The parable of the mustard seed encapsulates the entire corpus of the Kingdom from its inception being introduced by one man (Jesus), then being dramatically spread around the world bringing people into it and finally in its fully developed form controlling the entire earth with the God Man Jesus ruling as was prophesied.
The mustard sees was used by the Lord Jesus because of its dramatic change from a small seed to a large plant in a relatively short period of time. The Kingdom which one man Jesus offered to His chosen people the Jews ultimately spread around the world and many entered into the Spiritual stage awaiting the realization of this parable’s ultimate fulfillment with the God Man controlling the entire world’s government.
The mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the world but it was in Israel and was widely used in rabbinic proverbs as well as the Mishnah as an example of the smallest of all things because it took 725-760 mustard seeds to weigh a gram (28 grams equal one ounce). Although an herb (the common black mustard, species sinapis nigra), the mustard plant could grow to heights of ten to twelve feet and attain a thickness of three or four inches. It was also the fastest growing of all garden plants (Greek ta lachana, “large, fast-growing annual shrubs”). Because of its size and foliage the undomesticated birds would be attracted to its seed for food and the shade of the large branches. Referencing the use of birds in the parable of the sower as the “evil one” Jesus refers to the accumulation of various non-believers in the Spiritual stage of the Kingdom.
