don’t cut the mustard with us, if you’ll pardon a garish pun.
But the truth is that God is still in the mustard seed business. Yes, sometimes the kingdom of God shows signs of its future growth. But, for the most part, God’s work in this world happens in small ways, in faithful actions that are virtually invisible. A boss treats an employee with unexpected kindness. A colleague stands up for a co-worker who is unfairly treated because of her race. An older adult invests in the life of a neighborhood kid whose father is serving overseas in the military. And so forth and so on. Each day throughout the world, the kingdom of God shows up in millions of actions that will never make headlines.
Today, you may not be engaged in “big tree with bird nests” kingdom work, but if you seek God’s guidance in all you do, if you are committed to doing everything in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17), then the kingdom of God is truly present in your life in lots of “mustard seed” size actions.
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