He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land 27 and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
30 He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 32 But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. 34 Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
God’s Kingdom does not arrive the way people often expect. Jesus describes it with images that are ordinary and quiet: seed scattered on the land, nights and days passing, growth that happens without the farmer being able to explain it. The man scatters seed and later harvests, but the growth in between is not in his control. He sleeps, he rises, and the seed “sprout[s] and grow[s], he knows not how.” The point is not that human effort is meaningless. The point is that the kingdom of God is more than a human project. It advances in ways that are beyond our ability to manage, measure, or predict.
Jesus then uses a phrase that sharpens the lesson: the land yields fruit “of its own accord.” He is not teaching that creation is independent of God, as if the world runs on its own. He is teaching that the decisive power behind the kingdom’s growth is not visible to the eye and not controllable by the hand. Growth is real, and it is steady, but it is also mysterious. The sequence is simple—blade, then ear, then full grain. The farmer cannot force those stages, and he cannot hurry them. Yet the result is not doubtful. When the grain is ripe, the harvest comes.
That certainty matters. It tells the listener that God’s work is not fragile in the way human plans can be fragile. The kingdom is not sustained by constant human pressure. It is sustained by God’s power, working through time. This is why the parable can be both sober and hopeful at the same time: it warns against trying to control what belongs to God, and it reassures those who are tempted to discouragement when they cannot yet see the full result.
The second image presents the same truth from another angle. The mustard seed begins small, almost unimpressive. Then it becomes large enough for birds to dwell in its shade. Jesus is not offering a botany lesson. He is using a common contrast to make a clear point: what begins in a way that looks insignificant can grow into something that gives real shelter. In the Scriptures of Israel, strong kingdoms and great powers were sometimes pictured as trees with branches where birds nest. Jesus draws on that familiar kind of imagery, but he turns it toward God’s reign. The kingdom does not start with spectacle. It starts small, and it grows into something far larger than its beginning suggested.
Mark then adds a concluding note that shapes how we read everything that comes before it. Jesus speaks “the word” to the crowd in parables “as they were able to understand it,” but he explains “everything” in private to his disciples. That detail does not mean the crowd is barred from God. It means there is a difference between merely hearing the parables and receiving their meaning by becoming a true disciple who listens, asks, and learns. Mark keeps putting that choice in front of the reader: will you remain a mere hearer, or will you become a disciple who receives understanding?
In the New Testament, the same basic truth is expressed elsewhere: human beings truly cooperate, but God is the one who gives the growth (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Mark’s point here is direct. God’s kingdom grows in real history, through real time, in ways that are often hidden. But it does grow. And when the time is ripe, the harvest will come.
Lord God, teach me to trust your hidden work, to be patient with your timing, and to stay close to your Son so that your word can take root and bear fruit in my life. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible: New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), Mk 4:26-34.
- Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark, commentary on Mk 4:26-29; 4:30-32 (Ignatius, p. 73).
- Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., and Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., eds., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), 606 (paras. 30-32).
- The Navarre Bible: St. Mark (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999), 177-178.
- Paulist Biblical Commentary (New York: Paulist Press, 2018), 988-989.
- The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, 3rd fully revised ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2020), 1252.
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