Lent 2026 Day 9: Fri 27 Feb
Mark 4:26-29
26 Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how. 28 All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within. 29 And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Another short parable, which only appears in Mark. The four Gospels present their own story, and sometimes there are clear discrepancies. They report on a man who had lived over thirty-five years before. You may wonder why it took so long to get the story written. The first reason is that no-one thought you’d need to write it all down until later! Oral tradition was strong, though not perfect. Stories were collected and sorted and categorised in the heads of the narrators. Mark wrote this Gospel in AD 70. The others not long after, each picking through source materials and eye-witness accounts.
This leaves us with mismatches among the four Gospels. This incongruity has caused some people to try to “harmonise” the Gospels into one super-Gospel that contains everything and place events and teaching into some preferred chronological order. If you know John’s Gospel, you’ll be aware that it is very different and takes a different approach. In fact, each of the Gospels has been compiled according to a plan and a purpose. Theologians and others have been trying to paper over the cracks since early days, but harmony does not arise from such contrivances. It is more important, however, to take each Gospel as total truth, and honour each for what it is, even when some details across all four don’t match.
Jesus liked to describe the Kingdom of God to his listeners by means of parables, stories that help bring the deep mystery into everyday examples. Who really knows what the kingdom of God is?! As the Psalmist says, such things are too wonderful and excellent for me! We can all have some idea when the principles and truths are compared with everyday practice. Seed scattering, animal husbandry, house-tidying, bad boys who squander Dad’s inheritance, pearls and pigs and so on.
Let’s not try to take the parables too literally. In one the sower is Father God. In this one he is a human. In one the seed might not grow well. In this it grows to maturity. Different parables for different aspects of the Kingdom.
God has placed a seed in our hearts. It’s a wonderful mystery, and in the same way that the human sower has little control over or understanding of how the seed sprouts, grows, ripens and produces abundance so we are unaware of the tireless working of God in our hearts, changing and transforming us night and day into the likeness of his son Jesus.
The sickle comes as a bit of a shock. Were we made for this? Well, there will come a time when we shall be gathered up from the grave or the earth. Will the seed in us have grown to maturity?
Can you point to an aspect of your life that is now different from what it used to be, even if you might not be able to say how or when the change took place?
Father God, I submit to your kingdom developing in my life. Amen.
Mark 4 from the Lumo Project
Paul