GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 4:26
The Seed
There are instances where someone speaks at length about something they clearly doesn’t understand. A trainer, for example, explains to their student how muscles grow by stating that drinking protein shakes instantly turns protein into muscles. Or the tech expert advises someone to delete System32 to make their computer run faster. (System32 is the directory in Windows that contains essential system operating files—delete System32 and the computer no longer works.) Or there is the person trying to describe a “win-win-win” situation by saying, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Or one more example is the flat earther who denies gravity without explaining why objects fall when dropped.
When Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God, he didn’t go into discussions about the eternal, the ultimate, the indivisible, the form, or the universal. While these concepts are often explored by theorists, religionists, or philosophers, they usually leave one feeling intellectually vacuous. No, Jesus used ordinary, everyday images that his disciples understood. One of his often-used images was the lowly seed; for example, “And he said to them, ‘The kingdom of God is like a man casting seed upon the earth.’” (Mark 4:26)
Why the seed? Palestinian towns and villages were surrounded by fields where people could see farmers planting seed, usually by the broadcast method, where a farmer took handfuls of seeds and flung them around on the ground. There was nothing obscure or abstract about planting seed. Both Jesus and his disciples had a clear understanding of his illustration. When Jesus tried to explain the New Birth to Nicodemus, he said, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, we know what we’re talking about, and we testify about what we’ve seen. Yet you people do not accept our testimony.” (John 3:11 ISV)
Directory