“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God.” What is a kingdom? Is it the brick and mortar that build up the castle? Is it the expanse of land a king can reasonably defend? Our notions of kingdoms may be romanticized in the modern era, but for the Israelites, a kingdom held deep historical meaning. Thousands of years before the birth of Christ, the Israelites had asked God for a king. After the reigns of David and Solomon, the united kingdom dissolved into factions, and the land was conquered by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and, finally, Romans. For the Israelites, a kingdom was something to build, both structurally and civilly. While this had ended in ruin for their ancestors, many of Jesus’ contemporaries longed for the restoration of an earthly kingdom.
Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are a radical departure from this perspective. He compares the Kingdom of God to a field, but it appears that the farmer has little to do with its progress. “The seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord, the land yields fruit.” Jesus introduces his followers to a new sort of kingdom, a kingdom where God provides the growth.
There is work to be done, of course. “When the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” But for the Kingdom of God to flourish, there are certain things that are outside of our control. We sow seeds of kindness, justice, and integrity and then we must be patient. As shoots of faith appear, we nurture the growth with encouragement. As Christians, our task is not to build the Kingdom of God under our power alone, but to trust in the life-giving movement of God.