Throughout the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel we are presented with various metaphors for God’s reign among us – “the parables of the kingdom”. Today’s Gospel compares God’s reign to a mustard seed.

The mustard seed is proverbially small, but it is not the smallest seed; nor is the tree (more properly a shrub or bush) remarkably tall. The point of the parable is not size but contrast. What is sown is small indeed and very insignificant. What comes forth at the end is large and sturdy. Even his own disciples imagined that Jesus as Messiah would enter ‘his kingdom’ with greater ostentation and panache. They were impatient with small beginnings. But this is not the way of the Lord.

However what ensues is great indeed. The mustard seed becomes a tree, where the birds of the air can nest in its branches – a picturesque way of describing the strength and diversity of the Christian community. In another similar parable, the farmer muses on the fact that the seed has taken root and grown, day and night, unobserved, “-- how, he doesn’t know.”