Harvest
“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29
Jesus described life in His kingdom as a farmer who gets at least eight hours of sleep a night. He slumbers so soundly, in fact, that he goes about his days without a worry for his crops. The phrase “he himself does not know how” indicates a complete ignorance concerning how farming even works: “All I know is I drop seed in the ground and come back for harvest.” This is no farmer I’ve ever met. Most farmers are early to rise and late to sleep, driven by an anxious energy. From weeding to fertilizing to a good deal of glaring (as if that could make corn grow) the farmer watches over everything from planting until harvest.
The parable runs contrary to any real-life farming sense. And that’s the point. This is the kingdom of God, where all the hard work is complete in the Savior whose flesh was tilled with nails and spear, and the earth was fertilized with His holy, precious blood. No farmer sleeps as soundly as this parable portrays, but faith can rest secure in every promise of Jesus who sprouted forth from the dirt of death, just as He said He would.
All your worries avail you nothing, in both physical and spiritual labor. Just as the Bible promises “while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest… shall not cease,” so too the final harvest is around the corner, when the angels will gather you into eternal glory. (Gen. 8:22) Until then, you and I are called to labor in a vast mission field. If it seems too much for you to handle, that’s because it is! But in Christ, you can “scatter the seed” and “sleep by night,” simply trusting the power of His Word alone to provide the crop: “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (I Cor. 3:7).
Father, grant the harvest to grow and bring forth fruit to Your glory alone. Amen.