The Parable of the Growing Seed #31

The Parable of the Growing Seed, sometimes called the seed growing secretly, is a brief story Jesus told about a man who scatters seed and then waits while it grows on its own. It is recorded only in the Gospel of Mark (4:26-29). It teaches that the kingdom of God develops by God’s power, through a process the sower does not control, and that it will end in a certain harvest.

The Parable

Jesus says the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how (Mark 4:26-27). The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear (Mark 4:28). When the grain is ripe, he puts in the sickle at once, because the harvest has come (Mark 4:29).

Context

Mark places the parable in his chapter of teaching by the Sea of Galilee. It follows the sower, the explanation of why Jesus taught in parables, and the sayings about the lamp, and it precedes the mustard seed (Mark 4:1-25, 30-32). Matthew and Luke have the sower and the mustard seed but do not include this one. Many scholars observe that Matthew has the wheat and the weeds at a similar point in his own chapter, though the two stories differ.

Farming in first-century Galilee depended on rain and soil that no farmer controlled. After sowing, a farmer had to wait, and his work at planting and at harvest framed a long period when the crop simply grew. The word Mark uses for “by itself” is automate, from which the English “automatic” comes.

Meaning

The most common reading is that the parable answers impatience about the kingdom. Jesus’s ministry could appear small and slow, but the growth is real and does not depend on human anxiety. The farmer’s role is to sow and to reap, and the middle belongs to God. The closing image of the sickle echoes the harvest language of Joel 3:13 and the prophetic image of God’s final judgment.

Interpreters differ on where to place the emphasis. Some stress the mystery and inevitability of the kingdom, so that the story encourages hope. Others stress the harvest at the end, so that the story stresses accountability. A third reading focuses on the sower and sees encouragement for those who preach and teach: they should faithfully scatter the word and trust God with the results.

The parable has a companion in the mustard seed, which follows it in Mark and also uses a small beginning to promise a large result (Mark 4:30-32). Together they present the kingdom as something that starts quietly and cannot be stopped.