Describe the kingdom of God. What words do you use?
Amazing.
Awesome.
Wonderful.
Exponential.
Mighty.
Terrific.
What analogies would we use? I doubt you’d first think of what Jesus uses in Mark 4. “A sower went out to sow…” How incredibly boring is that? In our society that would be like saying “a fry cook puts in another batch of fries” or “a mechanic twists off an oil filter” or “a secretary files a piece of paper.”
The kingdom of God is like a farmer who goes out and plants a seed. Really?!?!?! Plants a seed? There is nothing exciting about this.
If we stick with Jesus’ analogy here it really doesn’t get any more exciting. The guy in his illustration plants the seed, and you’d expect him to work the ground, water the field, do all the good farmer-things you’re supposed to do. But he doesn’t. He sows the seed and then just waits.
This makes us uncomfortable. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day would have balked at this notion. They expected the kingdom to come because of their moral integrity. The Zealots (of which one of Jesus’ disciples was a part) expected the kingdom to come through a revolution—when the Jews finally decided to stop cowering to Rome. It seems to me that we like to think that God is in heaven just waiting anxiously for us to finally align everything so He can bring the kingdom.
But Jesus kind of shoot a hole in that theory of activity to bring about the kingdom. His farmer doesn’t do much of anything. He simply goes about his life and the seed bears fruit. The harvest comes and the farmer didn’t do much of anything to bring it about.
Why is Jesus saying that this is what the kingdom is like?
He is saying that it doesn’t come by the efforts of man. You can’t make the kingdom come. Nor can you stop it. Just as the farmer goes to bed, gets up, goes about his day—not even tending to the seed and it still grows—so also the kingdom. This means that the kingdom, the gospel, contains within itself everything it needs to grow.
I’m not sure that we’ve really grasped what Jesus is saying here. We tend to follow Finney’s axiom that “a revival is the result of the right use of the appropriate means.” If you want revival, follow the formula, says Finney.
You want to reach young families…do X.
You want to reach students…do X.
You want to reach Boomers…do X.
You want to reach intellectuals…do X.
On and on and on and on….
But Jesus says, “A sower goes out and plants a seed…” and the thing just grows. Again, the gospel contains within itself everything it needs to spread. People are converted through the Holy Spirit using the gospel—giving growth to the seed.
The gospel doesn’t need my excellence. It doesn’t need my craftiness. It doesn’t need me to juice it up a bit or to make it nice and shiny or appealing. The gospel—the naked, simple, unadulterated gospel—is enough.
That’s not an invitation to sloppiness, or unconcern, or doing things to stand in the way of the gospel. But it’s to give terrific news. We aren’t innovate enough to bring about the kingdom, and praise God, we don’t have to be. We don’t have to be persuasive enough to bring about change. We don’t have to have a perfect strategy for winning back people, bringing about revival, etc.
Sow the word.
Plant the seed.
Trust the Lord.
This little parable tells us that even though it might be “boring” our task is just faithful gospel proclamation. And it’s going to grow. Plant the gospel. It will grow. Maybe you won’t even see it. But it’s going to grow. It will get to the point of a harvest. It will bear its intended fruit.
Rest.
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