And he said, Thus is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast the seed upon the earth,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and should sleep and rise up night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he does not know how.
This verse holds the whole weight of the parable: the sower sleeps, gets up, lives his life — and the seed grows anyway. Only Mark records it. It raises two old questions: who is the man who sleeps, and who is it that does not know how?
One commentator sees a design in what Mark alone records:
This is a parable found only in the Gospel of Mark, and so it is characteristic of the divine design. This parable sets out Christ's service first and last. For the kingdom of God it marks an unexpected fact: between His action at the beginning and His action at the end, He seems to leave things to take their course.
The sower does nothing visible while he sleeps and rises. For the Lord, that gap runs from His work on earth to His return:
So the Lord worked in person, sowing the word of God on earth. At the end He will return and work in person again, when the time has come to judge this world. But for now He remains seated at the right hand of God, as though He were not occupying Himself with His field. Yet in secret He works by His grace, and He produces everything. It is just not obvious. He seems to let the gospel grow without having anything to do with it until the harvest. Then He will appear and will Himself work openly.
Another writer reads that silence as a break with an older pattern:
Not knowing how the seed grew is simply how things look to the world. The world knows nothing of God's secret sustaining power. Once, God acted openly for His people. It might be by judgment, or by rescue from their enemies, but it was plain to see. This was now about to change. God no longer stepping in for His people would look to the world as if He did not know how the seed grew. In His wisdom, faith must seem to be left to itself, so that it may grow stronger.
If the man is the Lord, "he knows not how" troubles readers. One writer points to the two small words that guard the whole picture:
Those who know Him reject the unworthy thought that He gives up all care over His work here below. They reject even more strongly the idea that He who knows all things does not know how the work He laboured on is going. Our Lord took pains to say that the kingdom is "as if." He did not stop watching and working hard, any more than a farmer only sows and reaps, with no interest or service in between.
For us, though, the not knowing is real and lasting:
"He knows not how" is true today. Men have pushed their research very far. But the real how of the wonderful processes carried on in God's great workshop of nature still escapes them.
Commentators differ on who the man is, and each side meets a sentence it cannot fit:
Students of the Scriptures have long debated whether the "man" in this parable stands for the Lord Himself or for His servants. Those who argue for the servants say we cannot imagine the Lord not knowing how the seed grows, or leaving it to take care of itself. Others reply that Christ's servants are not the ones who will put in the sickle and reap the grain on the day of harvest.
The same writer resolves it by shifting attention off the man altogether:
The central thought of the parable is the service, not the servant. The seed grows by itself in the same way, whether the Lord Himself preaches or those He sends.
If the growth is not ours, the parable teaches us to wait:
After sowing the seed, what more can we do? Nothing but hope and pray that it may bear fruit. God has put into the earth everything needed to make a seed grow. In the same way, He alone can make the seed of the word grow in the human heart. The sower goes on with his daily duties night and day, and leaves the seed in the earth to grow. So we go on with our responsibilities night and day, and leave the word to grow in any heart where it may have been sown.
The sleeping and rising carry a deeper echo, and a comfort with it:
He sowed the seed and then "slept and rose" — He died and rose from the dead. In view of that He could rejoice in knowing that the seed would spring up, increase, and bring a harvest. What was His comfort is the comfort of all His true servants who sow the word.
- Sown — Christ sowed the word in person when He came. The parable marks His action at the start and at the end, with an unexpected gap between.
- Slept — Between those two points the King is out of sight. He is seated on high, working in secret by grace, seeming to leave the field alone.
- Secret — "He knows not how" is said "as if." It describes a world blind to God's sustaining power, and a growth no research has ever explained.
- Servant — Commentators differ over whether the man is Christ or His workers. One answer: the parable is about the service, not the servant.
- Sickle — The power is in the seed, not the sower. So our part is to keep sowing and wait, while God brings His own work to harvest.
The earth bears fruit of itself, first [the] blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear.
The kingdom of God grows like a crop no one is watching. The seed is in the ground, the sower sleeps, and the field does its work. This verse tells us what happens in that silence. It raises two questions: whose power is at work, and why is growth so slow?
The field produces without the sower touching it. That is not a sign that God is uninvolved.
The parable says that the earth bears fruit fit for the sower "of itself." That is the point in the parable. God has tilled that soil, and it must therefore be fruitful.
This sets a limit on what the person sowing can do, and names what God alone does.
Once the seed is sown the sower can do no more. He goes on with his daily work and leaves the seed to do its own work, helped by the resources God has placed there. Let us not try schemes to make the seed germinate when only God can do that! I am persuaded that this first work of preparing the ground to receive the seed — the word — is when a soul is "born again." Our Lord spoke of the earth bringing forth fruit of itself. In the same way, a soul worked on by God would have spiritual resources for receiving the word. That word is heard in the preaching of the good news of the grace of God.
The growth is invisible. That is a change from the days when God acted for His people in ways everyone could see.
Not knowing how the seed grew is simply how it looks to a world that knows nothing of God's secret sustaining power. It is a contrast with what happened when the LORD stepped in openly for His people. He might act by judgment, or by rescue from their enemies, but it was visible. This was now about to change. God would no longer step in for His saints, so to the world it would look as if He did not know how the seed grew. The earth brought forth fruit of itself: the blade, the ear, the ripe fruit. In the same way, God's saints would look to the world as if all their strength came from human sources. The harvest would undeceive them, but not until then.
Each stage marks real progress, and only the last one is the signal to reap.
"The blade" would be the first sign of life, evidence that the seed had germinated. "The ear" would be a further sign of growth. "The full grain in the ear" would be fruit at maturity. Only then is it time to reap the harvest. In our eagerness to gather souls into the kingdom we may be tempted to reap blades, or ears. How much better to wait for visible fruit! Then our reaping will not be in vain.
The pace is not a defect. What looks like delay is the method of the One who designed seed and soil.
The seed is first sown, then patience must wait for its results, which are neither immediate nor sudden. How the gradual growth takes place is beyond our knowledge. It is the work of an infinitely great and wise Creator.
The Lord's own work stands at both ends of this growth: He sowed, and He will reap.
The Lord worked personally, sowing the word of God on earth; and at the end He will return and work again in person, when the time to judge this world has come. But in the meantime He remains seated at the right hand of God, as though He were not occupied with His field. Yet in secret He does work by His grace, and He produces everything. It is not visible. Unseen, He works by His grace to make the seed grow in a divine way. To all appearances He lets the gospel grow without having anything to do with it until the harvest.
And so the outcome is never in doubt, whatever the age looks like.
Fruit is certainly being produced for God in the world: "first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear." Whatever the way things look, the gospel is winning true hearts for the Saviour who died and rose again.
- Sown — the sower's whole task is to cast the seed; only God can make it germinate, and He has already prepared the soil that bears fruit "by itself."
- Hidden — the growth is unseen, so the world reads God's silence as God's absence. The harvest will correct them, but not before.
- Staged — blade, ear, then full grain: life shows first, growth follows, maturity comes last, and each stage is real.
- Slow — the results are neither immediate nor sudden. The pace belongs to a wise Creator, so don't reap blades and don't rush souls.
- Certain — the Sower sowed in person and will reap in person. Between the two He works unseen, and the field is bearing fruit for God right now.
But when the fruit is produced, immediately he sends the sickle, for the harvest is come.
This line closes a short parable found only in Mark. A man scatters seed, sleeps and rises while it grows without his help, and then the sickle goes in. The words "at once" carry the weight. After a long stretch of apparent inaction, the reaping is sudden. Who reaps, and why was the wait so long?
The sower here is the Lord Himself. The parable spans the whole distance between His first coming and His second. Once the fruit is ripe, His hidden work becomes open work.
So the Lord worked in person, sowing the word of God on earth. At the end, He will return and work in person again, when the time has come to judge this world. For now, He remains seated at the right hand of God, as though He were not busy with His field. Yet in secret He does work by His grace, and produces everything. But it is not visible. Unseen, He works by His grace to make the seed grow in a divine way. On the surface He seems to leave the gospel to grow without having anything to do with it, until the harvest. Then He will appear and will Himself work openly.
The sleeping and rising of the sower is not neglect. It covers a stretch of time when God appears to do nothing in the open. Then, right on time, He acts.
This does not mean His care over His people sleeps. But outwardly, things happen in what claims to be under His authority without any open action on His part. "But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." So He will soon put in the sickle. Despite what man does, the harvest comes in its due season.
The wait before the sickle has cost believers real pain.
The apparent indifference of the Lord of the harvest has often perplexed the godly. They have watched the finest people on earth thrown to lions by the heathen. They have seen them tortured in the Inquisition and burned at the stake by the religious leaders of Christendom. Their anguished hearts have wondered at the silence of heaven. No angels have appeared to rescue the oppressed, as they did for Peter in prison. And no miracle has come to their aid, as in the day when the three Hebrews were thrown into the fiery furnace. "O Lord, how long?" has been the agonised cry of many. They have wondered at the triumph of evil, especially in religious circles.
There is a reason the sickle waits.
While the growth is still mixed, and while the grain is not yet ripe, no judgment takes place. If it did, it might root the unripe grain out of the world.
The stages before the sickle — blade, ear, full grain — set the standard for when reaping is worth doing. That standard reaches into everyday service.
"The blade" would be the first sign of life, evidence that the seed had germinated. "The ear" would be a further sign of growth. "The full grain in the ear" would be fruit at maturity. Only then is it time to reap the harvest. In our eagerness to gather souls into the kingdom, we may feel inclined to reap blades or ears. How much better to wait for the fruit that is plainly there! Then our reaping will not be in vain.
One writer reads the sleeping and rising in the parable as the Lord's own death and resurrection.
None of the other Gospel writers record this parable. The seed sown grows in secret. No one knows how. Life is in the Word. He sowed the seed and then "slept and rose" — He died and rose from the dead. In view of that He could rejoice in the knowledge that the seed would spring up, increase, and bring a harvest. And the sower will put in the sickle. The harvest (the end of the age) is more fully revealed in Matthew 13. What was His comfort is the comfort of all His true servants who sow the word.
His people can count on the outcome without hesitation, and here is the reason.
God's work, of which Christ is the doer, cannot fail in anything to glorify Himself.
- Sown. The Lord Himself scattered the seed at His first coming, then went to the right hand of God — the whole parable hangs between His two personal comings.
- Hidden. His apparent inaction is not neglect. He works in secret by grace to make the seed grow.
- Withheld. The sickle waits because early judgment would root out grain that is not yet ripe. The delay that troubles the godly protects the harvest.
- Ripe. Blade, ear, then full grain. God reaps maturity, so His servants should not rush to reap blades.
- Reaped. "At once" — when the fruit is ready, He appears and works openly. His work cannot fail in anything to glorify Himself.