Therefore he went on to say: ‘What is the kingdom of God like, and with what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard grain that a man took and put in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of heaven took up lodging in its branches.’

Luke 13:17-21.

6. Since Jesus gave the parables after the rejoicing of the people over the things done by him, what might one be inclined to think that Jesus wanted to illustrate by the parables?

⁶ Because “all the crowd began to rejoice at all the glorious things done by him,” one would incline to think that Jesus reacted to the rejoicing of “all the crowd” by telling two prophetic illustrations to picture how God’s kingdom would not be made up of only a “little flock,” as Jesus had indicated earlier, in Luke 12:32. Instead, it would grow to great size and all the world of mankind would be like birds by their lodging in the refuge provided by the Kingdom. Also, that the great mass of mankind would become impregnated with the true teachings of Christianity. For instance, the Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Gospel of Matthew, by H. A. W. Meyer, Th.D., English edition of 1884, says on page 259, paragraph three:

The parable of the mustard seed is designed to show that the great community, consisting of those who are to participate in the Messianic kingdom, i.e., the true people of God as constituting the body politic of the future kingdom, is destined to develop from a small beginning into a vast multitude, and therefore to grow extensively; . . . “being a small flock, they were increased into a countless one.”