His disciples will collaborate with Him
Jesus' agrarian imagery reveals the Christological framework
One Minute Gospel Meditation
By MHB-M
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come” Mark 4:26-34.
The unspoken marvel of farming is that only those who labor in the earth’s crust comprehend how dependent one remains upon factors beyond oneself. The farmer proceeds while not knowing how their work will turn out. Or if they will see any fruits at all.
Clearly, Jesus chose the agrarian imagery to reveal the Christological framework — how all disciples will collaborate with Him.
A man scatters seed, which Jesus pointed out is the “Word of God.” The man sleeps and rises, a nourishing night and a toiling day. He submits to the life-giving process, beginning with the battle of dirt, physically vanquished and totally dependent. The land and seed possess an innate intelligibility, a symbiotic relationship. They are oriented to growth.
Later, a tense and often fraught series of weeks and months rapidly shifts into a stunning, now hurried, production of grain. The farmer, we, the disciples, must be ready in a demanding short window of time for the final harvest.
Jesus’ imagery of the farmer’s process isn’t just an analogy of discipleship. It shows us a complex orchestration of many exercises in chemistry. Growth involves invisible toxins and microorganisms, both attacked and assisted by small creatures and every imaginable weather event.
Could this also refer to the arduous proclamation and labor of discipleship? The longing to experience fruit production sooner rather than later? Aren’t we eager to wield the sickle of an abundant harvest of souls won for God?
A mysterious patience is implied, left to acknowledge that what is seen is not the whole reality of the greatness that is unfolding. We must place matters in His providential timing. Buried with Jesus and trusting His innate intelligibility to work the miracle of life in and through our humble unity with the soil.
We know not how and when and even if, yet worship in awe.