MK 4:26 He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." 30 Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade." 33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
Play audio of trailer to "Bruce Almighty".
Bruce Almighty is a film about Bruce Nolan, Jim Carrey. He is a down on his luck TV news reporter. In a fit of desperation he challenges God and complains that if only he had God's power, he could solve all his problems. God responds to his challenge and allows Bruce to take on his powers to prove himself. Bruce soon learns that being God is very challenging.
How would you change the world if you were God?
In today's gospel Jesus uses parables to challenge our notions about how God operates or should operate. He uses agricultural pictures to do this.
The "kingdom of God" is about how God the King rules and manages.
Earlier in this Chapter Jesus had told the parable of the sower to illustrate how there will be different responses to God's word. The emphasis there was on how receptive people are. Some are influenced by Satan, others are shallow, some fall away because of trouble, some are distracted by earthly things, whilst others produce a wonderful harvest.
The first parable in today's passage has a different emphasis. The focus is not on the environment in which the seed is deposited. Rather it focuses on the life giving power that is within the seed. Something that cannot be seen or detected. Something that is unpredictable.
I was talking with a local farmer recently. She told me how it is possible to sow apparently identical seeds in the same way and get a completely different harvest! Even two thousand years after Jesus we cannot fully explain how a seed grows, and how two, apparently identical seeds can produce different results.
This passage is linked to evangelism. The E in our WELL church from Acts 2: Worship; Evangelism; Learning; and Loving.
What can we take from this parable?
God, in His sovereignty and power is the one who produces fruit. However, we must sow.
"There is no growing without the sowing".
How can we sow? By showing that our trust in Jesus makes a positive difference to our lives. By showing the love of Jesus to people in practical ways. By praying for people and, even telling them we will pray for them and are praying for them. By inviting them to church, our home group, or social events. By explaining the good news of Jesus to people.
There may be times when we do these things and nothing seems to happen. This parable tells us two things about this.
Firstly, our job is to sow. God's job is to grow. It is not our job to convert people to Christ. Indeed, it is impossible for us to do this. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, as we have observed in the readings we have had for the last two weeks. He gives new life in Jesus.
This rather takes the pressure off us doesn't it?
Our job is to sow, whenever we can and to the best of the abilities that God has given us. We should also pray for people to come to faith and grow in that faith.
"There is no growing without the sowing".
Secondly this parable tells us that we may have sown and something could be growing, but without our knowing. Our sowing may not have been fruitless.
The message of Jesus was, at this time, not producing much except for rejection from the religious leaders, opposition that would culminate in the cross. Jesus wanted his disciples, and that includes us, to know that what can be seen on the outside may not reflect what is happening on the inside.
The farmer is unaware how good the crop will be until the harvest. We cannot be sure what the results of our seed sowing has been, perhaps even until the day of the harvest of souls, when Jesus returns.
Think of Nicodemus who we considered last week in John 3:1-17.
When the Pharisees were looking to arrest and kill Jesus later, he spoke up and said John 7: 51 "Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?"
He also accompanied Joseph of Arimathea in taking the body of Jesus to the tomb and wrapping it in myrrh and aloes.
Perhaps we can look back on our own lives and see the way that we have been growing in our love, knowledge, and service of Jesus? How different are you compared to a year ago, five years ago, the start of your Christian journey? How different would you like to be in a year, in five years?
The tiny mustard seed literally grew to be a tree, some ten feet or more high. This attracted numerous birds because they loved the little black mustard seed it produced.
The gospel began in a small, weak way and grew to become something very big and powerful. A religious leader is executed, his mission an apparent failure. His disciples fearful, dejected, disappointed, uncertain what to do. Within days their leader was alive again. Within weeks they were filled with power that enabled them to boldly witness to those they had been afraid of, even the ones who had killed their leader. This power had also resulted in three thousand people coming to trust in Jesus in one day,( Acts 2:41 ). Jesus has since ruled as King over billions of people for nearly 2,000 years.
We shouldn't judge the significance of something by the size of its beginnings. The success of our ministry for Jesus scannot be solely measured in terms of numbers.
God's kingdom starts from the smallest beginnings in the hearts of men and women who are receptive to God's word. It works unseen and causes a transformation from within.
Just as a seed has no power to change itself until it dies and is planted in the ground, so we cannot change our lives to be like God until He gives us the ability to die to our old way of life and be raised to new life with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That power is available to you and me. It is available to our friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, everyone. That power may be at work in them. It may be that you, or I, are being called by God to sow the seed that will blossom in someone else's life.
How would you change the world if you were God?
I visited a web site where people answered this question Many answers featured dramatic, supernatural intervention to wipe out global problems like war, suffering, disease and starvation.
Today's reading reminds us that we have a God who is interested and involved in the small things of life. Things that will grow in size and significance.
-
He was born in an obscure village,
the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village,
where he worked in a carpenter shop
until he was thirty.
Then for three years
he was an itinerant preacher.
He never set foot inside a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
from the place he was born.
He never wrote a book,
or held an office.
He did none of these things
that usually accompany greatness.
While he was still a young man,
the tide of popular opinion
turned against him.
His friends deserted him.
He was turned over to his enemies,
and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross
between two thieves.
While he was dying,
his executioners gambled
for the only piece of property he had - his coat.
When he was dead,
he was taken down
and laid in a borrowed grave.
Twenty centuries have come and gone,
and today his is the central figure
for much of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched,
and all the navies that ever sailed,
and all the parliaments that ever sat,
and all the kings that ever reigned,
put together
have not affected the life of man
upon this earth as powerfully as this
"One Solitary Life."