The Mustard Seed Challenge

A Series on the parables of Jesus
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Matthew 13:31-32 

[During the first century, it was common for a rabbi to use parables when teaching their disciples. The parables of Jesus were stories that he told to illustrate spiritual truth using some element from everyday life. Jesus used seeds, fish, trees, bread - things people could easily relate to – for a “teachable moment”.]

  

In the early 70’s, I began to sense God’s call to ministry, “by using basketball as a tool to reach inner city boys with the Gospel of Christ”.

 

That small beginning germinated when a roommate of mine got a call from a friend of his that was looking for volunteers to coach a boys’ basketball team for an inner-city ministry… what a coincidence.

 

Eventually, I went into full time ministry with them which led to me running a basketball tournament. The first year, we had four teams. After twenty-five years, when I finished, we had forty teams in one city, plus tournaments in four other cities including Atlanta, Chicago and Boston.

 

³¹ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³² Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”       NIV

 

God is counter intuitive. He takes a very small seed and grows it into a tree. He takes weakness and turns it into strength. He takes the impossible and makes it possible. Consider these few examples from His word.

 

·         Abram and Sarai were old and beyond the years of bearing a child when she became pregnant.

·         David was the youngest son of Jesse, and a shepherd, but was anointed king and later defeated Goliath.

·         Gideon was hiding in a winepress from the Midianites when God called him to be a mighty warrior.

·         Jesus’ disciples were common men and women, some of them even “known sinners”.

·         Following the resurrection, eleven apostles, plus the women, led to 120 believers which then led to adding 3000 more.

 

Like the parable of the mustard seed, that small seed of faith in God’s call led to many young men coming to Christ. There was nothing special about me. I was a regular kid, who grew up in a small rural town, that God used to grow his kingdom.

 

Really, this parable has two levels of application: macro and micro. Macro is quantitative. It’s how the kingdom of heaven grows numerically when people give their lives to follow Jesus. Micro is qualitative. That’s how we grow as an individual in our relationship with Christ.

Either way, a small seed can do unexpected and amazing things. That’s the challenge that you and I face every day… the mustard seed challenge.

Copyright 2022 Joseph B Williams