Mark 4

Jesus came to establish a new kingdom, even to inaugurate an entire new age of human existence. He would not bring about that new kingdom in one sudden burst from heaven, but He would bring the era of resurrection slowly through the proclamation of the truth over many centuries. Anyone might have expected that with the presence of a large crowd, He would have moved quickly, since His time was short, His goals were massive, and the opportunity seemed comparatively large. We might have expected that He would bring forth His clearest teaching at that moment, but He deliberately did something different. "A sower went out to sow."

He spoke to them in parables. This first story was about a farmer, and about four different kinds of soil. Three of the soils yielded nothing, but one was fruitful. He ended not with an explanation of the story, as Isaiah had in His indictment of the people of the Old Covenant vineyard of God. He simply said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Even His disciples did not understand the story. Imagine how perplexed the large crowd would have been by this amazing Healer who told parables and did not explain what they were about. When He was alone with His disciples, He told them the meaning of the parable, saying that they have been given something that the larger crowds had not been given, the secret of the kingdom of God. This was a fulfillment of Isaiah, who saw a future day when the Lord would speak and conceal, rather than speak and plainly reveal. This was judgment speech upon Israel, stories without explanation. But for the disciples, Christ revealed the secret of the kingdom. Just one little fact about the story helps to make it clearer: The seed that is being sown is the word.

Jesus would build His kingdom over many centuries, not with the spectacular, but with the ordinary preaching and teaching of the word. In many cases those efforts would appear to yield almost nothing. Some people would not understand at all. Some would seem to embrace the word, but then would later reject it when the cost of following the word seemed too high. Others would embrace for a time, but find that they were easily deceived by riches and the desire for other things. Finally there would be some who would yield good fruit. They would hear the word, accept it, and live by it. This is the way that the kingdom would move ahead; not with angelic hosts singing in the heavens as happened near Bethlehem some years before. That was wonderful, but it was not the way that the kingdom would normally come. The kingdom would grow through a miracle of hearing. Some would be given ears to hear, and they truly would hear, and their lives would be good soil for what they heard.

That is not to suggest that everything about the kingdom was to be a secret. Those who hear the word and accept it are to live it out. They are to be bold in making the word visible through the conduct of their lives. They do this not to bring glory to themselves, but to let the light of Christ shine to the glory of God in the building up and living out of His resurrection age.

Also, there will finally come a spectacular day, a day of the greatest transformation for all to see, a day of final harvest. Some of the stories that Jesus told had a cataclysmic end point after a long period of quiet planting, growing, and gathering. During the long time of kingdom gathering it would be critical to pay attention to what we would hear in the ministry of the word, and to live out what we had come to know. This was not to be yet another religion of hypocrisy among men. This was to be the kingdom of God, a kingdom of new resurrection life. The word that we need to hear was to be proclaimed plainly, and the growth would come from an unseen source, as if heaven would add what only heaven could do throughout all those centuries. But then the harvest would come dramatically and visibly at just the right time. The beginnings of this new plant might seem to be very small, and its progress quite slow, yet it would be everything that Jesus intended it to be. It would be an overwhelming kingdom, even an entire new age.

This kingdom would come through some events that could not be missed. These included the overwhelming facts of the death of Christ, His resurrection, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, first upon Jews, and then upon Gentiles. These would be foundational events of the new resurrection age. To atone for the sins of an entire people, to pick up one's life again after laying it down for the brethren, to send the resources of the Spirit of God among a people in a new way, bringing resurrection resources upon the souls of men, all these things require extraordinary power, power that is beyond this world.

The normal course of the work of the Lord's Kingdom over many centuries would not be as dramatic as these few great events, but it also would not be like a quiet trip on calm seas. It is a stormy ride in dangerous waters, where we wonder if we are going to drown. It is a great aid to our faith during these times to remember that the One who died, rose again, and sent forth His Spirit among men, was also the One who showed His disciples His heavenly power by walking upon the raging seas. This Jesus is with His church through centuries of rough waters. He is establishing His kingdom through the proclamation of His Word. Those who have ears to hear, will hear, and there will be visible fruit seen by all on a glorious day of final gathering.