Third Sunday after Trinity Mark 4:26-34 Ezekiel 17:22-end

The laws of nature are saying it quite clearly: when you sow seeds, they will sprout and grow and in their coming up they reveal their kind. Jesus, in Mark chapter 4, is teaching that something new is now coming up: the Kingdom of God. He uses parables to explain the truth of the ‘resurrection’ of the true Israel, of the restoration of the people to God, through his ministry and work of salvation. Of course, parables are not always understood straight away; they need explanation, which is what Jesus gives the disciples in private. But in public, he teaches through these stories with a hidden meaning, as his Good News is so explosive in many ways, that it would be too risky to say certain things out loud. It is not, though, as if it is impossible to understand a parable. You may have to think in order to work out the message, but the image uses items and pictures of everyday life, and sometimes reflect something from the earlier Scriptures and prophecies.

Today, we find words that God gave to Ezekiel and that record a messianic allegory, describing the Messiah as a twig or branch, that he will plant on Mount Zion, and that it will bear fruit and become a noble cedar. And ‘under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind.’

So, what is Jesus saying, then, when he likens the Kingdom of God to someone who ‘would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.’ Could it be that the Kingdom of God is first hidden but it sprouts and grows until it is ripe for a ‘harvest’, as Jesus calls it? There is something else that this picture is also telling and we find it in the sequence of the growing seed, where Jesus says, ‘The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’ It has an echo of the prophet Joel, chapter 3, verse 13, which is an image of Judgement Day. Likening this to a time of harvest, Jesus is not saying that it may come, but that it surely will come, just as harvest follows the ripening of the crop. So what can we take away from these images that the parables are teaching?

Firstly, we can learn that the Kingdom of God is coming at the right time and in accordance with God’s design: sowing and growing and harvesting are like the cycle of day and night. It is consequential and has an outcome, like the proverb: ‘you reap what you sow’. Secondly, even though something begins small, it is not to be looked down on. You may not see the seed when it is in the ground and sprouting at first, but once it comes up and grows, it cannot be ignored. Small beginnings may grow into large opportunities – like a few people praying and after some time watching the start of something new. Thirdly, there is hope. In the image of the mustard seed, the Kingdom of God is growing tall and big and wide enough to give shelter to the birds, who ‘can make nests in its shade’. The Kingdom of God is good news! It is the freedom that forgiveness gives us through faith, so that we can live our lives ‘to the full’, as Jesus says, bearing good fruit in peace and in joy. May our lives, then, produce a good crop of righteousness through the grace of God. Amen.