The Growing Seed
Read the parable
- Mark 4:26-29 Primary account
Context
This is the only parable found in Mark alone, set among the seed parables taught from the boat on the Sea of Galilee. A Galilean farmer's part in the harvest was strictly limited: he scattered seed, then slept and rose night and day through the months between sowing and harvest, powerless to make the grain grow and largely ignorant of how it did — "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."
Meaning
The kingdom of God grows by God's own power, not human effort or anxiety: "the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself". The farmer's sowing and reaping matter, but the growth in between is God's hidden, patient, unstoppable work. The parable frees disciples from the illusion that the kingdom depends on their engineering while assuring them the harvest — an image of the final ingathering, echoing Joel 3:13 — will certainly come. Sow faithfully, wait humbly, trust God for the growth.
Go deeper
Two free lessons walk through the parables as a whole: The Parables of Jesus and Interpreting the Parables.