The teaching in parables to the multitude is now resumed, and two further examples are given, those of the seed growing secretly and the mustard seed. The first is peculiar to Mk. Loisy interprets it thus: The kingdom of God is also a sowing whose inevitable growth is independent of men's will and even of the will of the sower. Like the labourer, Jesus sows the kingdom by preaching the gospel: it is not His work to bring the harvest, i.e. the complete coming of the kingdom, and one must not grow impatient if its coming does not follow at once: that is God's business.. It is none the less certain that the harvest will come without delay. This is the right line of interpretation; the emphasis falls, not on the gradual character of growth, but on its independence of human willing and desiring when once man has done his part. In the mustard-seed, attention is directed to the immense difference between the beginnings of the kingdom and its consummation. We should note that all these parables imply that the kingdom is already present in germ through the activity of Jesus Himself. They are also characteristic of the simplicity and naturalness of the illustrations used by Jesus.

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