Mark 4:26-29 26And he was saying, “Thus the kingdom of God is like a man scatters seed on the ground. 27And he sleeps and gets up night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows and he does not know how. 28The dirt produces by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ready, at once he sends forth the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Jesus continues telling short stories about farming and seeds. The people around him could easily picture the stories in their minds since so much of life was centered on agriculture. This short parable is found only in Mark. The use of subjunctive mood verbs gives it a sense of imagination. It is given in the form of a simile, with God’s kingdom being compared to elements in the story. The challenge with this particular story is to determine what part of the parable is the focus, the farmer, the seeds, or what happens to the seeds. Each element has a particular message associated with it.
There are three characters in this story: the farmer, the seeds, and the soil. The farmer scattering seeds recalls the parable of the four soils that Jesus just told his disciples. This parable gives further insights into the mission of planting seeds of the gospel everywhere. The farmer does his expected job of planting seeds, which is his primary job early in the season. He cannot do anything to make the seeds grow but just wait night and day. One of the joys of growing a garden is watching seeds sprout and grow. After the initial planting, the farmer drops out of the story for a while.
The soil is a neutral or passive character in the story and only serves as the catalyst for the growth of the seeds. The assumption is that the soil is of good quality (the fourth type of soil in the earlier parable). The result is that the planted seeds grow naturally as intended bringing a harvest at the right time. The word behind the phrase by itself (automatē) has the sense of something that happens with no visible cause, and, therefore, has a sense of mystery. Everything works perfectly as intended in the story. The farmer again shows up at the end to bring in the harvest. His job is to plant and harvest.
This story shows us how God’s kingdom grows. The farmer has no part in growing the seed but simply plants it. The seeds’ s unattended growth shows that the kingdom grows on its own by God’s grace. When we as disciples are obedient and plant seeds of the gospel through our witness, those seeds will grow through God’s prevenient grace at work in the hearts of those who hear the message. God is sovereign, and when his word goes out, it will accomplish its purpose (Isaiah 55:11).
Knowing this should give disciples assurance and certainty that their mission is not in vain. It can be disappointing and discouraging when people do not respond to the word of the gospel (because people are like one of the three other soils). We cannot evaluate whether the kingdom is here or not by external things. As the grain ripens against all odds, so God’s kingdom will grow to its purpose, despite human frailties. We cannot control or predict the growth of the kingdom. God’s kingdom is bigger than any one individual or group.
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