Growth Beyond Sight

Parables and the Great Calm · Mark 4

Story guide: The kingdom grows beyond the farmer’s control—from hidden seed to harvest and sheltering branches.

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26And he was saying, “The kingdom of God is like this: as when a man casts the seed upon the ground,”

27and he sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he himself does not know how.

28The soil bears fruit by itself: first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

29But when the crop is ready, he immediately sends in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

30And he was saying, “How should we compare the kingdom of God, or in what parable should we set it forth?”

31It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown on the ground, being smaller than all the seeds on the ground—

32and when it is sown, it comes up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and it produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky are able to nest under its shade.

33And with many such parables he was speaking the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

34And he was not speaking to them without a parable, but in private he was explaining everything to his own disciples.

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