There is quite a lot going on here. These verses were written to bear a lot of thematic weight.
Here is another parable about farming. We have heard about the nearsighted farmer, and the reference to the wise farmer with the underperforming vineyard in Isaiah. Now we have the well-timed farmer who casts seeds one day, and cuts down the crops on harvest day.
A naive reading of this makes obvious sense, as a tautology. Yes, the farmer sows seed and harvests grain. How this makes any sense in the context of modern Christianity, I’ll never understand. Fortunately, there are other ways to read this same passage.
Remember from our decoder ring that “Kingdom of God” meant the Roman Empire, and the ‘seed’ is the Holy Spirit of Rome, or in a more manifest sense: the seed represented Roman culture and the soil were the citizens who accepted that seed and produced resources for the empire.
So here, again we equate the Roman Empire with the Emperor, as he is the sower. The citizens of empire create the resources without the Emperor knowing how any of it is done, but when it is time to receive resources – ie taxes – the Emperor gathers them up, he collects the taxes.
This last reading would have been appropriate for the vast majority of the empires citizens, but there was another reading hidden within for those who were familiar with the Hebrew sacred texts. The phrase “puts in the sickle” references a bit at the end of the relatively short book of Joel – chapter 3 verse 13.
ἐξαποστείλατε δρέπανα ὅτι παρέστηκεν τρύγητος
εἰσπορεύεσθε πατεῖτε διότι πλήρης ἡ ληνός
ὑπερεκχεῖται τὰ ὑπολήνια ὅτι πεπλήθυνται τὰ κακὰ αὐτῶν
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread, for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
Joel 3:13
This starts out kinda nice, almost like a little tune. Harvest the grain, la la! Press the grapes, la la! Their wickedness is great! Wait, what? The grapes are evil? No, clearly Joel is talking about something other than agriculture here, too. Let’s scroll around and see what’s going on here.
Joel was a minor prophet, probably writing after the fall of the first Temple (thus being one of the last prophets) and this book is only 3 chapters long. Even at that, there have long been arguments regarding whether the three chapters here were even written by the same hand. The first complains of being cursed by locusts, the second is praise for the restoration after the locusts. The third chapter is somewhat apocalyptic, but sounds like a theological brag – my god will lay low all of his enemies.
The book of Joel 2:26-32 was referenced in Acts, with the last verse noted in Romans. It’s a kind of touchstone for a turning point in the relationship between God and his peoples. The allusion of the breath of God filling his peoples was an obvious match to the Holy Spirit of Rome that the early evangelists invoked it.
The first part of the 3rd chapter of Joel is a laundry list of all the harms that have been inflicted by their neighbors. The last half is a declaration of their individual and exquisite deaths. This section contains a perversion of that bit from Isaiah about “beating swords into plowshares”, advising instead to beat plowshares into swords so as to better defeat the enemies of Judah. The whole section of Joel 3:9-16 is worth a review just to see the kinds of words Caesar was co-opting for himself here. This verse about the sickle and wine presses, then, is about crushing the enemies of the Lord.
A direct translation of the Greek that we have for this verse is a little different from what King James’ men found.
Send sickles, because the harvest is left, go forth, tread down, for the harvest is full, the sacrifices are overdue, for their evils are multiplied.
From this translation, it’s a lot easier to see that the collection of resources – explicit taxation – is being referenced here. On one level then, “put in the sickle” in Mark was specifically meant as “collecting taxes”.
The soil produces needed resources that the farmer harvests.
The people produced the resources needed, and Caesar collects.
Remember that Roman taxation was a flashpoint for the Judean revolt. It’s reasonable to expect taxation will be addressed a few times. In this case, it was said in a way with special relevance for the Judean peoples.