Shade Tree or Weed? Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 4:26-34)

Are you a shade tree or a weed?

Jesus continues describing the kingdom in parables and by doing so exposes our wrong motives and encourages real life.  Take a look at yourself in this mirror, he says.

He said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like.  A man sows seed in the ground and sleeps and wakes every night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know how.  Acting by itself, the earth bears fruit, first the blade, then the head of grain, then the full wheat in the head of grain.  When the product is ripe he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

And he said, “What shall we compare the kingdom of God to, or how shall we express it in a parable?  It is like the mustard seed, which, when you sow it in the ground is the smallest of all seeds, but after it is sown it grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs and produces great branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

And with many such parables he spoke the Word to them, as many as were able to hear it.  He didn’t speak to them without parables, privately interpreting them all for his own disciples. (Mark 4:26-34, ESV)

The way the kingdom grows in influence and in the lives of individuals is as mysterious as how seeds grow into mature crops.  The hand of God produces this growth.  We see someone we might think would never submit to God’s rule but then he does.  God’s seed sprouts in him.    Nevertheless, there is a consummation to this process, a harvest that is coming, after which the sowing will cease.  The kingdom will come and all those who are not part of the harvest will be excluded.  The sickle will bring into the kingdom only the harvest.

The kingdom’s influence is also disproportionate to the small beginning it makes.  But whenever it grows it benefits all those around it.  The church has at times worked counter to the kingdom, but when it has sown the kingdom message it has transformed lives and cultures for the better, and far beyond what could have been expected.

Jesus was now in parable mode because the crowds were in selfish mode, only concerned about the benefits of the kingdom that were coming to them and not about the King and their own acknowledgement of His sovereignty in their lives and their need for repentance and faith.

Woe to us if we get in that mode.  We are the church but we can wrongly begin to think of the church as something separate from us that is supposed to meet our needs.  We shop for churches that satisfy our desires, good though they may be, instead of being part of those shady limbs that support others.  We are more like weeds taking from the tree and stunting it.  Weeds need to be pulled.