Jack's Magical Seed

Mark 4:1-29

So who gets the credit?!

Was it some inherent quality of the seed? Was it the fairy-tale-faith of Jack? Was it some other mysterious power at work in that kingdom that took this simple seed & yielded such an extraordinary beanstalk harvest?

Mark chapter 4 gives us great food for thought about God's kingdom, Word, and coming harvest -- seminal truths to germinate and sprout in our lives (okay, okay, pardon the lame puns!).

Actually Jesus tells 3 seed parables in a row (can't help myself!). The last is about the humble beginning but spiritual-rags-to-riches story of God's Kingdom, and belongs to tomorrow's reading. But in today's scriptures, both seed stories have to do with the impact of God's Word.

I rather prefer the 2nd parable. It's by far the shorter (vv 26-29). It is by far the lesser known. Only Mark's gospel records it. But it is not merely for its obscurity or brevity that I like it best of the two. This is the seed parable that says "It's all in God's hands!" It confirms the absolute sovereignty of God in the working of His Word. The power for reproduction is wholly pent up in the mysterious magical potency within the Gospel seed! Whether we who tend the fields are doing our job well, whether we are awake or sleeping-in on days when the sun is shining & there's much work to be done... Whether we 'understand' (v 27) how the Word takes root, sprouts, & grows, creating repentance & faith & transformation of lives... in the end, it doesn't matter! God's kingdom comes, is coming, is coming with fruitful world-expanding impact! And, it will do so with or without us.

Not an excuse for the 'willfully unemployed harvest-hand' spirit that yawns in each of us, but I really LOVE knowing: it's all about Him, its all in that Seed!

There's an absolute 'period' at the end of that sovereignty story. Nothing to undo it, or untell it.


...but we all remember...that just before Jesus told another 'seed story', equally true, that captures that great antinomy tension of God's kingdom. Yes, God is absolutely sovereign in salvation & over His seed, He does all the saving & we do none of it. But somehow the 'soil' matters. Hearing, really listening & accepting matters. The response of the human heart matters. And, all of that comes into play in the harvest fruitfulness God seeks and expects in our lives!

The harvest imagery of vv 8 & 20 is connected commonly in the rest of scripture to the consummation of God's kingdom (see in Rev 14:14-16 for the last days 'harvest' of believers, and 14:17-20 for the 'harvest' of unbelievers). In the Mark 4 parable of the soils, real affective obstacles to a fruitful harvest exist: Satan (v15, did you know he actively seeks to quickly pluck the Word that plunks-off rather than penetrates us?!), Shallow (vv16-17), Suffocated (vv18-19).

But the intent of this sown Gospel seed is that it must be heard, really listened to, accepted, and also that when that is 'truly true' it will yield a harvest, 'produce a crop' (vv8,20). It has ever intrigued me that Jesus well-defines in vv15-19 precisely what the soil imagery of the parable means. But, when he comes to verse 20, he never really elaborates to my liking about what is this 30/60/100-fold 'crop'. Is this 'harvest' transformed lives, the impact of God's Word in me that evidences in the fruit of repentance and good works? Or is this crop a more abstract prediction of the fruit of the Spirit yet to be produced in me?

Or, is it the most plain and simple understanding of the image: the seed produces a harvest of what else?: more seed! Not meaning that we who receive the Word start to voluminously write more words -- like this blog! (sorry), but that one single seed of His Word that dies with me and rises in me will result in the scattering of 30/60/100/+! of Gospel seeds to other soil. God does not seek mere receptive fertile soil to receive His Word and for it then to lie latent. He's not just after one more pretty plant. His eye is ever on the harvest, and the seed given you is probably intended also for the person sitting closest to you as you read this.

"Sovereign God over soils, seeds & harvest, have your fruitful way in me today."

PPaul