Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet, when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in the shade.
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.


I could spend time discussing the mustard seed and the kingdom and the implications of planting the seed of the kingdom and watching it grow. A tremendous parable.

However, the part of this passage that intrigues me the most is the last sentence. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Have you ever been on the outside looking in? Have you ever been in a conversation with a group of people and they are talking about something that you have no clue about, and getting them to explain it to you would take hours?

That's how I feel when I read this passage of the gospel. Thanks Jesus for dumbing it down for us. Yeah, the mustard seed growing into the tree. Kingdom is small, but becomes big...or the Kingdom is not what we think.

I long to hear what the other disciples heard. It's like Mark is teasing us here. "I know something you don't know!"

I realize it's probably better that Jesus did things the way He did them, but I would still have liked to have been around that campfire. Judas was there. He heard those things; Jesus explaining everything. Yet, he still betrayed Jesus.

There is SO much more to the kingdom of God than we know. WOW.