The Mustard Seed The Gospel of Thomas Saying 20

The Mustard Seed The Gospel of Thomas Saying 20

The Gospel of Thomas saying 20 The disciples say to Jesus: "Tell us what the Kingdom of heaven is like!" He says to them: "It is like a grain of mustard: it is smaller than all the <other> seeds, but when it falls on ploughed land it produces a big stalk and becomes a shelter for the birds of heaven."

The mustard seed is symbolic of faith in the Kingdom of God, a faith that starts off small and after it has sent out a large stem in our hearts that we become a shelter for the birds of heaven, which are the mystery of the one true faith God manifest in flesh. The mustard seed is least of all things among men at the beginning, but greatest of all things at the end, such is the Kingdom of God in every aspect in which it can be viewed. Whether as first planted in the field (which is the world) in the promises, or as first introduced to any man called to be an heir of it, or as at first the spiritual kingdom already been established in our midst or first manifested in the earth at Christ’s return. 

The spiritual kingdom is the discovery in the world of the presence of a heavenly encampment that is of the one body of true believers. The Kingdom is everywhere now (see Saying 113) in Jesus’ day the kingdom of God was already breaking into the world. Like a tiny seed, that has already matured into a large plant. So that the fowls of the air come and lodged in it. The birds of the political spiritual heavens that come and lodge in this tree are the clouds of witnesses.

However, when the kingdom of God is truly established on earth as it is in heaven making the below like the above. the birds are the nations that will find rest and peace in those days (Ps 72:11,12,17) like the birds in Daniel 4 that sit in Nebuchadnezzar’ tree, which are the nations of the Babylonia earth. Daniel 4:21  Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: 22  It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.

Thus the tree is both a spiritual and political symbol 

20)### The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like." He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds [in the world it has little value]. But when it falls on tilled soil [a pure heart that has been cultivated by holy spirit], it produces a great plant [a son of the Most High] and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky [a propitiation for even the sinful religious leaders who discover it]."