Exploring the Scripture
Twenty-first-century readers must enter the first-century world of Galilee to understand how shocking Jesus’ parables were. Jesus combined everyday things with images from the Hebrew Scriptures. He used them to challenge preconceived notions about God’s reign and the accepted system of power and authority.
Today’s passage includes two brief parables that use seeds as the key symbol for the growth of God’s kingdom. Mark 4:26–29 presents an image of the mysterious growth of God’s reign. The farmer’s effort is minimal: plant the seed and watch it grow. The kingdom belongs to God, and only God can bring it about, in God’s own time. When the harvest is ready, the farmer reaps it with a sickle. Joel 3:13 uses the same image to express the end times and judgment.
The second parable is the well-known saying about the mustard seed. But the meaning is not necessarily well-known today. The mustard seed was tiny and black, smaller than vegetable seeds. It grew into a wild, spreading bush larger than vegetable plants. It was tough, resilient, and hard to control. In Jesus’ day, farmers kept it separate from their vegetable gardens. When they found it growing wild in their fields, they pulled it out.
The parable speaks of “sowing” the mustard seed, that is, planting this wild, uncontrollable weed on purpose. His hearers would have laughed. Jesus was saying that God’s reign is not intended to be separate from everyday life. We must plant it in the middle of our tiny, cultivated world—and watch it take over! It grows wild and spreads everywhere, a weed that many reject or try to destroy.
Then Jesus adds an image from the Hebrew Scriptures that would have been familiar to his hearers. This tiny seed grows into a bush so large that “birds of the air nest in its shade” (v. 32). Ezekiel 31:1–18 describes Assyria as a great tree, proud and tall as the cedars of Lebanon, towering above all nations. The birds of the air (the nations of the world) found shelter in its branches and rested in its shade. God cut down Assyria and left it broken and dead. Similarly, Daniel 4:10–17 describes Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as a proud, invincible tree. All the nations deferred to him. God cut him down, chopped off his branches, stripped his foliage, and scattered his fruit.
The contrast is clear. The reign of God is not a proud, majestic tree that rivals both the power of God and other nations. It’s a strong, resilient bush that grows wild and keeps spreading despite efforts to pull it out. Its branches are large and strong, able to host all the nations (the “birds”) of the world that will come and be part of it. But it’s humble.
For those who did not understand the humbleness of God’s reign, its inclusive nature, and its secret growth, such parables were confusing and strange. But Jesus explained his images only to his closest followers in private. Those who were loyal and committed to Jesus were given inside knowledge about the nature of the coming reign of God. The subversive nature of his teaching was hidden from those who would destroy him and uproot the beginnings of the kingdom.
Project Zion Podcast
Co-hosts Karin Peter and Blake Smith consider how this week's scripture connects to our lives today.
Central Ideas
- The kingdom of God belongs to God. God alone manages the growth and the harvest.
- The kingdom of God is not separate from the world. It is planted amid it.
- The kingdom of God begins in small ways, but its growth cannot be contained or controlled. It’s uncultured, unpopular, and unstoppable.
- Any human efforts to make the kingdom of God majestic, powerful, or sophisticated are doomed to fail.
Questions to Consider
- How have you misunderstood and misappropriated the good news of God’s reign? How have you tried to manage or control it?
- Where have you seen God’s reign beginning to sprout, grow, or bear fruit?
- How do we unconsciously try to keep the kingdom of God separate from our daily life and activities?
- How have you recently been challenged to sow the seeds of the kingdom?