Mark 4:26-29
I
want you to imagine stepping into a time machine and travelling back in time
about a hundred years. The world is at the beginning of World War II, and Ford
Motor Co is cranking out cars. Scheduled flights for passengers have begun. The
building of the Lincoln Memorial in DC has begun. Charlie Chaplin is the
biggest movie actor. Babe Ruth starts pitching for the Boston Red Sox. A phone
like is made across the United States. The
Panama Canal opens for business with its first cargo passing through.
Now
reach down and grab your smart phone. How would you describe your smart phone
to someone in 1914? Stop and think about it for a minute. There is a whole
world of experiences that inform our understanding of your smart phone which
they have never experienced. They don’t know about computers, or cell towers,
or texting. Your description might begin like this. A smart phone is like a
magical book that…. It is very hard to adequately explain it without having to
explain all the other technologies and experiences that accompany the smart
phone.
The
Kingdom of God is like…. Jesus often started His parables like this when words
just couldn’t capture the reality He wanted to express. Sometimes words just
fail. I am sure Jesus could have explained it in human words, but our human
experiences fall so short of the reality that any explanation He could give
would only lead to limited understanding on our side of the conversation. Human
words fail to capture Heaven’s full reality.
Jesus
likens spiritual growth to the growth of a seed. There are things about the
growth of a seed that we still don’t fully understand, even today. Even with
all our wonderful science and research some parts remain unknown to us humans. How
much less we know about spiritual growth! One thing we do know, both grow
according do predictable patterns. Both seeds and spiritual growth move toward
the goal of producing more of itself, more seed to eat and plant and more
spiritual seed that gets sown in other’s lives so that it will also produce
spiritual fruit in them.
The
growth happens even though we don’t know how. Yes, the sun gives energy to the photosynthesis
process, and the plant draws water and nutrients from the ground, but how it
all happens is still an unseen process. We do know the order of things. The
seed germinates, it sends out its first leaves and roots with the energy stored
in the seed itself. It continues growing gathering energy from the environment.
Eventually it produces seed and the process can start all over again.
A
person hears God’s Word and they respond. God causes an internal eternal change
in the heart. A desire grows for more of God’s Word. Growth happens in proportion
to the nutrients ingested. Eventually God’s Word is shared and another person
is awakened by God.