Parable of the Mustard Seed - This is what the mustard plant in Israel (Jesus' Land) looks like
Video from Zahi Shaked. Israeli tour guide צחי שקד. מורה דרך
“[Jesus] said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’ ”
The kingdom of God is like the mustard seed, which “is smallest of all the seeds on earth” (vv. 30–31). There are smaller seeds but our Lord’s point in this parable is not to give us a lesson in botany. In the culture of Jesus's time, the mustard seed was used proverbially for the smallest thing one could think of. His point is that the beginning of the kingdom is so tiny that it seems insignificant. Hardly anyone notices its beginning, just as almost no one pays any attention to a mustard seed growing.
Yet the kingdom is not know or evaluated by its humble, invisible origins. For just as a mustard seed grows into the largest of garden plants, the kingdom of God finally grows to such an extent that no one can miss.