Mark 4:26-34

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

33With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.





BACKGROUND READING:


Genesis 1:4-18


Isaiah 40:18


Ezekiel 17:22-24; 31:3-6


Daniel 4:10-22; 12:1-4


Joel 3:1-16



Dig Deeper

Mark continues on the theme of hidden things that cannot really be seen. He wants us to really understand the concept of the secret message of the kingdom. We have to want to know what Jesus is talking about in order to see or understand it. The first story is about a seed that is dropped into the ground and goes about its business away from the sight of anyone. The second story is about another small and seemingly insignificant seed that becomes bigger than anyone would have imagined once it emerges from its secret place in the soil.


Just like his other parables, the surface meaning of these parables is pretty obvious. It is only when we begin to peel away the layers that we see the true depth of meaning that Jesus intended. We can surmise that many people in the crowds listening to Jesus had the same trouble that we do today peeling back the many layers, that is why Jesus often had to fully explain things to his disciples in private. Jesus wasn’t being cryptic and difficult just for the sake of it. His message was so volatile and explosive that he was saying it in the only way that it could be said.


The first story is about a seed that grows in secret. It seems innocent and straightforward enough. The seed grows in the ground, unobserved, doing its work. Eventually it appears, first the stalk then the head, then the full kernel in the head. Once it is ripe, it is time for the harvest.


Once we begin to peel the layers back, however, we see far more than we might have picked up at first. The language of the sickle being put to the grain comes from Joel 3:13, near the end of a passage Joel promises that after a time of devastation on God’s people, God would pour out his Spirit and restore them, reaping a harvest of judgment on the nations. This is exactly what the Jews were waiting for. Jesus is telling them that this awaited judgment will come, but not in the way that they expect. In fact, Mark is setting us up for the information that Jesus will reveal later in the book: Israel has become the enemy of God that will be judged in the great and mighty day of the Lord.


The second layer within the story has to do with the seed germinating and growing. The farmer goes to bed, gets up, and repeats that cycle day and night, but does not know how the seed sprouts and grows. What the farmer doesn’t realize is that the seed sleeps and then gets up, just as the farmer does. It sleeps in the soil and then gets up. This is how God’s creation has worked since the very beginning: night and day; sowing and harvesting, mirroring one another within God’s ordered creation. But, what does this have to do with the kingdom? The word translated ‘get up’ here is egeiro, which is a normal word for resurrection. The resurrection, in Jewish thinking, had to do with the ‘age to come’ when God would reverse Israel’s fortunes and make all things new.


Jesus’ point is that although his ministry doesn’t look like the type of kingdom movement that people were expecting, it was the time for the sowing of God’s long-awaited promise. The crowds wouldn’t be able to see any of that from this seed but it would grow, and the harvest would come. The ‘age to come’ was very near and it would open the door to the great resurrection that had been promised in Daniel 12.


There are also deeper layers in the second parable worth looking at. Isaiah asks (Is. 40:18) what God could be compared to. It is no accident that Jesus’ question about the kingdom of God echoes this question. He is offering a fresh vision of what God and his promised ‘age to come’ would look like and how it would come. No one should look at the small beginnings of Jesus’ ministry and say that it was incapable of growing into God’s kingdom movement. Whether they realized it or not, it would come and grow into a large plant, big enough for the birds of the air to nest in. Ezekiel and Daniel both used the image of a great kingdom growing like a tree, offering shade and shelter for all those who came under its branches. Jesus is assuring his followers that although the beginning seems very small, it will grow into a great tree that will offer protection to the whole world.



Devotional Thought

For us, the kingdom of God often acts in our lives in the same way that Jesus described it would be at its onset. It starts out small and seemingly insignificant. It can appear, even to us, that it has had no real effect in our lives. What we need to do is give it time and have faith that it will produce a mighty crop in our lives. Have you been impatient in your own life, waiting for the kingdom to have an effect? Have you been expecting something grander and more immediate? Have faith that God’s seed will produce a great harvest in your own life.