A mustard seed

As Small as a Mustard Seed

As they came down the mountain, they could already hear the commotion. At the bottom stood a crowd, and in the middle of it stood the other disciples, empty-handed and red-faced.

A man broke away from the group. He dropped to his knees, right at Jesus’ feet.

‘Lord, have mercy on my son.’ His voice cracked. ‘He has fits. He falls into the fire, he falls into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t help him.’

Jesus looked at the disciples. They looked at the ground.

‘Bring him here,’ he said.

The boy was brought forward: thin, his arms scratched from all that falling. Jesus laid a hand on him, and the boy grew calm. His father held him and wouldn’t let go.

Later, when the crowd had gone and they were all sitting by the fire, one of the disciples dared to ask.

‘Why couldn’t we do it?’

Jesus looked at them one by one.

‘Because your faith is too small.’

It stayed quiet. Someone poked at the fire.

‘I tell you: if you had faith as small as a mustard seed…’ He held his thumb and forefinger almost together; barely anything fitted between them. ‘…you could say to this mountain: move from here to there. And it would move.’

The disciples looked at the mountain behind them, black against the evening sky. Then at those almost-closed fingers.

‘Too small,’ one of them whispered. ‘But isn’t a mustard seed the smallest thing there is?’

Jesus smiled. ‘Exactly.’

After Matthew 17:14–20.

About this story

The source

The story is in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17, verses 14 to 20. Matthew was written in Greek, probably between 80 and 90 CE. Mark (9:14–29) and Luke (9:37–43) tell the same episode, but the line about the mustard seed only appears in Matthew. In Luke 17:6 Jesus says something similar, there about a mulberry tree that would uproot itself and be planted in the sea.

Origin and culture

The episode takes place in Galilee in the first century, straight after the Transfiguration on the mountain (Matthew 17:1–9), where Jesus had gone with Peter, James and John. The other disciples had stayed behind below. Older translations call the boy’s fits ‘lunacy’; today they are often read as epilepsy. In the story the disciples fail, and their question, ‘why couldn’t we?’, may well be the most honest question in the whole passage.

The mustard seed

Black mustard (Brassica nigra) grew in Galilee, with seeds of less than two millimetres. ‘As small as a mustard seed’ was a common expression at the time for the very smallest thing. Jesus also uses the image in the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31–32): the smallest of seeds grows into a plant so large that the birds come and nest in its branches. Both texts make the same point: it doesn’t have to be big to change everything. The saying ‘faith can move mountains’ comes straight from here.

The mustard seed travels

The mustard seed turns up in many traditions as the smallest thing there is. In the Talmud, ‘the size of a mustard seed’ is the measure of the smallest conceivable amount. And in the Qur’an it stands for the smallest deed that is still weighed: ‘even if it be the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it forth’ (Surah 21:47, see also 31:16). Perhaps that comes closest to the question in the column: whether everything we do is somehow kept on record.

Further reading

Pick a seed

You can't tell what's inside. That's exactly the point.