Mark 4: 26-29
How a plant grows and humankind’s role in its growth and harvest. That is the analogy that Jesus chose to use to help us understand the growth of His kingdom in Mark 4:26-29. As I thought more and more about this parable, I found myself thinking about the role I play in my own garden at home in the three phases of spreading the seed, growth, and the harvest and what that might mean for my role in those three phases of the growth of the kingdom of God.
To summarize this parable, Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a farmer who spreads seed. The seed then starts to transform into a plant whether the farmer helps or falls asleep, and finally the plant is ripe with grain which the farmer then harvests. A key point in this parable seems to be that the farmer does not know how the seed grows into grain. The soil does all the work to transform the seed into a full-grown plant that is ready for harvest.
I read through this parable a couple of times and quickly concluded a few high-level points. Mankind helps God spread the Word of God (ie the seed). God takes care of the mystery of how His Word works in each person and how His kingdom grows (and we aren’t capable of understanding it). Even if we are of no help to God, He will still cause his kingdom to grow. Finally, we are invited to be there to enjoy the harvest at the end.
Maybe those are the main points from this parable, and there is no need for the rest of this writing. However, as I continued to dwell on this parable, I started think more and more about my own gardening experiences and how they might relate to this parable. In particular, what is our role in the spreading of the seed, the growth phase, and the harvest at the end? My wife and I have a good-sized garden that we have tended for many years. As I started to compare the analogy of the Kingdom of God and our role in its growth to my experiences tending my own garden, some things started to come to mind that didn’t come up when I just breezed through the passage the first couple of times.
First off, does God need us to spread the seed in order for His kingdom to grow? The key emphasis in the parable seems to be about how God can take care of the growing process with or without us. But what about the actual process of spreading the seed? If there is such an emphasis on how the farmer doesn’t know how it works and God can grow it without the farmer, does that mean there is an equal significance on how the parable starts out with the farmer spreading the seed (without any reference to it happening on its own)? Maybe this suggests that spreading the seed is an important task for us. In gardening, I am not going to get any broccoli, tomatoes, etc if I don’t first prepare the soil and spread the seed. No seed = no produce. So, will there be no kingdom growth if humans don’t go out and spread the seed? Or, can His kingdom grow without us spreading the seed just like plants can spread their seed themselves without the help of a farmer?
When we first started our garden, we quickly learned that our crops grew better if we invested time in helping the plants out. Things like watering, weeding, and preventing rodents and insects from eating our plants all helped our plants to grow strong and healthy. We still didn’t have any idea how a tiny seed turned into a plant with produce, and we certainly didn’t make that happen. However, in the years that we invested a lot of time into these things, we wound up with some very large crops of produce that we were able to enjoy and share with our friends and neighbors. However, there have been some other years where we have not devoted much attention to the garden. We still got out there and planted the seeds. However, we didn’t invest much time or effort into watering, weeding, and preventing pests from damaging our plants. In those years we still had lots of plants with fruit and vegetables to harvest at the end of the summer that we got to enjoy. However, some of those plants weren’t as strong, there weren’t as many, and there was less and smaller fruit and vegetables.
Coming back to the parable, I think it is kind of important that the point was made that whether the farmer slept or got up, the plants still grew. I tended to focus on the “sleep” part of the verse the first time reading it. However, it does say that the farmer can also get up. So, what was the farmer doing with their time when they did wake up? I assume one option was to tend to the crop. This passage makes it clear that God is going to grow his kingdom whether we are there or not, and I find that very encouraging. However, just like my garden at home that is stronger and healthier if I help out, I can’t help but feeling like God’s kingdom will be that much richer if I get up and try to help, and that God would welcome my participation and ultimately show me how to help.
One final reflection regarding the harvest. The passage simply says that the farmer harvests the grain at the end. This also was nagging at me. Does God need us there for the harvest? What if the farmer doesn’t show up? Once again, when reflecting on my gardening experience, I find myself thinking about this a little differently. For example, I have some cherry trees that are ripening right now. It is time to harvest them. I now have to make a choice to go out there and pick the cherries before the birds eat them all. If I don’t go out there, then I will miss out on the harvest. It is not a guarantee that I will be there for the harvest even though I planted the cherry trees. I will only be there to enjoy the harvest if I am watching the trees, paying attention, and show up to harvest them. If I don’t make them a priority, then I will miss the harvest. In regards to God’s kingdom, it still is very comforting to know that I can be there for the harvest, even if I wasn’t of any help in growing His kingdom. However, I also wonder if I take my eyes off of God’s mission of growing His kingdom, I might miss out on the fruits of His labor and miss the harvest.
I don’t want to be the farmer that spreads the seed, falls asleep, and then wakes up for the harvest. I would like to be the farmer who spreads the seed, wakes up each day to help out and then enjoys the harvest. However, since most of the time I realize that I am the first farmer, I draw a great deal of comfort in knowing that I am still invited to be there to celebrate the growth of God’s kingdom. I am very thankful that we have a merciful God who invites us to participate with Him, but still welcomes us even when we don’t always show up to help.
Oh by the way, is the ‘harvest’ something still to come, or is it happening everyday if we are looking for it?