The Parable of the Mustard Seed – 2nd March 2025

We continued to look at the parables in our JAM sessions, this time we looked at the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

This is one of the smallest parables, being only a few sentences long. It can be found in all three Gospels; clearly another well-remembered parable.

You can read it in Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32 and Luke 13:18-19.

Not only is the parable small, but the seed it is about, is very tiny indeed.
Jesus has been teaching the people, and he wants to let them know what he means by the Kingdom of God; in this parable Jesus is trying to explain this.

Jesus said what is God’s Kingdom like? What can I compare it with?

God’s Kingdom is like the seed of a mustard plant, a man plants this seed in his garden, the seed grows and becomes a tree, the wild birds build nests in its branches.

So, what is Jesus saying about God’s Kingdom?

He uses the example of a mustard seed, a really tiny seed; although it is the smallest seed, it’s powerful, it’s alive and can grow up to 10 feet tall!

The people in Palestine would have been very familiar with this plant that could grow to a small tree, big enough that birds could nest in its branches.

Jesus wants the disciples to know that God’s Kingdom may have small beginnings, but it will grow and, indeed, is growing bigger and bigger. God’s Kingdom is wherever there are people who believe in Jesus, worship God and try to live God’s way; they have God’s love in their hearts, and they’re growing in love for God and others. It’s a Kingdom of people’s hearts, people living in peace and harmony with each other.

At JAM, we are very small part of millions of people all over the world. 2.4 billion people are Christian – 30% of all the world population!

That’s a lot of people, our part in JAM may seem small and insignificant, but we thought about being a light in the world and looked at a photo from NASA (see below) each individual light is tiny, but together they make a huge difference to darkness.

We thought about the small things that we do at JAM to show love to others, we thought about Mother’s Day posies, we thought about running a breakfast for the homeless, and how these tiny actions can make a big di erence. Wherever good has won, and we have done what God wants, we help God’s Kingdom of love grow.

We thought about how just a smile at someone can sometimes make all the difference to that person and how they’re feeling; we watched the Pig of Happiness by Edward Moncton

We read from Matthew 17 verse 20, where Jesus tells us that all we need is a mustard seed of faith and we can move mountains; we the sung the Mustard Seed song and City on a Hill (Let Your Light Shine).

The links are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPylxzfN-Oo and

We joined-in a prayer with the response of “With God’s help, small can become big” (adapted from the Messy Church book).

We ended with a worldwide prayer; we started in a circle in a tight circle and prayed for JAM, we took a step back and prayed for the church; we then took another step back and prayed for our village and surrounding villages, we took another step back and prayed for our world particularly the countries in conflict, asking for God’s peace in these situations and thanking God for his love for these people and places.

We then ate seedy flapjack snacks

We filled cups with soil to grow giant sunflowers, created a JAM family tree collage, with the phrase at the bottom “Helping God’s Kingdom Grow”.

We also made laminated posters of quotes (please see pictures).

Please see picture of cress-head, grown from previous week’s session on The Parable of the Sowe, we were all amazed how quickly it grew!

The picture below on the right was from 9th March.