Gospel of Thomas, coda 20.
The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what Heaven's kingdom is like."He said to them, "It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."
In the synoptic gospels the mustard refers to faith and to the kingdom of God. Davies offers that mustard seed refers to faith, the church or the kingdom of God. In the context provided by Thomas it appears likely that the reference here is to the kingdom of God. Davies states that the mustard seed is a weed and not a crop. It is a colonizing plant that takes over newly broken ground. It rises up without any human effort.
However, it seems that Thomas is making a different point here. Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of God is present in the world, but it is in potential form. After it falls into worked ground it takes root and sprouts a large stem. It then develops branches upon which all the ideas and inspiration of heaven can come to roost.
Could it be that the ground is the spiritual seeker? She cultivates her spiritual ground through relationship with her spiritual teacher, spiritual practice, and spiritual study. The seed comes from outside herself, an act of divine providence or grace, and falls into her spiritual ground, her heart, and works itself into her life, establishing itself in her like a stem, thick and strong, and then branching up and out so that the birds of the sky, ideas and inspiration born of heaven find shelter and expression in her branches.
The ground, too, from another perspective, be humanity. Humankind cultivates its spiritual ground through relationship with the divine and development of its corporate consciousness. This seed of the kingdom of God enters in to it and works itself into it, and it establishes itself in human consciousness which expanded is now open to all of the ideas, ideals and inspiration of heaven, even taking on the character of heaven as the result.
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