Exegetical Research Paper:
Mark 4:26–29
Jeremiah Holcombe
August 7, 2024
Standing before Pilate, already wounded from the trial before the Jews, Jesus was asked by the Roman governor, “Are you the King of the Jews? (Jn 18:33 [ESV])” Jesus eventually replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. (Jn 18:36)” It is this message of the kingdom that the Gospel of Mark records Jesus’ first words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand .… (Mk 1:15)” It is within Mark’s Gospel that Jesus gives a series of kingdom parables that revolve around seed. Jesus’ parable of the “Growing Seed” reveals the work of God as the disciple works to spread the Lord’s kingdom message in this world. The following paper seeks to utilize Walter C. Kaiser and Moisés Silva’s approach to biblical exegesis to delve into the “Growing Seed” parable. It looks at the historical, cultural, and literary context of the passage to bring out its meaning and significance and apply it to the life of the disciple of Christ.
Historical Context of the Gospel
Before an exegesis of the Growing Seed parable can be done, an exploration of its greater historical, cultural, and literary context follows. Over the course of Church history, the Gospel of Mark has not had the most prominent position in the minds of scholars due to the idea that Mark was a condensed version of the other two synoptic Gospels. Yet, in the last two centuries, this has changed. The change comes about as scholars have found that Mark, instead of being a simple condensed synoptic version, is, in fact, the earliest of the Gospels. Therefore, Mark appears as a condensed form of the synoptics and gives us insight into some of Christ's core teachings that were circulated in the earliest days of the Church.
It is within the tradition of the Church that it is understood that the Gospel writer is the same John Mark as mentioned in the Book of Acts, Colossians, 2 Timothy, Philemon, and 1 Peter. This Mark, mentioned throughout the writings of Luke, Paul, and Peter, is a young first-century Jewish man and a cousin of Barnabas who converted to the fledgling Christian faith and deserted and was reconciled back to Paul.
Church tradition also holds that it was by the Apostle Peter’s sermons in the city of Rome that Mark inscribed Jesus’ ministry. Scholarship dates the Gospel of Mark sometime between A.D. 64-67 in keeping with the martyrdom of Peter. Yet, since the Book of Acts concludes before Paul’s trial in Rome in A.D. 63, some scholars have dated Mark’s Gospel earlier between A.D 46-60. With either dating, the Gospel secures the teachings of Christ through the Apostles in the lifetime of the first eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry. With the Gospel placed in its historical setting, an exploration of the culture in which it was written is now turned to.
Cultural Context of the Gospel
Though the Gospel of Mark is about Jesus, a first-century Jewish man from Nazareth, it was most likely written for a Roman audience. It is because of this that Mark balances the culture of first-century Jewish life with the Roman world. Robert H. Gundry notes, “He [Mark] translates Aramaic expressions for their [the Romans] benefit …. Even more indicatively, he explains Greek expressions by their Latin equivalents and uses several other Latin terms.” Mark’s background as a Jew and his extensive work within the Roman world allow the Gospel author to translate Israelite customs so that a Roman may understand.
Within the Gospel, it is seen that Gentiles, outsiders, are given a prominent role in following Jesus . Here lies the brilliance of the Gospel. Luke records Jesus declaring, “…you will be my witnesses … to the farthest parts of the earth. (Ac 1:8 [NET])” The first recording of Jesus’ life has the blending of the Jewish Messiah and his message of the Kingdom at hand, with a proclamation understandable to the Roman world whose soldiers crucified that very Messiah. Both cultures are addressed within Mark’s Gospel, allowing it to be a perfect evangelism tool to reach those “furthest parts.” This brief examination of Mark’s cultural setting now turns to an exploration of the Gospel’s literary context.
Literary Context of the Gospel
As recorded in Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, Eckhard J. Schnabel points to two early Church descriptions of the genre of Mark. “Justin Martyr … calls ‘Gospels’ apomnēmoneumata or ‘reminiscences’, ‘notes’ …. Origen calls the Gospels historiai or ‘histories’, investigations’….” Schnabel points to form critics that believe the Gospel is “sui generis” a genre that Mark would have invented since he was the first of the Gospel writers. Yet others, Schnabel notes, such as R.A. Bridge and Yarbro Collins, view Mark as ancient biography, which is comparable to “Greco-Roman bioi ….” While still others point to Mark’s Gospel falling more in line with Jewish biographies of the ancient world. If the former is true, then Mark created a new form of genre in the ancient world, and it is unique in how it presents the life of Jesus. If the latter is true, then Mark can be evaluated based on other Greco-Roman biographies of the era. It is the latter that seems to be the consensus of most modern scholarship, yet even this is challenged today.
However, whether the Gospel of Mark is ‘notes,’ ‘historiai,’ “sui generis,” Greco-Roman biography, or another genre, the early Church vouched for its authenticity to the life and teachings of Christ. It is here that an exploration of the content of Jesus’ Growing Seed parable in the Gospel of Mark 4:26-29 turns.
Meaning
Mark’s introduction to the parable is simple: “And he said … ” Mark uses this introduction twice in the last two parables concerning seed in chapter four. Bartosz Adamczewski notes that this parable and the one following it are not explicitly directed toward the closest disciples but toward a general audience. This makes sense because later in chapter four of Mark, the reader receives this insight from the author: “With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. (Mk 4:33-34)”
After the author’s quick introduction, Jesus gave the opening line to the parable. James R. Edwards remarks about the Growing Seed parable, “Who but Jesus would liken the sublime kingdom of God to the mundane subject of slow-growing seed.” This insight is important because when people tend to think of the kingdom, thoughts of triumphal entries and overthrowing powers come flooding to one’s mind. The disciples had these thoughts when they asked Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? (Ac 1:6b, [ESV])” Yet Jesus chose to take the mundane to exemplify the extraordinary. So the parable was given to both bring insight into the kingdom out of the mundane and to speak to anyone who would seek its understanding. For those in the Western world, not only is seed mundane, but it is absent from most thoughts. So, it is imperative for the Western reader to take additional time to walk carefully through Jesus’ words and notice the details of both what Jesus said and what he did not say. Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe in their book, Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age: Spiritual Growth through Online Education rightly notice “Jesus understood … the ecological character of growth in creation and … he used it to illustrate to his disciples how growth occurs in the kingdom of God.” Lowe and Lowe bring out the ecological, or interconnectedness of ecological motifs, emphasized within the Bible. Jesus’ use of nature and the ecologies therein, showed that there is a greater ecology, or interconnectedness between how the physical and spiritual world works.
As Schnabel points out, the parable is simple. It focuses on comparing the kingdom of God and is not directed towards the person. Instead, the focus is on growth, specifically the gradual development of the seed. Jesus states, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. (Mk 4:26)” The act of the scattering seed on the ground carries a harkening back to the Parable of the Sower. In both cases, a person scatters the seed. The Parable of the Sower focuses on the type of ground on which the seed falls. However, the Parable of the Growing Seed focuses on the fertile ground where the seed may germinate adequately. Jesus explains that the seed in the Parable of the Sower is the word of the Kingdom and that the other soils are either conducive to growth or are not. Only one soil is helpful for development, the final one of the four. Knowing this, the soil this man is sowing is the good soil from the Sower parable. With that information, this parable extends the message of the Sower, giving the listener a greater insight into what happens when the seed falls on good ground.
Except, as Adamczewski notes, there is a surprise right from the bringing; the seed seems to be automatic in its germination. The seed is autonomous from the man who throws it out. The man goes about his business without causing any growth. Schnabel notes that there are four expressions on the seed growth and the world around it: “… night and day … whether he sleeps or gets up … though he does not know how … all by itself ….” These four expressions point to the man not interpreting the process by his actions, nor does the farmer explain how the seed germinates in the ground, nor can the farmer cause the seed to produce. By speaking of the seed germination in these terms, Jesus is showing that human interaction is confined to the spreading of the seed, not the actual growth of it in a person’s life.
Adamczewski connects this non-human ability to produce the flowering of the kingdom of God in a person’s life to the grace of God. Paul the Apostle writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Eph 2:8-9 [NIV])” Seeing a human’s inability to cause the germination of the word of the kingdom in another’s life allows the burden of “saving” people off the shoulders and back into the realm of God. Edwards comments on this very idea, “The kingdom is not dependent on human activity; indeed, apart from sowing, the only human activity noted in this parable is waiting in confidence that, in God’s time and power, the gospel will grow into a fruitful harvest.”
It is here, however, that Lowe and Lowe seem to miss the meaning of the parable. Lowe and Lowe seem to add to the parable’s simple intention by overemphasizing the human element in the passage. They write, “Ultimately, however, the seed grows because of the combined efforts of the farmer and God. If the farmer did not perform his duties of preparing the soil, tilling the soil, and sowing the seed (which God does not perform) there would be no seed in the ground to grow by itself (automatē).” The problem with this interpretation is that it takes the parable too far in its understanding. It adds additional details that Jesus leaves out. Jesus tells the reader nothing about the farmer’s activities except that he scattered the seed. The word used, βάλῃ, is meant to be understood as cast out, as in throwing onto the ground. There is no emphasis on the farmer doing any type of preparation of the soil, instead simply throwing out the seed on an implied untilled land. Edward, in his book, The Gospel According to Mark, writes, “An earlier theology tended to emphasize the role of human activity in ushering in the kingdom of God …. Apart from sowing, the only human activity in this parable is waiting in faith, confident of a harvest to come. The coming of the kingdom of God is likened to a process of growth but a process stately independent of human activity.” Though Edwards improperly imports the sowing language from the Parable of the Sower, as most commentators do, he still recognizes that the process described by Jesus is not the typical cultivation that would follow the sowing process. This would be in keeping with the idea of the Parable of the Sower that proceeds it, where no ground is described as being cultivated.
Yet, a human aspect is mentioned at the end of the parable, which Edwards rightly recognizes. The parable has three simple advancing phases—first, the human sows. God has given the disciple of Christ a mission to share the word of the kingdom. This is referenced in the calling of Simeon and Andrew early in the Gospel and the Great Commission of the disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. Schnabel writes that the scatter needs to be viewed in the sense of recruitment by Jesus for this very act of sowing the word of the kingdom. “In view of Jesus’ recruitment of disciples, who are being trained to extend his ministry (3:13– 19), the man scattering seed also depicts the missionary activity of the Twelve and other followers of Jesus.”
Following the scattering of the word, the next phase is the work of God to produce the growth of what has been scattered. In his commentary on Mark, J.C. Ryle writes of this work of God, “The workings of grace in the heart, in like manner, are utterly mysterious and unsearchable.” Only God works in this moment to bring about the harvest. This is the final phase of the parable, which is the one in which the disciples are to participate.
Jesus speaks to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Mt 9:37-38 [ESV])” The final phase of the parable is the reengagement of the disciple once the growth has occurred. After God brought the growth, the seed, which man did not participate in growing, flowered and required harvesting, so the man took his sickle and brought the harvest in. Just as the disciples are called into a harvest which they do not produce; this harvest is what Jesus speaks to his disciples in the Gospel of John, “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. (Jn 4:36-28)”
These phases are paralleled in Paul’s writing to the Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Cor 3:6-9)” It is Jesus’ intention, that his disciples understand that their work is in the proclamation of the kingdom and the harvest of souls that come to accept Jesus as their Savior. The work between those two acts of obedience is God’s alone.
The parable of the Growing Seed is Jesus’ call to the action of the work of the kingdom. To get out into the field and share the life-giving message of the kingdom of God. At the same time, it is a burden-lifting call. It is not up to the disciple to save or change people; God holds that to himself for his work. This parable’s teaching lifts the weight of fixing the situation and places it squarely where God wants it, with himself.
Francis J. Moloney rightfully ends his commentary on the Parable of the Growing Seed with, “The ultimate fruitfulness of the word of God and the definitive presence of the kingdom of God are assured. There is no cause for discouragement, despite apparent failure and insignificance. God will have the last word.” To the disciples working out the kingdom proclamation in their lives, the Growing Seed Parable encourages them to do the work and leave the rest to God.
Significance of the Passage
As the passage’s significance takes center stage in this next section, taking a step back to look at the overall context again, James Edwards points out an important detail. “Chapter 4, on parables, and chapter 13, on eschatology, are the only two chapters in Mark devoted entirely to Jesus’s teaching.” William L. Lane agrees with this detail, writing, “Apart from the Olivet Discourse in Ch. 13:3– 37, Mark’s grouping of parabolic material in Ch. 4:1– 34 constitutes the largest unit in his Gospel devoted entirely to the teaching of Jesus.” Mark’s gathering of these teachings, without the interruption of Jesus’ deeds, gives insight into the parables’ intention to be interconnected in such a way that leads the reader to link them in ways not found in other teachings throughout the Gospel.
The significance of the parable then is connected to the previous parables of the Sower and the Lamp and the ending parable of the Mustard Seed. Lane notices that Mark’s selection of these particular parables reflects on “sowing, growth and harvest-elements,” illuminating the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims. Jesus uses parables that use images of agriculture and daily life to communicate the Kingdom of God, “… the natural order thus becomes the vehicle for the tenor of the redemptive. A contemplation of the one order can reveal or illumine truths of the other because both reflect God’s intention.”
This use by Jesus of the natural world to show truths of the spiritual is attested to by Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe when they write, “The parables of Jesus help us see creation as Jesus did, and through his teachings, we are able to understand the wholeness of life and salvation ….” Therefore Jesus’ use of the world around us to teach us spiritual truths of God and his Kingdom reveals an interconnectedness between the two. Lowe and Lowe would refer to these as ecologies and believe that the significance of the Growing Seed parable lies in “… ecological growth [which] leads to eschatological abundance.” Though growth and eschatological abundance are a part of the passage, the theological significance of the passage is missed due to overemphasis on the ecological aspect of the parable.
As Edwards notes, “Parables are not allegories, wherein each element of the story, like a mathematical equation, represents a specific reality.” In looking at the context of the other parables and Mark’s placement in his Gospel, Jesus’ teaching becomes clearer. The scattering seeds come after the twelve apostles are recognized (3:13-21). This leads to the question of where the power of Jesus comes from, God or Beelzebul (3:22-30). Following this, Jesus recognizes the true family of God as those who do the will of God (3:31-35). It is within this context that Mark gives us four parables: Sower, Lamp, Growing Seed, and Mustard Seed. The Sower parable focuses on the proclamation and reception of the Kingdom’s message. The Lamp focuses not on hiding that message but on illuminating what happens in the life of a person who responds to the message, whether good soil or not. Following these, the Growing Seed, which was scattered, grows not by human hands but by natural occurrence, the details of which are unknown to the scatterer. This points to the human’s role as the one who scatters the seed, and the sovereignty of God who grows it. Finally, the focus turns to the Mustard Seed, which, though small, grows into abundance. This turns the reader’s attention away from how much is scattered to the ability of God to grow even the smallest of seeds into a great plant for birds to rest in. Following these parables on the role of the human and the role of God in the proclamation of the Kingdom, Mark focuses on a series of moments in chapters 4 & 5 from Jesus’ life that Lane entitles “The Vanquishing of Powers Hostile To God.” R.T. France has a similar interpretation of the same chapters as he entitles these as “Further Revelations of Jesus’ Unique Authority.”
Taking the Growing Seed parable with its context of chapters 3 through 5 into account, the sovereignty of God, and more specifically, Jesus’ authority, makes the work of the scatter possible. This thereby points the reader to the theological understanding that the disciple’s job is to scatter seed (Kingdom message), not worry about where it lands (the person’s spiritual state), for the light will shine on those who accept the message. The disciple is not to worry about trying to make the seed grow, for it is God who brings about the growth in a person’s life, and Jesus has the authority to do this very work. Due to this, the application can now be applied to the disciple’s life.
Application
In his opening commentary on the parables of Mark 4, Edwards writes, “Jesus’s parables … usually have only a single main point, and like stained glass windows in a cathedral, they reveal a brilliance only when hearers enter ‘into’ the narrative.” The main point of the Growing Seed parable is roles. The disciples’ role is to plant, and God’s role is to grow. Edwards writes, “The kingdom is not dependent on human activity … in God’s time and power, the gospel grows.” France agrees with this when he writes, “… it [the kingdom] will come in God’s time and in God’s way, not by human effort or in accordance with human logic.” Lane concurs with this interpretation, saying, “It [the kingdom] comes mysteriously, by God’s initiative and appointment, without human intervention.”
The disciple is to plant the seed, meaning they are to share the Kingdom message. For the Christians today, that would be the message of the Gospel of Christ. The Christian is the farmer scattering the seed, sharing the Gospel, on all types of ground: people. It is not the job of the Christian to make faith appear within a person, but rather trust that God is working in the lives of the people who have heard the message. This is a freeing thought. It is not the role of the Christian to force conversion or force faith but rather to trust that God continues to work in a person’s life even though it might not be seen from the outside.
Internal workings of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life are not up to the Christian, though they may sincerely desire to enact change. The parable of the Growing Seed tells the disciples of Christ to trust and rely on God to do the work he wishes to do. For if disciple desires to see their friend or family member come to trust in Jesus as Savior, that desire first began in the person of God, whose desire for the redemption of the lost far exceeds the human’s desire.
Conclusion
The Growing Seed parable is a simple, often overlooked teaching of Jesus which contains deep comfort within its imagery. Therefore, by looking at the passage's historical, cultural, and literary context, this paper brought out its meaning and significance and then applied it to the life of the disciple of Christ. The disciple is called to the work of Jesus in proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world, to which God works in the hearts and minds of people to bring about redemption and transformation. It is a call to disciples to trust that God is working, get off the sidelines of excuses, and do the work that the Lord has set out for his Church to do. May every believer work with Kingdom purpose, knowing God is also active.
Bibliography
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