INDICATIVE FEATURES OF THE ILLUSTRATION

19, 20. What two main things embrace the whole illustration, and so what is the point that is made by the illustration, and with what in view, quantity or quality?

¹⁹ Jesus opened up the illustration by saying: “In this way [or, Thus] the kingdom of God is just as when a man casts the seed upon the ground.”​—Mark 4:26, NW; Kingdom Interlinear Translation.

²⁰ We note two main things that embrace the whole illustration. First, there is a sowing of the seed in connection with God’s kingdom, and, secondly, there is a harvesting, or reaping, of the crop that results from the seed sown. So the point is that, just as surely as there was a sowing, or a planting, of the seed, there must be expected a harvesting, or a reaping. The one thing inevitably follows the other. The solemn truth is that what a person sows with relation to God’s kingdom leads on to what he will harvest, or reap. Rather than quantity, the quality of what he reaps is important!

21. Did Jesus specify the kind of seed or the type of soil on which it was cast, and yet what question arises as to the seed?

²¹ Jesus did not specify the kind of seed or the type of soil involved in the planting. He said: “But as soon as the fruit permits it, he thrusts in the sickle [a small hand instrument], because the harvesttime has come.” (Mark 4:29) The Jews to whom Jesus gave the illustration had three harvests during the agricultural year. The first took place right after the spring Passover festival, a sheaf of the barley harvest being presented on Nisan 16 by the high priest at Jerusalem’s temple. Fifty days from then, the high priest presented the firstfruits of the wheat harvest at the temple and after that this harvest went forward. The third harvest came at the end of the summer and was memorialized by the festival of ingathering, or of the booths (tabernacles), beginning on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, Tishri. (Ex. 23:14-17) Which of these three harvesttimes was the one meant in the illustration is not stated. But, whatever seed it was that was sown, what does it picture?

22. If not picturing members of the Christian congregation, what does the seed picture, and is the growth of such “seed” beyond control?

²² Jesus’ illustration says that the seed sown sprouted and grew tall and matured to having the full grain in the head. We have noted that the seed sown does not picture the members of the Christian congregation. As the next article will show, the seed scattered about upon the ground pictures the seeds of the sower’s personal qualities, attitudes and capacities for service in connection with God’s kingdom. He must seek nourishment for these as from the ground. The growth of these personal traits to maturity and ripeness for harvesting is gradual. This is a thing for us to watch, for it is not beyond control.

3. In the illustration at Mark 4:26-29, what does the seed picture, and what do Christians have to cultivate with regard to their personality today just as first-century Christians had to do?

³ In the parable of the sower and the seed, as related at Mark 4:26-29, the seed pictures qualities of personality. To the Jews who rejected the parable of the sower and other parables, Jesus said: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matt. 21:43, 45, 46) According to this, there are “fruits” of the kingdom of God. (Luke 3:8) Allied with those Kingdom fruits there is what is called “the fruitage of the spirit,” namely, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22, 23) Back there in the first century, the Christians to whom the apostle Paul wrote had to sow “seed” in the way of Christian qualities that need nourishment, just as Christians today have to do in connection with the kingdom of God. These personal qualities must be developed to full maturity, completion.​—Zech. 8:12; Jas. 3:18.

4. What does the “seed” of personal Christian qualities need for nourishment?

⁴ At the time of their fully ripening would be the normal time to harvest them. But where should the Christian sower of such “seed” choose to sow it in hope of finally reaping the desired harvest? He wants his crop to have God’s approval, that he may be counted worthy of acceptance in connection with God’s kingdom. Just as natural seed needs ground, so the seed of personal Christian qualities, “the fruitage of the spirit,” needs environment.​—Prov. 18:1.

5. To reap the expected harvest, care with respect to what must be exercised, as emphasized in Luke 8:14?

⁵ Recall Jesus’ parable with reference to the four kinds of soil upon which the seed of the sower fell. (Mark 4:3-20; Luke 8:5-15) This parable illustrates how care and the right choice must be exercised as to the environment for the seed if the expected harvest is to be reaped. Just as Jesus explained concerning the thorn-infested environment for the seed: “As for that which fell among the thorns, these are the ones that have heard, but, by being carried away by anxieties and riches and pleasures of this life, they are completely choked and bring nothing to perfection.”​—Luke 8:14.

6. In Galatians 5:7-9, how did Paul call attention to the effect of bad environment?

⁶ In line with this, the apostle Paul made an observation in connection with the Christians in Galatia to whom he wrote about “the fruitage of the spirit,” to warn them that they were being badly affected by the wrong environment. He said: “You were running well. Who hindered you from keeping on obeying the truth? This sort of persuasion is not from the One calling you. A little leaven ferments the whole lump.” (Gal. 5:7-9; Matt. 13:33) Those Galatian Christians were being influenced by those Judaizers whose hearts were unreceptive to full Christianity, whose ears were unresponsive and whose eyes were pasted shut. (Matt. 13:14, 15; Gal. 5:10) Such hindering associations must be avoided, abandoned.

7. How did Paul express similar concern over the effect of bad environment for the Christians in Corinth?

⁷ The apostle Paul also feared that the Corinthian congregation might not be cultivating “the fruitage of the spirit,” for he wrote them to say: “I am afraid that somehow, when I arrive, I may find you not as I could wish and I may prove to be to you not as you could wish, but, instead, there should somehow be strife, jealousy, cases of anger, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, cases of being puffed up, disorders.” (2 Cor. 12:20) After quoting those who say, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die,” Paul could, with good reason, issue the warning: “Do not be misled. Bad associations spoil useful habits.”​—1 Cor. 15:32, 33.

8. Why will the growth of personality qualities go on in spite of a Christian’s taking of sleep, and why cannot he be certain when judging according to the first out-growth?

⁸ Like ground, into which the seed falls and which has the God-given power for nourishing either wheat or thorns, the environment in which a Christian chooses to cultivate qualities of personality will affect him for good or for bad. Even if he sleeps while embedding himself in such an environment, the law of environmental influence will relentlessly operate toward him until the outgrowth allows for the sickle to be thrust in because personal harvesttime has come. In this connection, Jesus said: “Of its own self the ground bears fruit gradually, first the grass-blade, then the stalk head, finally the full grain in the head.” (Mark 4:28) To the sower the growth is almost imperceptible and it is by a power that he cannot comprehend. The growth in the one direction or the other will go on gradually, first like a grass-blade, then like a stalk head, finally like the full grain in the head.

9. How does the parable of the wheat and the weeds illustrate the uncertainty regarding the final outcome from sowing in a certain environment?

⁹ When the seed first sprouts and produces the grass-blade, the sower may not be exactly sure of what he will harvest, to judge from the appearance of things. At that early stage of growth he may not be positively certain of what is coming up; he merely remembers what kind of seed he planted. To illustrate: In Jesus parable of the wheat and the weeds, in Matthew 13:26-30, he said:

When the blade sprouted and produced fruit, then the weeds appeared also. So the slaves of the householder came up and said to him, “Master, did you not sow fine seed in your field? How, then, does it come to have weeds?” He said to them, “An enemy, a man, did this.” They said to him, “Do you want us, then, to go out and collect them?” He said, “No; that by no chance, while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest season I will tell the reapers, First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up, then go to gathering the wheat into my storehouse.”

10. When will we discern the unmistakable effect of sowing in any given environment?

¹⁰ So, after we have sown the seeds of our traits of personality, what comes up like a grass-blade may at first not be distinguishable as to what the soil has yielded. Only later, when the growth matures and bears fruit, there will be no mistaking as to what the soil has yielded to the individual sowing there.