4th after pentecost year b - mark

Mark 4:26-34

26Jesus also said,

    “The reign of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,

         27and would sleep and rise night and day,

              and the seed would sprout and grow,

                   the sower does not know how.

         28The earth produces of itself,

              first the stalk,

                   then the head,

                        then the full grain in the head.

              29But when the grain is ripe,

                   at once the sower goes in with a sickle,

                        because the harvest has come.”

30Jesus also said,

    “With what can we compare the reign of God,

         or what parable will we use for it?

         31It is like a mustard seed, which,

              when sown upon the ground,

                   is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;

              32yet when it is sown it grows up

                   and becomes the greatest of all shrubs,

                        and puts forth large branches,

                             so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

33With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them,

    as they were able to hear it;

         34Jesus did not speak to those around him except in parables,

              but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Queerying the text:
What does the first parable mean in light of scientific knowledge?
Are we so distanced from the harvest that most of us no longer know how the earth produces?
How is God's reign like a weed?
What does mustard look like fully grown?
Does Jesus just want us to stop getting in the way of the reign of God?
Why does Jesus use riddles so much?  Why are the disciples the only ones that get explanations?

What are your queeries?