Mark 4:30-34

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

All of Yeshu’s hearers knew that mustard was capable of growing as tall as a man, and that sparrows could perch on the branches.

Previously he had said that the kingdom grows secretly. Now he says it grows from a small beginning into something big. Who are those happy birds that choose to make their home in its shelter?

Mark 4:26-29

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Because this kingdom of God would not come by an armed Israeli uprising to throw out the Roman invaders, what kind of a kingdom is it? one whose steady growth at first is underground and unseen, but finally produces a harvest?

As this kingdom is like a growing crop, who are its people and how do they grow up? who is their king and does he care for them?