Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
If we can say anything about Jesus from this week’s lectionary passage it is this. As His followers, Jesus is not easily understood, nor is He trying to be. Jesus intentionally speaks in parables and though he explains them privately to his disciples, in doing so, he raises even more questions than he answers.
These two parables are chosen for this week’s lectionary reading of the gospels, but if we take chapter 4 as a whole, it is a parable in itself. The chapter starts out with Jesus noticing that the crowd is too large and so He gets in a boat at the water’s edge so that his teachings can be heard more easily by this large crowd. He then lays down a bunch of parables specific to the “kingdom of God”. The chapter then ends with the famous story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples heading to “the other side” as a furious storm erupts and they all almost drown. But the sleeping Jesus, when woken by his disciples, to their amazement he speaks to the wind and waves and all turns calm.
I have a tendency to look for a theme or idea or a pattern when reading scripture. I believe that it is often there because sometimes in the gospels the writing seems to jump from one idea to another. But often when I look closer, there is intention to the author’s writing pointing us to a bigger idea. Or at least I seem to think I found one.
One idea that I believe is present in Mark’s fourth chapter is that we start out seeking answers about life. And Jesus accommodates us in that. The answers we receive are confusing and often lead to more questions. As we live into this new teaching, it creates chaos and turbulence in area of our lives especially with relationships that prefer we don’t change. Sometimes the things we have to come clean on make us feel like we are drowning in trouble as we head towards “the other side”. But when we call upon Jesus, He will bring peace to even our most challenging situations that arise from putting into practice His teachings.
For me to understand these two parables specifically I have to keep in mind what Jesus teaches in Luke 17:20-21
20 Now He was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, and He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
My natural tendency when I hear “kingdom of God”, is to picture something that involves people being aware they are the kingdom of God. They are organized and sort of exclusive. Those who are a part of that group, are aware and believe they are God’s kingdom. In the above verses, Jesus is confronting the Pharisees who thought this way, and he is pointing them to see that their thinking is wrong. He is saying that the kingdom of God is not a group of people who go to a certain church or live in a certain country.
When He says, “in your midst” other translations say, “within you”, it gives me the picture that Jesus is describing a lifestyle, an attitude, a posture towards neighbor and life. How that happens and where it comes from is unclear. But what seems to be obvious is that the kingdom of God will not be obvious.
The Pharisees believed they were, and all Jews were, God’s chosen people and therefore that is what the kingdom of God should look like. In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus describes a kingdom that looks very different. No one could tell those in the kingdom from anyone else. And those in the kingdom didn’t know they were in the kingdom. There is only one kingdom and you are a part of it or you aren’t. It seems that if you are a part of it, then you don’t know it. If you are not a part of it, you don’t know it. And if you think you are a part of it, you’re probably not.
This seems to align with the first parable Jesus tells. God’s kingdom on earth has nothing to do with us. It is all God working. We can participate in small ways but the kingdom of God is manifesting in our midst without any effort from us. Our role in it all is to praise God for His goodness and enjoy the harvest.
The second parable aligns with this idea as well. So instead of a mustard seed, something very familiar with His crowd but not so with us, I am going to change it to something we are all familiar with in the South, Kudzu. Kudzu is prolific and unwanted. The same as were mustard trees back in Jesus day. No one had any use for them. There it is, everywhere you go, no one wants it and yet it is providing for the needy. Jesus could have used the example of a great Cedar of Lebanon, just like we use the example of the acorn becoming a mighty oak. But that is not congruent with everything else that God’s kingdom on earth is like. God’s kingdom is never the flashy, the powerful, those of high status. God lived in a tent in the desert. God came to us born in a manger. God dies on a cross like a criminal. God is always chooses to be found in the humble and the lowly. And is often found humbling the rich and powerful.
Whether it is a mustard tree bush or kudzu, the kingdom of God will be in our midst, unnoticed, unwanted and will continue to grow and thrive without any preachers, evangelists, televangelists church buildings, programs, outreach. It will always be, the work of God. Working and producing a harvest in our dirt while we sleep. So what is my role then? Shouldn’t God give me important things to do. Maybe that is just it. All the small insignificant acts of love are the important work of God. What seems to be big important work like mission work or starting a particular ministry or becoming an ordained minister is perhaps more for those who do it than for those who receive their service. God’s kingdom is going to grow whether I am sleeping or working on it. So for example if I start let’s say, a prison ministry, it is me that grows from doing it not God’s kingdom. I learn and grow in my patience with others and I will be helping others if I am truly serving. But I am not growing God’s kingdom. I am doing nothing more than someone who offers a piece of gum to a stranger on a bus.
The multitude of small unnoticeable ways that we love our neighbor are where God works to grow His kingdom. If I pick up a piece of trash on my neighbor’s lawn. If I listen to my co-worker’s boring story about his Pokemon collection, if I silently pray instead of venting anger at my offender, I am perhaps ushering in the kingdom of God. Not to take away anything from those who go into the mission field or are dedicated to serving those in prison. That is hard work and requires a lot of sacrifice. Not everyone can do it. But in light of the parable that Jesus tells, it is God who is really making everything happen and its all a mystery to us.
His parable is not saying that the farmer shouldn’t do the work. He is saying that most of what happens is beyond the farmer’s control. The farmer doesn’t turn a seed into a stalk, and a stalk into a plant. The farmer doesn’t make the plant produce fruit. He has no control over the rain or the pests or disease. All that it takes for a tiny little seed to transform and become something that produces a harvest that the farmer gets to enjoy and provides for his needs happens because of the goodness of God. So we absolutely should keep going into the mission field. And we should absolutely keep starting ministries that heal and meet the needs of those suffering around us. But we have nothing to do with the fruit they produce. They just offer us opportunities to love our neighbor. To offer our attention to someone. To help someone with something that they can’t seem to do for themselves. But the fruit that comes of it, has nothing to do with us. That is all on God.