The powerful seed of the kingdom of God

Mark 4:26-41 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; ²⁷ and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. ²⁸ The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the aircan nest under its shade.”

³³ With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

³⁵ On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸ Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Today’s text begins with Jesus saying:  “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”   I couldn’t help but to think that we as believers; the church are supposed to be the representation of the kingdom of heaven on earth. Jesus taught us to pray saying: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.   We are not only to be those who pray that prayer, but we are to be the answer to that prayer, bringing the kingdom of heaven with us everywhere we go. Too often we, unlike the man in the parable, worry far too much about when, where and how we will sow the seed. We have plans and programs. In the church we have meetings and committees to discuss and determine who we are targeting with the seed and how, when and where we will sow it. Then we worry that the seed itself, the word of God might not germinate, take root and grow. We think that perhaps we should sow something else, friendship, fellowship or food. We think that the church will grow better if we have activities and events, so that is what we do and what we have. The problem is that often, even if the church grows, there is not much of a harvest because it was not the seed of the kingdom, the word of God which was sown. If we are to be those who bring forth the growth and the harvest of the kingdom of heaven, as the parable describes, we need to be faithful to sow the seed. It is not that we should not plan or have programs, but our purpose, our mission should be to sow the seed. Ecclesiastes 11:6 says:  Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.  Then, when we have faithfully sown the seed, we should be prepared to work in the harvest. How many people do we come across, in our daily lives, who have had seed sown in ways we may not know or understand? They might be either in a crisis or at a point of tremendous blessing, they might be fully mature, ready to be harvested for the kingdom of God and we are not willing or prepared to take up the sickle.  

Jesus says:  “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the aircan nest under its shade.”   How many large church buildings are there throughout our nation to house our programs, events and agendas, yet they offer no haven for the people in need? Again, the kingdom of God does not need our programs, our plans or our structures. The seed of the kingdom, the word of God is powerful, alive and produces life when and where it is sown. 

Today’s text ends saying:  On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”  Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”    Jesus says:  “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”   Faith, like the seed of the kingdom, does not need to be large to be powerful. Jesus says:   “Truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20)  The power of our faith is not in the size of our faith, but rather in the object of our faith. The disciples were afraid of the storm, they were afraid of perishing because they said:  “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”   They did not truly know who Jesus was. Regardless of what storms or difficulties we face, if we truly know Jesus, we should not be afraid. We should not even worry that we might perish. The psalmist says: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.(Psalm 23:4) Even death has no power over us. It is merely a shadow if we know and believe who Jesus is.

Jesus says:  “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”   “Hush, be still.”  With even the smallest amount of faith in the biggest most powerful God, the storms of your life can be stilled. The mountains in your path can be moved. Nothing will be impossible for you.  “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”   Don’t be afraid. He is Jesus, the Christ, the Lord and Savior; the Almighty; the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and He Himself is the seed of the kingdom of heaven. In John 12:24, Jesus speaking of His own death says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”   

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, the sower, the seed and the power of life. Amen.