Scripture: Mark 4:26-34
Ok – so, let’s spend a few minutes talking about the kingdom of God.
What comes to mind? Come on. Just describe the Kingdom of God.
Kind of something hard to picture, isn’t it? Even harder to describe.
Jesus attempts several times to explain what the kingdom of God is like – the problem is, from what angle do you approach it? What aspect of the Kingdom of God are we going to talk about? Why not use literal descriptions? Golden streets, pearly gates… wouldn’t that be easier?
Instead, we get these parables. In fact, there are over 37 total parables throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (Jesus kinda liked parables) Six of them are used to try and describe the Kingdom of God.
1) The four types of soil parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.”
2) The parable of the wheat and tares.“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.”
3) The hidden treasure parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
4) The parable of good and bad fish: “The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.”
And then the parables we had for today:
5) The parable of the sower: “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”
6) The mustard seed parable: “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 of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
Why does Jesus utilize what I call “picture language” – or parables – to try and explain to us the nature of the Kingdom of God?
Because describing the kingdom of God in blunt, straight-forward terms perhaps isn’t such an easy thing to do. And parables do something else – they spark the imagination. They draw from nature and common life to help us better relate to the description.
What shall we say about the Kingdom of God? It’s a treasure worth more than everything you own. It overcomes adversity – such as tares, bad soil, and bad fish – and provides a plentiful and abundant harvest of faithful believers.
Yet, you’ll notice something about almost all the parables Jesus uses – they always have something “odd” about them – something that defies normal behavior or works in ways that are contrary to how we typically know or understand them. Whether it’s the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, or the landowner who pays everyone the same wage no matter how long they worked – Jesus’ parables defy normal behavior.
Take the two parables we were given today – we know that under normal circumstances, seeds that aren’t cultivated, watered, and cared for don’t tend to sprout up and grow on their own, unless they’re a weed. But good crops take some care.
Then there’s the mustard seed and bush. A mustard seed doesn’t grow into a bush big enough to allow birds to nest in its limbs. Yet, this is Jesus’ expectation of the mustard seed – that it will grow into something unexpected.
These two parables in particular are about small beginnings. Something small grows into something much bigger and larger than expected.
The first one I think is a good lesson for a lot of us who worry and fret over the friends we have that maybe aren’t all that religious, or don’t believe. I know a lot of people who think it is their job to “save” that other person. That they have to work on them and work on them until they are able to convince them they just have to have faith.
But in this parable – that’s not what happens. The sower – he tosses the seed out there, goes to bed, kind of forgets about it, really, then discovers it’s managed to sprout and grow all on its own.
The point: There is power in simply planting the seed and letting God take care of the rest. It’s a hard thing to do because we’re leaving it up to someone other than ourselves to cultivate that seed. To care for it and grow it into a full grown plat. We’re leaving the process of faith cultivation up to God. Yes, we have to be there to toss the seed out – but while we’re the sowers – God is ultimately the one who creates and manifests faith.
I know I’ve told this story in the past, but it fits so well, just feel I need to tell it again – you never know what happens when you just plant a seed and walk away. I had a friend in Minneapolis who was an atheist. She asked questions, and we talked, she came to Bible studies – but during my four years up there, nothing I said or did convinced her there was a God and certainly never convinced her that Jesus was the way.
It was her four year old daughter wanting to go to church, God working through that child who so wanted to become part of the community and family of God that the seed eventually grew. This former atheist – over six years after the seed was planted – got baptized into the Kingdom of God last month.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t ever have the opportunity to see the growth and the fruit that is born from some of the seeds that we plant. For some reason, we expect immediate results. We expect to plant the seed one day, and the next see a large plant, ripe with fruit, ready for harvest.
But it doesn’t work that way.
It takes time. Growth is not an immediate process. And even once the seed begins to grow – it takes time before it’s ready to harvest. Time before what’s been planted produces and re-seeds.
This parable is used to help demonstrate for us that the Word of God that we share – that Word is the seed of the Kingdom. A seed that takes time to grow and flourish and eventually produce its own seed.
Which brings us to the second parable – that seed – the Kingdom – may seem small and insignificant, but look at what it grows into.
Jesus isn’t interested in the horticultural accuracy of his statement, but rather, is trying to tell us something about the kingdom of God. Like the seed that grows with no apparent care, the mustard seed grows into something bigger than it should. It exceeds expectations. It becomes larger and greater than you could possibly imagine. It does something… unexpected. It doesn’t become just a little plant or bush, but grows great limbs that provide a place of shade and rest for the birds of the air.
And it doesn’t grow beyond its normal size for no reason. The mustard shrub of Jesus’ parable does not exist for the sake of itself. It exists to provide for other creatures. It exists to provide for and serve others. If we compare it, as Jesus intends us to, to the Kingdom of God, then the Kingdom of God exists to provide for and serve others.
The church therefore exists to provide for and serve others.
Jesus utilizes the images of birds, in this case. Birds that, in a previous parable, may have actually even eaten the seeds that were initially sown, attempting to destroy the Kingdom from the outset. If these wild birds of the air are representative of people – and the church in particular – it’s a harsh acknowledgement that God’s kingdom sometimes consists of people that don’t always treat it well. That aren’t always the “perfect” Christian. That sometimes do more harm than good.
In short, to be the church is to host not simply nice people that “look like us” or think like us, but all sorts of wild birds, maybe even ones that are harsh to the church!
The Kingdom of God defies our expectations. Defies a succinct, easy explanation. It is like a seed that grows out of control. Don’t believe me? Might be hard to believe in our country which has shown a decline in religious affiliation, but that doesn’t mean God’s Kingdom isn’t still growing and providing for His people.
In Africa alone, 50,000 people are baptized into Christianity EVERY DAY. In China, the number of Christians over the past forty years has grown from 3 million Christians to 130 million. The Kingdom of God continues to grow and continues to change. It takes on new forms and new expressions. It does the unexpected. It exceeds our expectations.
God is planting seeds and growing shrubs and trees where one would never expect them to grow and thrive.
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