The Harvest

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

THE HARVEST

Mark 4:26-29

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." 

NIV

Somewhat of a strange parable, but nevertheless, it is what the kingdom of God is like. First, we need to consider, who is the man who is scattering the seed on the ground? In the earlier parable that Jesus taught about the  types of the ground the seed fell on and the results of each, we would think that Jesus is the man scattering the seed, as he is also the one who comes to harvest. But this parable also includes information about this man who does not know how the seed sprouts and grows although he goes about his normal day of sleeping and rising in the morning, living his day to day life while the seed first grows into a stalk and then a head and finally the full kernel in the head. This would appear to be speaking of the way wheat grows. Some full heads of wheat have thirty, forty, or a hundred seeds, as one seed multiples, such as the seed sown in the good soil in the earlier parable. The fact is that as the seed or the word is sown in our hearts, we too do not know exactly how it grows as the Spirit is at work within us as we live our day to day lives. But, again, is this parable about Jesus sowing the seed, or it is about us, the people, who sow seeds among the ground, among other people. After we have sown the seed, we go about our sleeping and raising in the morning and we do not know how that seed we planted in someone grows. The growth of the seed of real wheat, although it has been researched, and they can see the change that occurs, still do not know why or how that change happens.  What causes the seed to grow? The simple solution to both situations, the seed of real wheat and the seed as the word of God, is that God causes the seed to grow. A farmer cannot cause his seeds to grow, nor can we cause our piety, or our spirit, to grow. Sure, we can study the word, we can apply ourselves to the knowledge of the word, we might even be able to have some effect on our understanding of the word, but we do not think we can cause the word to grow in our hearts, to grow our piety, or make us holy and blameless in His sight. Only He can do that, and so as we live our daily lives, doing what we do, God is at work within the soil of our heart, causing it to grow and one day he will come to harvest us and bring us into his barn, the place he has prepared for us, and we will be there forever in his barn, the kingdom of God. Oh, for the harvest!