EXCHANGED LIFE: The Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29)

Many are wondering how to grow in the faith of Christ. It seems like the same yesterday and today, even farther back like last year or many years before. Why is it so? Why is everyday not like a conversion moment or some exciting conference event? Instead, why is our experience in Christian living humdrum and dull? What’s happening in our midst? God is spirit and truth. “He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:3-4) Our God is always in our midst to the fullest, keeping, caring, guiding, strengthening, protecting, leading, teaching, revealing, speaking to us in spirit and truth. What does the mature look like? What does the grownup in Christ think and act? It’s a significantly important question because knowing what the mature means leads to live such a marvelous life given as a gift through the promise of God. I think it is the full recognition and realization of the presence of God in our midst. There is no place found in heaven and on earth without God and his fullness. “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5) That’s the good news of assurance for those who are in Christ the Lord. As the Son Jesus is in the Father and he in Christ, so we in him and he in us. As the Son Jesus went back to the Father God after his death and the resurrection from the dead, so he sent the Holy Spirit to us. We are in Christ and he in us now and forever. The mature shall go nearer and nearer to the Father in heaven. Our Lord Jesus reveals the secret of growth for the harvest in the parable of the growing seed.

“He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.’” (Mark 4:26-29)

The kingdom mystery is unraveled through the parables by the Lord Jesus Christ who became a man, forfeiting the rights as God. The parable of the sower explains the secret of bearing fruits, depending on the field where the word falls and is sowed. The field represents the human’s heart. Whether we respond to the word sown, the result is significantly different, bearing much fruits, or nothing. It tells that our Father in heaven has been sowing the seed in the heart of humanity since the beginning of the world. The parable of the growing seed tells the power of the seed. A man scatters the seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he gets up or sleeps, the seed grows. The seed sown in the land has the power to grow for the harvest. He can see only when the seed dies in the soil and then spouts in the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

What does this parable tell? It tells that there is nothing involved in the growth of the seed except its own power to make the seed grow till the harvest. This power is from God himself. There is any more cause for the seed to grow to the fullness than God. Worries never help at all. Nor concerns help either. The power of growing seed has been demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ the Lord, especially in the culmination of his earthly life, the death, the burial, and the resurrection from the dead. In fact, Jesus himself said of this principle of the growing seed in the Gospel of John Chapter 12. “Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’” (John 12:23-25)

The secret of power that produces many seeds is two steps, first, be a complete nothingness through the death and burial and then be raised from the dead, the resurrection. The last enemy of humanity is death which swallows up everything. But even the power of death cannot get hold of the Lord Jesus Christ in the tomb. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” (Acts 2:24) There is no other power stronger than the power that overcomes death. Such a power is the power of the growing seed. It’s called the laws of nature, more precisely the Law of God. Obeying God is the way to experience the eternal weight of power and glory. Obedience is the prerequisite for the harvest. Our Lord Jesus obeyed the Father God even to the point of death. The grain harvest represents the glory of resurrection. No cross, no resurrection.

That is why our Lord Jesus says, “He replied, ‘Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.’” (Matthew 13:11-12) Whoever accepts and obeys the commandments of God will be given more and more. On the other hand, whoever doesn’t obey God will be taken even what they think they have.

Furthermore, the growing seed for the harvest implies the corporate growth. There is one body of Christ, the church. In the church, there are many parts, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the teaching pastors. God gives each member of the body the gifts according to his will and purpose. “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13) The body of Christ is being built since the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It is invisible and unseen and we don’t know how much it has been built and when it will be done. But we know that it is growing corporately all together through the power of resurrection. “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5) The church is being built on the foundation of Jesus Christ the Lord (Ephesians 3:19-22).

That is what it is and how it is, the growing church of Christ. There will be the end of construction, the harvest. “As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:29) Then, there will be the great banquet prepared before the time began for the celebration of the wedding of the Lamb. “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)” (Revelation 19:6-8) The seed sown is the word. The word is Jesus Christ. He has already been sitting at the right hand of God, reigning all things. He has already conquered death as God raised him from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures.

Apostle Paul prays for the saints, saying “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:18-23) We do not see how the church is growing and prepared as the pure and holy bride of the Lamb. We do not see how we are growing and fitting to be part of his church. But we do know that God who promised will do his work, molding and chiseling us up as part of the body of Christ. What we do is to trust in the Lord in all things, obeying the commandment of God, and love one another.