Mark 4,26-34.
One of Jesus’ favourite techniques, in getting across the mystery and richness of the Kingdom of God, was the use of parables. A parable literally means to throw two things down, side by side, for the purpose of comparison. Parables are usually either similes with words “like” or “as,” — the Kingdom of God is like the seed a man sows which grows day and night etc; or metaphors – where one thing is equated with another-“ You are the salt of the earth.” A parable is always a good story in which some aspect of the kingdom of God is compared to some aspect of life or nature. The story, often, has an unexpected or unusual ending, which jolts us and makes us think. A parable usually makes one main point. Like any good story, a parable not only informs the listener but gets them involved in the story, taking sides etc. eg The Prodigal Son and his elder brother.
The first of today’s parables, about the seed growing secretly and continuously, is found only in Mark. The parable is a contrast between the Kingdom of God and the seed growing secretly. All the sower does is to sow the seed. Whether the sower is asleep or awake, the seed grows of its own accord, in its own irresistible and ordered way. When the seed is fully grown the sower immediately harvests the crop.
One of the first questions interpreters ask is – In what situation or circumstances did Jesus originally tell this parable? The parable itself holds the clues. Inevitably when we begin to try and interpret a parable we start to allegorize it, but why not? It could be addressed to people /disciples who were impatient with the slow progress of the kingdom and wanted more robust/forceful methods to bring it to realisation. It may have been intended to give assurance to disciples who were discouraged because nothing seemed to be happening. The sower does not know how the seed is growing. The kingdom is a mystery, and is also God’s project, and He will see it through to its completion.
The second parable, also a contrast, highlights another mysterious aspect of the kingdom. The smallest seed grows into the greatest shrub of all and gives shelter to the birds of air. In Ez 17,23 and Dan 4,12 a tree giving shelter is a symbol of a great empire giving protection to its subject peoples. The insignificant little seed grows into a magnificent shrub. The insignificant beginnings of the kingdom in Jesus, and his little band of disciples, are the launch of a movement which will reach out to all nations, like the shrub from the mustard seed shelters all the birds of the air.
These two parables are ideally suited to our times. We can learn from the patience and the dynamism of nature to survive and grow and yield fruit. Surely a much more wonderful spiritual dynamism is at work in the church, the body of Christ, in each of us, and in our times, as the parables tell us.
In the first parable the kingdom grows during night and day – during good times and bad. It does the same in our times as it has during the history.
To promote the kingdom in our time St Ignatius of Loyola advises us to pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on us. We need to know the God of the work (in prayer especially), to do the work of God. If we do our best, we can leave the rest in the hands of God.
Fr Geoff O’Grady