Mark 4 "Seeds"

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. —Henry David Thoreau

Mark 4 is full of seeds. It seems God, like Thoreau, has great faith in seeds.

God, in expectant faith, is a prodigious sower of Kingdom seeds. He scatters Kingdom seeds everywhere. He’s not judicious or careful or cautious. His grace is abundant. He sows in good soil and bad, on paths and on rocky soil and among weeds. And, like parables, sometimes seeds take root, grow, and produce a harvest; sometimes not. But God gives all soils a chance to produce. He doesn’t elect only the best fields.

Jesus told so many seed stories: good seeds, bad seeds, mustard seeds that grow into the largest of garden plants, seeds and weeds, grains of wheat, mustard seeds of faith that move mountains, seeds that produce a great harvest, seeds that don’t, seeds that grow all by themselves and we know not how.

These seed parables can get confusing. Sometimes it seems we are the plants that grow from the seeds; sometimes it seems we’re the soil where the seed is sown. Sometimes it seems Jesus is the sower, sometimes (as in John 12:24…I read ahead) Jesus is the grain of wheat that falls into the earth—the implication being that we should be grains of wheat falling into the earth, too. We follow him down.

So where does that leave us?

Who is Jesus? Jesus is both the sower of the Kingdom seed and the Kingdom seed that is sown. He both speaks the Kingdom seed words and is himself the Seed of the Kingdom that is the Word. His plan, like the Father’s, is to faithfully sow seeds—even his own life—and expect wonders.

Where is Jesus? He is out prodigiously sowing Kingdom seeds on all soils. He is no respecter of soils. His Kingdom seed is abundant.

What then shall we do? We shall prepare our heart’s soil to accept the Kingdom seed so that we can produce a Kingdom harvest. We are not to have hardened hearts, like the rocky soil or the trampled path where the soil is hard and shallow. We are not to have a heart soil full of weeds. We are to cultivate and prepare our heart’s soil to accept the Kingdom seed. We shall know that all we can do is prepare the way; that God sows and reaps. And, like Jesus, we shall sow Kingdom seeds prodigiously, and we shall have faith in the seeds, and we shall expect wonders, earth-changing wonders.

Thoreau, again: “As I went by a pitch-pine wood the other day, I saw a few little ones springing up in a pasture from seeds which had been blown from the wood…. In a few years, if not disturbed, these seedlings will alter the face of Nature here.” Amen.

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Thoreau quotes are from Faith in a Seed (1993), Island Press.