Mark 4:26-34
He also 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.
The first parable that Jesus uses here is
a parable about seeds. This parable tells us a few things. First, it
tells us something about the helplessness of human beings. The farmer is not
the one who makes the seeds grow. In fact, do we human beings really understand
what makes a seed grow? Oh, I know about water, and soil and sunshine and all
that. However, every seed really has the secret of life and growth inside of
it. We can arrange seeds so that they have the best water, the best soil, the
best sunlight, but we do not actually make seeds grow.
The same is true of the kingdom of God. We can get
in the way of it. We can hinder it. Or we can do things to make room for the
growth of the kingdom. However, we do not actually make the kingdom grow. God
does.
I have seen the truth of this with churches. I
have served in churches that did not grow and I have served in churches that
did. You can be doing all the right things in a church, but if it is not the
right time and place, if God does not want it to happen then and there, then it
is not going to happen. God is the one who adds to the church and makes it
grow. Sometimes human beings try to take the credit for that, but the credit
belongs to God.
So we learn some things about the kingdom in this
parable. Often, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to things in nature. Growth
is often imperceptible in nature. The same is true of kingdom growth. We can
quantify numerical growth and even structural/ministry growth in a church.
However, we cannot quantify spiritual growth. That is why the job of a pastor
is sometimes frustrating, because often the result of a pastor’s work is
invisible.
Nonetheless, Jesus says that kingdom growth is
constant, just like growth in nature. The seed grows day and night, even though
that growth is sometimes imperceptible. The same is true of the kingdom. We may
not see that kingdom growth happening here and now as we would like, but that
is because our vision is limited. Do you realize that around the world today,
and every day, more people are being added to the Church of Jesus Christ than
the number who were added on the Day of Pentecost? We may not see it happening
because it is not under our noses, but the kingdom is advancing constantly.
Nature’s growth is oftentimes unstoppable as
well. Think of a little green weed that pushes through a concrete sidewalk in
the city. Is that not amazing? Furthermore, the growth of the kingdom of God is
even more unstoppable than that. God is going to accomplish his purpose for the
world.
Thirdly, this parable tells us something about
consummation. The harvest is coming. We may not see the kingdom harvest coming
right now. Jesus said that even he did not know the day or the hour, not in the
same way we know that there will be a natural harvest every autumn. However,
the final harvest is coming nonetheless. Therefore, we need to be patient as we
wait for God’s final victory; we need to prepare for it, by working for the
kingdom now. Furthermore, we can also look forward to the final kingdom harvest
in hope because as Paul said, “the one who began a good work among you will
bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)
The second parable that Jesus uses in this brief
passage is another parable about seeds, it is the parable of the mustard seed. This little story shows us that we
need to be careful about reading the Bible as though it were a science book. It
is not and this parable is an example of that fact. Jesus says here that the
mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds on earth, when in point of fact it is
not. I have read that the smallest seed in the world comes from an orchid and
it weighs only 1/35,000,000th of an ounce. However, Jesus thought of
the mustard seed as the tiniest seed that he knew, in his humanity, and his
first listeners probably agreed with him so the story made sense to them.
The mustard seed that Jesus was talking about did
in fact grow to be something like a tree. Some of these plants could grow to be
taller than a horse with a rider on top. Birds were attracted by the little
black seeds of this mustard plant and could often be found all around them.
Jesus was using an image that would be familiar
to anyone who read the Hebrew Scriptures. Great empires were often compared to
a tree where birds find shelter in the branches. Therefore, it probably came as
no surprise to Jesus’ first audience that he would compare the kingdom of God
to a tree.
This parable has much to teach us. First, we
learn from this story that we should not be disappointed with small beginnings.
The mustard plant starts very small but grows to be rather large. So it is with
the kingdom of God. Sometimes when we sow for the kingdom what we sow starts
out small, but we can trust that by God’s grace, it will grow big. I think of
the saying….
Sow a thought; reap a deed.
Sow a deed; reap a habit.
Sow a habit; reap a character.
Sow a character; reap a destiny.
This parable speaks of
the Church. The Church began with one person, and now billions around the world
are finding shade in its tree.
Furthermore, the
Church is like a tree with all kinds of birds in it. We may think that certain
birds in the tree are rather strange, but that is what we should expect with a
big tree sheltering birds from all over the world. William Barclay once wrote,
“We have a tendency to brand as a heretic anyone who does not think as we do.”
How much better is the
example of John Wesley who said, “We think and we let think.” “I have no more
right,” Wesley said, “to object to a man for holding a different opinion from
mine than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own
hair.” Wesley had one greeting for everyone, “Is thy heart as my heart? Then
give me thy hand!” Before Wesley, the German theologian Rupert Meldenius had a
wonderful slogan:
In essentials unity,
In non-essentials liberty,
In all things love
I believe we need to make that our slogan.
Furthermore, we need to learn once again what things are essentials to our
Christian faith, what are non-essentials, and how to practice love toward those
with whom we may disagree about the essentials and the non-essentials.
In summary, these two parables of Jesus teach us two important lessons:
- Kingdom growth is unstoppable so you better get on board
- The church is like a tree with many birds, and a few nuts, so learn to love them!
Let me close with this story from William
Barclay….
Once a new church was being
built. One of its great features was to be a stained glass window. The
committee in charge searched for a subject for the window and finally decided
on the lines of the hymn,
“Around the throne of God in
heaven
Thousands of children
stand.”
They employed a great artist
to paint the picture from which the window would be made. He began the work and
fell in love with the task. Finally he finished it. He went to bed and fell
asleep but in the night he seemed to hear a noise in his studio; he went into
the studio to investigate; and there he saw a stranger with a brush and a
palette in his hands working at his picture. “Stop!” he cried. “You’ll ruin my
picture.” “I think,” said the stranger,” “that you have ruined it already.”
“How’s that?” said the artist. “Well, said the stranger, “you have many colours
on your palette but you have used only one for the faces of the children. Who
told you that in heaven there were only children whose faces were white?” “No
one,” said the artist. “I just thought of it that way.” “Look!” said the
stranger. “I will make some of their faces yellow, and some brown, and some
black, and some red. They are all there, for they have all answered my call.”
“Your call?” said the artist. “Who are you?” The stranger smiled. “Once long
ago I said, ‘Let the children come to me and don’t stop them, for of such is
the Kingdom of Heaven’—and I’m still saying it.” Then the artist realized that
it was the Master himself, and as he did so, he vanished from his sight. The
picture looked so much more wonderful now with its black and yellow and red and
brown children as well as white.
In the morning the artist
awoke and rushed through to his studio. His picture was just as he had left it;
and he knew that it had all been a dream. Although that very day the committee
was coming to examine the picture he seized his brushes and his paints, and
began to paint the children of every colour and of every race throughout all
the world. When the committee arrived they thought the picture very beautiful
and one whispered gently, “Why! It’s God’s family at home.”
The question is: will we let the truth shine for
all to see, or will we suppress it? Will we measure to others in love or in
judgment? Will we get on board with God’s unstoppable kingdom growth, or
criticize from the sidelines? Will we paint the picture of God’s kingdom tree
the way he wants it, or the way we want it, with children of every color, every
race, every gender, every orientation, or will we paint the inhabitants of
God’s kingdom tree to look just like us?
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