Mark 4.30-32: The “Big” “Bird” Kingdom

Intro

30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
~ Mk 4.30-32

Context

This is the final parable in two sets: (1) three seed-related parables in this chapter, (2) four parables in Mark’s “first stage.” As we discuss its details (few as they may be), we’ll discuss the connections with the other seed parables. Let’s frame this in Mark’s “first stage” though. In this part of the book (roughly chapters 1-8), Mark introduces Jesus and the disciples and recounts the experiences of Jesus’ earthly ministry years. In this section, Mark front-loads the verbal teachings that he records. The whole section is full of action, but the parables are all clustered in two chapters in the first half of stage 1. To group these together, Mark is sorting his material by topic (not primarily chronology). In stage 2, we’ll see Jesus leading his disciples to Jerusalem: both literally as they travel and figuratively as Jesus tries to help them understand that the cross is central to his messianic work. We don’t find any parables there. In the third stage, we’ll find everyone in Jerusalem as the Holy Week events unfold. Our final two parables appear in that context. This parable is the final parable in what we might label “Jesus announcing the arrival of the kingdom of God.”

Audience

The audience isn’t specifically named here. We might assume it’s the same as it was for the parables about fruitful soil and the farmer’s harvest, but that’s not quite solid. As we noted earlier, Mark is grouping these parables thematically. The soil parable already shows Mark dipping in and out of chronological order. All we can say for sure is that Jesus told this parable publicly and that his disciples probably got an explanation later (v33).

A Big Tree

The plant is probably black mustard. Its seeds are so tiny that it would take ~700 seeds to balance a single paper clip in a scale; for a closer comparison, it’d take ~300 mustard seeds to match a dry corn kernel.

That tiny size is important. Perhaps it’s not precisely black mustard Jesus is imagining, but the weight of this comparison is about the unexpected size change. Something really tiny defies all reasonable expectations and grows really big. Matthew & Luke vary a bit on wording how large the plant grows (calling it a “tree”), but Mark uses the most precise language: he says it becomes the largest vegetable. Matthew and Luke aren’t “wrong” per se, just like Jesus isn’t “wrong” to use superlative language like “smallest” and “greatest” - this is figurative language and hyperbole is perfectly fine. (Side note, when we get into the OT background passages shortly, we’ll see why the word “tree” is important, despite it not being horticulturally precise.)

Consider what this comparison is revealing about the origin story of the kingdom of God. Though the kingdom will eventually become a huge haven, are there any ways we could see its inception as a mustard seed? Small, seemingly insignificant, nearly invisible, thoroughly unimpressive.

What would a truth like that show to Jesus’ original audience? Would it correct any wrong ideas they might’ve had about the inauguration of God’s kingdom in their context?

A Bird Tree

There’s a second important detail in this passage: the reference to birds of the air nesting in it. Mark says they nest “in its shade;” while Matthew & Luke says they nest “in its branches.”

OT Background

The image of a tree full of nesting birds appears repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible.

Ps 104.12, 16–17

12 By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation;
they sing among the branches.
16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has its home in the fir trees.

Ezk 17.22–23

22 Thus says the Lord God:
I myself will take a sprig
from the lofty top of a cedar;
I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it
on a high and lofty mountain.
23 On the mountain height of Israel
I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest
winged creatures of every kind.

Ezk 31.1–18

31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
2 Mortal, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:
Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon,
with fair branches and forest shade,
and of great height,
its top among the clouds.
4 The waters nourished it,
the deep made it grow tall,
making its rivers flow
around the place it was planted,
sending forth its streams
to all the trees of the field.
5 So it towered high
above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large
and its branches long,
from abundant water in its shoots.
6 All the birds of the air
made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the animals of the field
gave birth to their young;
and in its shade
all great nations lived.
7 It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down
to abundant water.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing
compared with its branches;
no tree in the garden of God
was like it in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful
with its mass of branches,
the envy of all the trees of Eden
that were in the garden of God.
10 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height,
11 I gave it into the hand of the prince of the nations; he has dealt with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out.
12 Foreigners from the most terrible of the nations have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth went away from its shade and left it.
13 On its fallen trunk settle
all the birds of the air,
and among its boughs lodge
all the wild animals.
14 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to lofty height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height.
For all of them are handed over to death,
to the world below;
along with all mortals,
with those who go down to the Pit.
15 Thus says the Lord God: On the day it went down to Sheol I closed the deep over it and covered it; I restrained its rivers, and its mighty waters were checked. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.
16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the Pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that were well watered, were consoled in the world below.
17 They also went down to Sheol with it, to those killed by the sword, along with its allies, those who lived in its shade among the nations.
18 Which among the trees of Eden was like you in glory and in greatness? Now you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below; you shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are killed by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his horde, says the Lord God.

Dan 4.10–12

10 Upon my bed this is what I saw;
there was a tree at the center of the earth,
and its height was great.
11 The tree grew great and strong,
its top reached to heaven,
and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth.
12 Its foliage was beautiful,
its fruit abundant,
and it provided food for all.
The animals of the field found shade under it,
the birds of the air nested in its branches,
and from it all living beings were fed.

Summary

We can draw the following conclusions from these OT texts:

So what about the church? It’s easy to recognize the inherent potential for ego, abuse, and violence in worldly kingdoms and empires. Is Jesus pointing out those risks in his kingdom on earth?

God’s Kingdom: the Big Bird Tree

I see the two themes (big growth from insignificant beginnings, God’s ideal kingdom safety) coming together perfectly. Jesus’ humble kingdom origins flew in the face of Rome’s might and pride; the ideal kingdom of God stands in contrast to the arrogance and violence of human kingdoms.