Mark 4:26-29 "The Parable of the Growing Seed"
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.”
Today we see the image of the sower picked up again in v. 26-29. Jesus was trying to liken the kingdom of God to something which the hearer could understand. Certainly, farming was a very familiar frame of reference for his hearers. They were part of an agrarian society. Grain was needed to produce bread, their staple food.
The kingdom of God grows supernaturally naturally—if that's possible. There is a process of growth— the blade, the head, the full grain in the head. It is not dependent upon our understanding but upon God’s loving plan.
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.”
Comments:
In the earlier posts on Parable of the Sower, we saw a son speaking of a sovereign sower sowing seeds down by the seashore (Now stop that!).
Kingdom parables do share some similarities to tongue twisters, but instead of speech stumbling over syllables, we stumble over ideas that are not perhaps as we expected.
Kingdom parables do share some similarities to tongue twisters, but instead of speech stumbling over syllables, we stumble over ideas that are not perhaps as we expected.
Today we see the image of the sower picked up again in v. 26-29. Jesus was trying to liken the kingdom of God to something which the hearer could understand. Certainly, farming was a very familiar frame of reference for his hearers. They were part of an agrarian society. Grain was needed to produce bread, their staple food.
In the parable, we see the miraculous working together of God's sovereignty, our prayers, and our work as we trust and obey, and the individual's heart response to God’s love that produces a crop. The man must sow the seed, (weed the ground—although not mentioned here) and harvest the crop. We do the work required of us, but as men, we cannot make the seeds grow and produce a crop.
There is no use yelling at seeds like an agricultural drill sergeant, “Roots down! Sprouts up! Now! Now! Now! You call that geotropism? Don't make me stomp you into the next season...all the way down this time!” for it is written in James 1:20, “For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Planting seed is an act of faith. We need to trust the seed into the care of the God-designed ground which supplies everything that the seed needs to grow.
There is no use yelling at seeds like an agricultural drill sergeant, “Roots down! Sprouts up! Now! Now! Now! You call that geotropism? Don't make me stomp you into the next season...all the way down this time!” for it is written in James 1:20, “For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Planting seed is an act of faith. We need to trust the seed into the care of the God-designed ground which supplies everything that the seed needs to grow.
I am not a botanist. I don't understand everything about how the seed grows nor do most of us need to. Yet it is still an awesome thing to watch...especially in those cool time-lapse nature films! The parable implies that just like the farmer, we need to do our part, sowing, watering, weeding, living by faith, and then harvesting at the right time. We don’t want to get too involved with trying to force the process, or we will end up with a spiritually GMO harvest that has unpleasant if unplanned results for all involved.
 |
| Kibutz Vines in Israel. Photo: Greg K. Dueker |
As we head into a season of gardening and growth, let us be filled with awe and gratitude at the way God produces the physical and spiritual harvest around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments on these posts are welcome, however, they will be moderated. Your comment will appear after the blog administrator approves it. Thanks for your patience!