Explaining to His disciples what in modern language might be called the dialectic of the Kingdom, Jesus compares it to a mustard seed, almost unnoticeable because of its size, yet later able to grow into a tree that only...
Explaining to His disciples what in modern language might be called the dialectic of the Kingdom, Jesus compares it to a mustard seed, almost unnoticeable because of its size, yet later able to grow into a tree that only a blind person could fail to notice. Such is the history of the Kingdom entering our untransformed world, a world permeated by forces of evil that resist this Kingdom with all their might. It can enter such a world only from within, penetrating it unnoticed with one Man who will lay its foundation.
Of course, both in Gospel times and today, many would like the Kingdom to enter the world at once in its fullness, so that its triumph would immediately become visible to everyone and no one could have any doubt about the meaning of what is happening. But such an entry of the Kingdom into the world would perhaps have been possible only if the world had not once undergone the tragedy of the Fall. Then, by the time of the Messiah's coming, the world might already have been ready for the triumph of the Kingdom. But by definition, a fallen world cannot be ready for this. It must be prepared for transformation, just as every individual human being wounded by sin must be prepared for it. And just as an individual needs time for such preparation, so does the world as a whole. This preparation, it seems, is precisely the meaning of what might be called the history of the Kingdom entering the world.
By using parables, Jesus seeks to convey to His disciples this truth, seemingly simple yet difficult for the mind to grasp. Conveying it was evidently very important, not only because an adequate understanding of the nature of the Kingdom was at stake, but also because its history presupposed a fairly long spiritual and life journey awaiting everyone who sought the Kingdom and everyone who dwelt in it. Figuratively speaking, every follower of Christ had to prepare not for a sprint but for a long-distance race. It was better for everyone to know this in advance.
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4:26 So is the kingdom of God - The inward kingdom is like seed which a man casts into the ground - This a preacher of the Gospel casts into the heart. And he sleeps and rises night and day - That is, he has it continually in his thoughts. Meantime it springs and grows up he knows not how - Even he that sowed it cannot explain how it grows. For as the earth by a curious kind of mechanism, which the greatest philosophers cannot comprehend, does as it were spontaneously bring forth first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear: so the soul, in an inexplicable manner, brings forth, first weak graces, then stronger, then full holiness: and all this of itself, as a machine, whose spring of motion is within itself. Yet observe the amazing exactness of the comparison. The earth brings forth no corn (as the soul no holiness) without both the care and toil of man, and the benign influence of heaven.
4:29 He putteth in the sickle - God cutteth down and gathereth the corn into his garner.
4:30 Mat 13:31; Luk 13:18.
4:33 He spake the word as they were able to hear it - Adapting it to the capacity of his hearers; and speaking as plain as he could without offending them. A rule never to be forgotten by those who instruct others.