HE SAID TO them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
24“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
26He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
30Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet 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.”
33With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
Original Meaning
THE CONCENTRIC PATTERN of this discourse1 helps us see that the first two parables about the lamp and the measure in 4:21–25 complement the explanation about the parables in 4:10–12. They express in parable what Jesus spoke plainly to the Twelve and to those around him when they asked him privately about the parables. The second pair of parables, the seed cast on the earth (4:26–29) and the mustard seed sown on the earth (4:30–32), are counterparts to the parable of the sower of the seed (4:3–9) and complement each other in developing the theme of the hiddenness of the kingdom.
The Parable of the Lamp (4:21–23)
GOD’S MEANS OF making the kingdom manifest through hiding it may mystify those who prefer that God do things in ways that match human methods and expectations. The parable of the lamp affirms that God’s purpose is not to shroud the light in darkness but to make it manifest to all. The Greek text reads literally, “Does the lamp come?” and may allude to Jesus as the lamp who “comes” (compare John 9:5).2 For the present, secrecy abounds, not because there is anything wrong with the lamp, but because God intends it (hina, “in order that,” occurs four times in 4:21–22). Paradoxically, what is hidden becomes plain by the process of concealing it.3
In other words, God’s glory is revealed indirectly in disarming ways through riddling parables, weakness, suffering, and death. The mystery of the relationship of Jesus to God’s reign will become clearer after his death on the cross and his resurrection—after his earthly ministry—but even then it will go unrecognized by those who grope in their own darkness. Many will remain clueless until the end because their eyes have been blinded by the dazzle of this world’s fond hopes and because their ears have been deafened by the din of this present evil age.
The Parable of the Measure (4:24–25)
THE PARABLE OF the measure refers to the ways people respond to the light.4 The economic axiom that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer also holds true for the spiritual life. Those who do not hear well will become the have-nots who lose everything they might have as they become mired deeper in a slough of indifference and ignorance. Those who hear well will get more explanation of God’s purposes and will have a superabundance of understanding. The parable contains both a warning and a promise and exhorts the readers to take care how they listen and respond to the word and the light. One has access to the truth and must be careful not to turn a deaf ear to it. The one who snubs it has everything to lose; the one who risks faith in what now lies hidden has everything to gain.
The Parable of the Seed Cast on the Earth (4:26–29)
IN THE PARABLE of the seed sown on the earth Jesus again compares the things of God to the everyday world of a farmer.5 The farmer casts his seed and then goes about his everyday routine of life: He sleeps; he rises, night and day.6 Meanwhile, the seed sprouts and grows long—“he does not know how” (lit., “while he is unknowing,” 4:27b). That the farmer has no idea how it grows implies that he is not the cause of the growth and is ignorant of the process.7 The seed holds within itself the secret of its growth, and the earth is said to produce “all by itself” (automate, 4:28a). This word would be better rendered “without visible cause,” “incomprehensibly,” or even “effected by God,” because pious Jews considered the growth of plants to be the wondrous work of God, not simply the result of a law of nature.8
The growth of the seed into a blade, a head, and then the full grain (4:28b) suggests an appointed order of development that may not be hurried or skipped over, nor can it be delayed. This sequence also assumes that whatever has transpired under the ground will become visible. When the seed is full grown, immediately the farmer reacts by putting his sickle to the grain, for the harvest has come. Curiously, the usual Greek word for ripen is not used.9 Instead, the fruit is said literally “to deliver itself,” “to hand itself over” (paradidomi). The conclusion may be a quotation from Joel 3:13: “Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow—so great is their wickedness!” (see Jer. 51:33; Rev. 14:15). The context in Joel is one of judgment on the inordinate wickedness of the Gentiles who are about to be judged. They stand in the valley of decision, and the Day of the Lord is near.
What this parable illustrates about the kingdom of God is open to several interpretations. The variety of titles given to it testifies to its ambiguity: The Growth of the Seed, The Seed Growing Secretly, The Seed Growing by Itself, The Seed Growing Gradually, The Patient Husbandmen, The Confident Sower, The Unbelieving Farmer, The Grain Is Ripe, and The Automatic Action of the Soil.10 The parable is an example of what Sider calls proportional analogy: Humans are to the advent of the kingdom of God as a farmer is to the harvest. The listener must infer, however, with respect to what?11 Should the interpreter focus on what happens to the seed? If so, should it be on the seed’s growth or the harvest at the end? Should the interpreter focus on what the farmer does? If so, should it be on his inactivity while the seed grows of itself or on his sudden activity at the time of the harvest?
Various interpretations have been offered, depending on what is identified as the key element of the parable. One interpretation stresses the farmer’s apparent confidence in the inevitability of the growth of the seed while waiting for the harvest. The parable begins with the sowing and ends with the harvest. This contrast might convey the idea that the kingdom of God follows as certainly as harvest follows the sowing of seed. A farmer is confident that there will be a harvest simply because the seed has been sown and will germinate in the soil and find the sun. Jeremias applies this confidence to Jesus in the context of his ministry:
This unwavering assurance that God’s hour approaches is an essential element in the preaching of Jesus. God’s hour is coming: nay more, it has already begun. In his beginning the end is already implicit. No doubts with regard to his mission, no scorn, no lack of faith, no impatience, can make Jesus waver in his certainty that out of nothing, ignoring all failure, God is carrying on his beginnings to completion. All that is necessary is to take God seriously, to take him into account in spite of all outward appearance.12
The seed planted in the earth carries its own future in its bosom, and its growth to maturity is irresistible and certain. This certitude could encourage downcast disciples who may have been dismayed by apparent rejections and failures.
A second interpretation construes the detail of the farmer’s rising and sleeping as an evidence of his patience while the seed bears fruit and the blade pushes through the earth, forms a stalk, and then the ear full of grain. The parable encourages those who excitedly await the kingdom of God to have the same unhurried patience as the farmer. As the harvest is God-given—the earth produces of itself, the farmer does not know how—so it is with the kingdom of God. The growth of plants cannot be forced. All the farmer can do is leave everything to God while continuing his daily routine, waiting patiently until the grain is ready to be harvested. The seed has been sown by God’s agent, and now listeners can only wait for God to do what God is sure to do (see Lam. 3:26). A similar idea is expressed in prose in James 5:7–8:
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.
A third interpretation construes differently the meaning of the farmer’s inactivity while the seed sprouts. It may suggest that the farmer is unable to affect the process. The parable underlines the fact that the earth reproduces of itself, and the germination of the seed and its transforming growth is unrelated to the farmer’s ability, activity, or wisdom. The growth leading to the harvest comes from God and takes place because of the seed’s inherent power, independent of human resources, aid, or force. It may convey that the kingdom of God is “unstoppable by human unbelief and unhelped by human effort.”13 Humans can only respond when it invades their life.
A fourth interpretation emphasizes the hiddenness of the process. The parable may teach that it does not matter that the kingdom is hidden to so many; something is taking place underground that will become fully visible in due course. The kingdom has begun to work even though its significance is yet to be appreciated by all because the growth is so imperceptible. Something is occurring underground with the seed that may be overlooked. When it is in its blade stage, only the practiced eye can see what it will become. When the field is fully ripe, however, it cannot be overlooked.
Still another interpretation seizes on the sudden conclusion of the process. The inactivity of the farmer while the wheat was growing contrasts with the sudden rush of activity at harvest time when the wheat is ripe. Some suggest that Jesus intended to announce that the eschatological harvest has begun: “The time has come” (1:15). The long history of God’s dealings with Israel has reached its climax. The routine of life must be broken by the urgency of the hour, which will not wait. Others interpret it as a call to action at harvest time. The farmer might not know how the seed grows, but he does know how to reap, and he needs to spring into action when the critical harvest time arrives. If the disciples plan to join in the harvest work, they must first recognize that the kingdom is being realized in Jesus’ ministry.
In deciding the meaning of the parable, one should allow the context in Mark to be a key factor. This parable is linked closely to the parable of the mustard seed, and like the preceding parables of the lamp and measure, they help interpret one another. In both parables there is a sowing. The seed is scattered “on the ground” (4:26); the mustard, the smallest of seeds on the earth, is planted “in the ground” (4:31). The result of the growth of the seed in both parables has eschatological overtones: the sickle sent to gather the harvest (4:29; Joel 3:13), and the birds of heaven nesting in the greatest of all bushes (Mark 4:32).14 Both parables indicate that the seed will produce the results inherent within it, although the farmer cannot begin to fathom how the change takes place and though the smallest of seeds looks so unpromising.
The parable of the mustard seed does not mention the process of growth, nor does it refer to any sudden conclusion to the process or intense activity at the end. It does not issue a call to join in the harvest. It also does not hint of patience, waiting for the small seed to grow into a bush. Instead, the parable points to a smallness that dissuades one from anticipating the dramatic transformation that will take place when it is sown in the earth. The ideas of hiddenness and of confidence in the inevitability of the harvest that can be found in the parable of the seed sown in the earth best fit with the companion parable of the mustard seed.
Both parables address the deceptive insignificance of the coming of the kingdom before its final manifestation. God’s purposes will be fulfilled in God’s way, and God entrusts the secrets of those purposes only to those who are willing to trust him despite unpromising appearances. Can one believe that the kingdom of God advances through ignominy, through defeat, through crucifixion? Can one believe that Jesus of Nazareth, who was hanged on a tree, is indeed the judge of the living and the dead (see Acts 10:38–43)?
The Parable of the Mustard Seed (4:30–32)
THE NEXT PARABLE uses the imagery of the annual mustard bush that was cultivated in the field and grown for its leaves as well as its grains. The smallness of its seeds was proverbial (see Matt. 17:20), but Jesus does not compare the kingdom of God to a mustard seed but to what happens to a mustard seed.15 As God transforms a tiny speck of mustard seed into a six-to-ten-foot-high shrub (Mark 4:32; in Matthew and Luke it becomes a tree), what God will accomplish through the death and resurrection of Jesus will be just as extraordinary. The tiniest of seeds grows into the greatest of shrubs, and how this happens is veiled in mystery.16 Even a modern scientific knowledge of the DNA structure of the mustard seed does not dispel the mystery of its growth. The seed holds within itself the power to transform itself dramatically into something else. One cannot make a judgment about its potential based on empirical evidence when it is in the seed stage. One could dismiss the microscopic seed as something inconsequential, but it has a power within itself to evolve into something that one cannot ignore and that eventually attracts the birds of heaven.17
The same thing, Jesus implies, is true of the kingdom of God. During the sowing stage, the beginning of the gospel (1:1), one must make a leap of faith that what Jesus says about himself and God’s kingdom is true. The kingdom of God is already present in the work of Jesus but remains concealed and modest. Many would never guess that this inconspicuous presence manifests God’s power and dominion that will reach out to all the nations. Religious professionals misjudged it. Even Jesus’ own family missed it. The final stage will reveal a dramatic change from the beginning, but by then it will be too late for those who were unable to see what God was doing all along.
Conclusion (4:33–34)
THE NARRATIVE SUMMARY concludes the unit of parables as it began—with Jesus teaching the word to them in many parables (4:2)—but it adds the phrase “as much as they could understand [lit., hear].” How can one hear? The comment that he explained everything to his disciples privately clarifies that one must come to Jesus as a disciple and listen carefully to receive explanations and a deeper understanding. Parables are not Zen koans that defy rational understanding, but they are the only form of language that can capture appropriately the astounding mystery that God’s reign is effected in and through Jesus, who as the Son of God goes unrecognized by most and will die rejected on a cross.
The description of the word of God in Hebrews 4:12 applies also to the parables; they discern the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of the listeners. To understand them requires more than intellectual comprehension; it requires submitting to the word in one’s heart. Jesus uses parables to plumb the spiritual perception of the audience, because he knows that a Messiah who dies can only be perceived through a rare spiritual discernment. The message that Christ crucified conquers the world remains a scandalous and foolish riddle to those who are unable to hear the word with understanding and refuse to gather around Jesus as a disciple.
Bridging Contexts
SINCE JESUS SPENDS so much time in the Gospels explaining in parable what the kingdom of God is like, one may infer that he believed that his vision of God’s reign was quite different from the usual one. He used vivid, thought-provoking imagery to awaken that vision in others. When Jesus begins with the statement “the kingdom of God is like,” he assumes divine authority to explain what God’s rule is. He seeks to dispel the myths about how God’s reign manifests itself and works in the world, which the majority accept with little question. Wright observes that Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom of God was doubly revolutionary. To say that God was becoming king was to hoist the flag of revolt. To undermine cherished national institutions, hopes, and agendas at the same time was to court harassment from those in Israel who held them dear. He writes that Jesus
managed both to claim that he was fulfilling the old prophecies, the old hopes, of Israel and to do so in a way which radically subverted them. The Kingdom of God is here, he seemed to be saying, but it’s not like you thought it was going to be.18
In bridging the contexts, one should reflect on our received tradition about how God supposedly acts in our world that Jesus’ teaching needs to correct. Is there anything revolutionary about our teaching? Do we force the parables to fit our preconceived theological pigeonholes and not allow them to do their work—to explode our myths and illusions about God?
One should also be mindful of two pitfalls in interpreting these parables. First, we should guard against interpreting them from a triumphalist perspective. As some understand the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus is comparing its smallness to the small beginnings of his own ministry, which will eventually burst forth into something spectacular. The church, looking backward, may be tempted to think that we are now that grand stage that Jesus had in mind. We may be tempted to say to ourselves, “If those first disciples only knew what we know now”—how the movement of Jesus of Nazareth has swept the world and now manifests itself gloriously in whatever movement we might belong to. From just a ragtag crew of disciples wandering around Galilee,19 the church has steadily grown into a grand organization with multibillion-dollar budgets, grand edifices, and great denominations with missionaries marching across the globe.
We too quickly identify the kingdom of God with our own human aspirations and institutions that “reach unto heaven” and “make us a name.” We tend to be overly impressed with mass movements and high-powered organizations, and these parables that stress the ambiguity of the presence of the kingdom of God in the midst of this current evil age should caution against this mistake. In the nineteenth century the parable of the seed cast upon the earth was interpreted in terms of the conception of the steady evolution of the kingdom, which would transform society on earth until it eventually would yield entirely to God’s will. A. B. Bruce interpreted the parable as pointing to “progress according to natural law, and by stages which must be passed through in succession.”20 The Great War quickly wrecked this myth about humankind’s inevitable progress toward conformity to God’s will.
The imagery of the parable of the mustard seed should check any triumphalist interpretation. Jesus’ picture suggests that the kingdom of God may continue to look like a failure. The tiniest of seeds becomes the greatest of all shrubs, but a shrub is still a shrub. The parable may be a rebuke to those expecting something grandiose from God, like the mighty cedar of Lebanon (Ezek. 17:22–24; see Ps. 104:12, 16–17; Sir. 24:13; 1QH 6:14–17; 8:4–8). In America, a three-thousand-year-old giant redwood, three hundred feet high and thirty feet in diameter and still growing, would be the proud tree we would be more likely to choose as the best comparison to our image of what the kingdom is like.
But the kingdom will not fit our expectations or specifications. For those who want to be the top cedar in the world and want something more showstopping and messianic, the kingdom of God as it is manifest in our world will be mostly disappointing. It comes incognito; and up to the very end, one can only trust that Jesus’ movement is God’s work when all things will finally be revealed. The kingdom of God was present with the coming of Jesus. It was hidden but not invisible. Most did not see it. They were looking in all the wrong places for all the wrong things. Times have not changed, because people continue to fix their attention on all the wrong things in their search for God and meaning in their lives.
A second caution for interpreting these parables concerns their subject matter. Jesus is talking about God’s reign. Some have combined Jesus’ statement about having faith as small as a grain of mustard seed (Matt. 17:20; Luke 17:6) with the parable of the mustard seed to make it refer to the spiritual faith of individuals.21 Small faith will grow from small beginnings into something large. The parable of Jesus is concerned about broader matters, however. It has to do with the kingdom of God, which we should not constrict to personal spiritual growth.
We are perhaps disinclined to think of these parables as describing what happens to the kingdom of God because the imagery is so disconcerting. We associate the kingdom of God with Spirit and fire, with a mighty fortress, not with seeds growing quietly and being transformed into shrubs. The imagery used in the parables is so ordinary: a lamp giving light, a measuring cup, seed being scattered. Some may be moved by the ordinary and see something extraordinary in it. Others may dismiss it as merely ordinary. The ordinary imagery of the parables in Mark 4 is significant, however. Bilezikian notes that the imagery Jesus employs is
not that of marching armies, heroic deeds, and valorous exploits, but the humble, homely imagery of sowing, tilling, and harvest. The seed is scattered, falls, and lies on the ground, and meets a variety of fates. Instead of striking out, defiant and aggressive, the Kingdom of God appears lowly and vulnerable. The seed is subject to adversity, rejection, delays, and loss. The parables contain no promise of instant and universal triumph.22
The spectacular exercise of power is not always a sign of real strength. God’s reign, as Jesus pictures it, is not some massive juggernaut that mows down everything in its path. The signs pointing to God’s reign appear to be incredibly humble even when it grows large into a shrub and attracts the birds of the air. That is why so many will overlook its presence, underestimate its power, and shrug off its claim on their lives.
To allow these parables to speak to us in our setting, we should emphasize two themes that emerge from them: the hiddenness of God’s kingdom, and the confidence that even though the kingdom lies hidden, it is working to produce the harvest that God intends. The beginning predetermines the end. We live in the in-between time, between the beginning when the seed is sown and the end time when the final stage becomes manifest and all God’s purposes are accomplished. One may succumb to discouragement during this time, be tempted to look for something that appears more secure, or follow someone else who seems more promising (Matt. 11:3; Luke 7:19). Those who are confidently faithful to end will be saved (Mark 13:13). They will see the significance of the seed growing and the fig tree putting forth its leaves (13:28–29).
These parables are appropriate to apply to those times in our ministry when we might feel that the Spirit has gone on holiday. They convey the truth that God’s kingdom works powerfully, independently of the skill or power of its herald, and sometimes invisibly. We need to look at our world from the way Jesus sees it, with seeds sown everywhere preparing for the harvest.
Contemporary Significance
THE WORKING OF the reign of God in the world rarely if ever makes headlines. It will seem inconsequential to outsiders and even to insiders because God so often works silently and in ways human eyes are prone to overlook. The parables in this section emphasize the hiddenness of the kingdom. It requires spiritual discernment, given only by God, before one can begin to recognize that God’s purposes are being fulfilled when there is little or no certifiable or quantifiable proof. As H. L. Mencken stated it, the problem is that “the public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified, pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false.”23
Mencken goes on to say that there are no certainties, but Jesus’ parables dispute that conclusion. We can be certain that God’s kingdom is at work in the world in ways we do not know and in a manner that is not subject to empirical verification or mathematical formulation. From our finite perspective, we are ignorant of God’s grand schemes even when we are living in the midst of them. Paul wrote to reassure the Philippians that his recent imprisonment was not a great setback to the gospel as they had believed. Instead, it served to advance the gospel: The whole palace guard had heard about the gospel, and his Christian brothers dared to preach the gospel even more boldly (Phil. 1:12–14). It was more evidence that God draws straight with what looks to us to be crooked lines.
The mystery of how God accomplishes his purposes in the world—so often silently and mysteriously—also applies to our situation. One finds life by giving one’s life, power by humbling oneself, and victory by being subject to defeats (see Isa. 52:13–53:12). The world operates from different standards by taking life, exerting power over others, and going out to conquer in order to conquer (Rev. 6:2). No wonder the world is blind to God’s presence and rule.
The hiddenness that characterized Jesus’ ministry applied also to the early church’s situation, surrounded as it was by scoffing and deadly hostility. What could they point to that would convincingly reveal to others the truth about God? They could only point to the cross and the news that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Many laughed, such as one in the second century who drew a graffito picturing a figure on a cross with a donkey’s head and captioned it: “Alexamenous worships his god.” The Markan community found itself “driven to the uttermost state of powerlessness, suffering, and death,” but discovered “that in the midst of its weakness God’s glory is revealed.”24
Our situation is no different. God’s purposes are revealed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, but many remain blind. Those who prize worldly wisdom and who seek fully certified proof still regard the cross as foolishness. But for those who can see, the foolishness of God plus the weakness of God add up to the power of God that will inevitably bring a future triumph and the final culmination of God’s reign. One needs a special faith to risk trusting one’s whole life to something that lies hidden—when it is in the seed stage or the blade stage. Grant helps us understand what this faith is like:
Faith means believing beyond the range of the evidence—not in spite of the evidence—but beyond it. Faith means the discovery of further evidence higher in kind and of subtler validity than mere outward proofs. As virtue is its own reward, so faith supplies, in a similar way, its own verification. This does not mean that it supplies outward and visible proofs, the evidence is still spiritual things which are spiritually apprehended. A faith which rests upon tangible demonstration is a contradiction in terms, and is really “unfaith clamoring to be coined to faith by proof,” as the poet said. Faith means trust, adventure, self-committal; and its evidences are still the “things not seen.”25
It takes faith to see how God exalts the lowly tree of the cross so that persons from every nation can find protection and an everlasting home under the outstretched arms of the one hanged upon it.
(1) These parables should instill confidence that overcomes despair. When we cannot see what transpires under the ground as the seed winters in the earth, we can become discouraged. Observers can easily write off this movement, particularly in our hurried, pragmatic age that wants immediate gratification and results. The slightest failure may drive us to a sense of hopelessness. Nearly every missionary has a “darkest chapter” story to tell when they were disheartened by setbacks that seemed insurmountable; a feeling of inadequacy, a feeling of complete defeat, overcame them. In the 1800s, for example, Robert and Mary Moffat labored for many years as missionaries in Kuruman (South Africa) among the Bechuanas without great success. Robert compared it to “a husbandman labouring to transform the surface of granite rock into arable land.…” His wife lamented: “Could we but see the smallest fruit, we could rejoice midst the privations and toil which we bear; but as it is, our hands do often hang down.”26
The same despair descended on Clarence W. Jones. He felt God’s call to begin pioneer work in radio evangelism in South America in the late 1920s. He asked and expected God to do great and mighty things. In the early going it seemed that every door of opportunity closed and his zeal flagged. He was discouraged, broken, “unable to shake off the feeling of total inadequacy and failure, and chagrined that his obsession with South America had made him look like a fool.” He decided to scuttle his ministry and to enlist in the Navy but was rejected—ironically, for imperfect vision.27
Many a discouraged minister suffers from myopic spiritual vision that makes one unable to see what God is doing in the soil and unable to envision triumph in what looks like utter failure. We cannot see into next week, let alone eternity, and we can become impatient waiting for God’s purposes to come to fruition. The proverb “A man reaps what he sows” (Gal. 6:7) is usually applied negatively. One cannot sow wild oats during the week and pray for a crop failure on Sunday. Behavior has consequences. But the principle of reaping what you sow also holds true in a positive sense. The parables assure us that when we sow God’s seed, it will accomplish its purpose. We may not be the ones who harvest the bounty, but it is not our harvest (1 Cor. 3:6–9). It belongs to God.
(2) These parables make the case that the seed’s success does not depend on our feeble efforts. In spite of the assurance of the harvest—and no mention is made of its size—we are still left with a mystery of how it comes about. Success does not depend on the one who preaches but on God. Even Jesus did not have complete control over the harvest—who would be in it or what would be its size. One therefore need only bear witness and not worry about creating a response. That does not mean that one is to be indifferent to how people respond, but we do not need to try to manufacture a response.
The seed grows without our assistance, yet Jesus does not intend to encourage inertia or sloth. Nor does awareness of this principle spare us the sleepless nights that Paul, for example, said he spent worrying about his churches (2 Cor. 11:27–28). Jesus’ parable does caution us from thinking that the kingdom is furthered by our grand schemes or our latest programs. Church growth experts try to figure things out to help us map out strategies. Their work is helpful, but the harvest remains under the sovereignty of God. We do not make the seed grow; we do not know how it grows—even in our own lives. Sometimes our frenetic activity may be a smoke screen that hides our lack of trust in God. We feel we need to take control before God’s will can be done. The parable allows us to stop concentrating on what we need to accomplish or have accomplished and to reflect on what God is accomplishing. It encourages us to trust the seed to do what seeds do in the soil.
(3) The parables encourage patient faith. In an age of instantaneous communication and a time when children may ask their parents, “Why do microwave ovens take so long?” waiting can be intolerable. We are always in a hurry. Some may expect to plow the field, plant the seed, reap the harvest, thresh the grain, and bake the cake all in one worship service. The parables do not promise instantaneous growth. God gives the growth, and it follows an appointed order that cannot be hurried or bypassed. One must learn to allow the seed to do its work, to allow the word to persuade and to convert. All anxiety is therefore superfluous since events are out of human control. One needs to cultivate patience so that one can wait for God to bring about the culmination in its appointed time.
In a time of frenetic end time speculation, patience becomes essential. Dahl writes,
To the growth which God gives in the sphere of organic life, in accordance with his own established order, corresponds the series of events by which God leads history toward the end of the world and the beginning of the new aeon, in accordance with his plan of salvation.28
Elijah must come first; the Son of Man must suffer, the gospel must be preached to all nations, the disciples must face suffering, judgment will fall upon Jerusalem. Then we await our Lord’s coming, who comes in God’s time.