Mark 4:26-29

²⁶ And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground,

²⁷ and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.

²⁸ For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

²⁹ But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

This parable was mentioned only by Mark.

My commentaries interpret this parable to refer to the Church in the modern age or to the growth of an individual believer. Odd, since the Lord began the parable with the application — “The kingdom of God.”

This new parable refers to the disciples as representing the fertile soil, and is a pendant to the parable of the Sower, teaching that even in the case of the fourth type of hearers the production of fruit is a gradual process demanding time. Put negatively, it amounts to saying that Christ’s ministry has as yet produced no fruit properly speaking at all, but only in some cases has met with soil that gives promise of fruit (the disciples). — Wuest, page 91.

sleep .. and rise (v.27) — present tense, “sleeping and rising” — Suggestive of a man who has nothing to do except wait patiently for the results of his past action.

sprout and grow (v.27) — again, present tense, “sprouting and growing”

does not know how (v.27) — In Greek, emphasis is on “how.”

The mystery of growth still puzzles farmers and scientists of today with all our modern knowledge. But nature’s secret processes do not fail to operate because we are ignorant. This secret and mysterious growth of the kingdom in the heart and life is the point of this parable. — Wuest, page 92.

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by itself (v.28) = self-moved, spontaneously, without external aid, and also beyond external control, with a way and a will, so to speak, of its own that must be respected and waited for. — Wuest, page 92.

blade (v.28) = grass, the first shoots that spring up from the dirt

head (v.28) = an ear of corn or grain, the covering of the actual fruit

full grain (v.28) = the grain itself

sickle (v.29) — the reapers who use it to harvest

has come (v.29) – stands ready, tense is a past action with present results. The process of growth resulted in a fruit ready for harvest.

Without any commentary to guide me, my take is this: The disciples were to sow the seeds by spreading the message that the Kingdom of God was at hand. They weren’t responsible for the way the message was received or for the way the Holy Spirit brought the hearers to the point of believing it. But the disciples were to be ready to reap the harvest when it was ready by leading people to the Lord.