January 17, 2016: Parables in Mark

Mark 4:1-34

Jesus began to teach beside the lake again. Such a large crowd gathered that he climbed into a boat there on the lake. He sat in the boat while the whole crowd was nearby on the shore. ² He said many things to them in parables. While teaching them, he said, ³ “Listen to this! A farmer went out to scatter seed. ⁴  As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path; and the birds came and ate it. ⁵  Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep. ⁶  When the sun came up, it scorched the plants; and they dried up because they had no roots. ⁷  Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked the seeds, and they produced nothing. ⁸  Other seed fell into good soil and bore fruit. Upon growing and increasing, the seed produced in one case a yield of thirty to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of one hundred to one.” ⁹ He said, “Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!”

¹⁰ When they were alone, the people around Jesus, along with the Twelve, asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He said to them, “The secret of God’s kingdom has been given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables. ¹² This is so that they can look and see but have no insight, and they can hear but not understand. Otherwise, they might turn their lives around and be forgiven.

¹³ “Don’t you understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴  The farmer scatters the word. ¹⁵  This is the meaning of the seed that fell on the path: When the word is scattered and people hear it, right away Satan comes and steals the word that was planted in them. ¹⁶  Here’s the meaning of the seed that fell on rocky ground: When people hear the word, they immediately receive it joyfully. ¹⁷  Because they have no roots, they last for only a little while. When they experience distress or abuse because of the word, they immediately fall away. ¹⁸  Others are like the seed scattered among the thorny plants. These are the ones who have heard the word; ¹⁹  but the worries of this life, the false appeal of wealth, and the desire for more things break in and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. ²⁰  The seed scattered on good soil are those who hear the word and embrace it. They bear fruit, in one case a yield of thirty to one, in another case sixty to one, and in another case one hundred to one.”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp in order to put it under a basket or a bed? Shouldn’t it be placed on a lampstand? ²²  Everything hidden will be revealed, and everything secret will come out into the open. ²³  Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!”

²⁴ He said to them, “Listen carefully! God will evaluate you with the same standard you use to evaluate others. Indeed, you will receive even more. ²⁵  Those who have will receive more, but as for those who don’t have, even what they don’t have will be taken away from them.”

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “This is what God’s kingdom is like. It’s as though someone scatters seed on the ground, ²⁷ then sleeps and wakes night and day. The seed sprouts and grows, but the farmer doesn’t know how. ²⁸  The earth produces crops all by itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full head of grain. ²⁹  Whenever the crop is ready, the farmer goes out to cut the grain because it’s harvest time.”

³⁰ He continued, “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? ³¹  Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; ³²  but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”

³³ With many such parables he continued to give them the word, as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ He spoke to them only in parables, then explained everything to his disciples when he was alone with them.

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Introduction:

How do you describe the indescribable? How do you get a point across that will be extremely hard to grasp, let alone completely understand? I run into this issue quite often these days as I attempt to explain how the world works to my two daughters (ages five and two). My girls are extremely intelligent for their age (they’re beautiful and funny and graceful too, but that’s not the point of this blogpost).

But even with all of their intelligence, there are certain things that it’s hard for them to “get.” When she was much younger, my oldest daughter loved looking for “big yellow buses” (i.e. school buses) when the family was out driving. On a particular day, such a bus drove right past us while we were stopped at a red light. She pointed at it and said, “Make it stop!” She thought that we (her parents) had the power to do this. Her reasoning made sense when you consider that her parents controlled almost everything else in her life. It took quite a bit of explaining to convince her that this was not the way the world worked.

In today’s lesson, Jesus is teaching the crowds about the kingdom of God (sometimes called the ‘reign of God’). The kingdom is not a location, it’s a reality. It’s what it looks like when God’s will is done, and God’s way is followed. Hard to describe? Hard to grasp? You bet!

The Technical Stuff:

Let’s face it: parables are tricky things.  Jesus’ parables are “teaching stories” that use examples from everyday life that contain a “twist” that often turn these commonplace illustrations upside down, causing serious thought for those who hear them. Audiences who hear these parables, both then and now, probably begin the story by nodding along in agreement, but by the end are scratching their heads while in deep thought. This alone will make things difficult.

In addition, the “twists” in parables can be hard for us to recognize because after two thousand years there are many cultural differences between our contexts. When Jesus describes a man a man sowing seeds on the ground in our story today, his audience would recognize if his description was normal. Our knowledge of Jesus’ ancient Jewish context is hazy, however, so the twist can go unnoticed or misunderstood.

Using the first parable in our lesson today as an example, there are a variety of ways to look at the “sower” in Jesus’ story. Is he a good farmer or a bad one? Was it common practice for farmers to throw seeds everywhere in First Century Galilee, or is this farmer doing something that Jesus’ audience would immediately see as strange? You can find many scholars who support the first possibility and others who support the second.  Parables are best approached with open minds and the best response to a parable is an active conversation.

Add to this, the fact that in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is telling parables that are purposefully confusing and hard to understand (4:11-12). The secrets of the parables were given to Jesus’ followers. Why? Some believe that Jesus’ ministry was so explosively revolutionary that if the truth came out too soon, Jesus would be stopped too soon. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus wishes to keep his Messiahship a secret for as long as possible, so that it will be exclusively associated with his death on the cross.

Now that we’ve talked about the nature of these tricky stories, let’s see what these particular stories are about.  Pastor Karl Jacobson, writing for the Working Preacher Website, makes a very good point in saying that these parables, which speak of the kingdom of God, are directly connected with the proclamation that began Jesus’ ministry: “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” (Mark 1:15) (Read more HERE.)

As Jesus uses these stories to describe the coming kingdom of God, some important characteristics begin to emerge. I find Mark Allan Powell’s writing on this to be very helpful indeed:

                  

“What, then, does Jesus mean when he announces, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom (reign) of God has come near’ (1:15)? In the theological context of Mark’s Gospel, this means that the time has finally come for God’s will to be accomplished. What God wants to happen is about to take place; indeed, it is already beginning to happen. This is the basic premise of Jesus’ teaching in Mark’s Gospel, and it is fleshed out in more detail as the narrative continues. We learn that this nearness of God’s reign is a secret, not known to all (4:11). We hear that it is only the beginning of something that will eventually become very big (4:30-32). What is going to happen will transpire in a way that is mysterious (4:26-29) but powerful (9:1).” 

                             Mark Allan Powell, The Fortress Introduction to the Gospels pg. 51.

What Does This Say to Us?

Jesus teaching certainly involved “secrecy” (see Mark 4:11 in our text), but he also said that “Everything hidden will be revealed, and everything secret will come out into the open.”  Revelation has come through the church’s proclamation of the good news of Jesus.  We pray to have ears that hear and that we will also pay attention.

It’s one thing to proclaim, “I’m a follower of Jesus!” or “I want God to reign in my life!” Those are excellent things to say and to hope for. But what do they look like? What is this experience like? Jesus’ parables can help us to get a glimpse of the nature of God’s kingdom now. The hidden nature of his mission and the secrecy of Jesus’ message have been overcome by his death and resurrection. Someday all will be crystal clear. As Paul writes, "Now we see a reflection in a mirror, then we will see face to face. Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I am completely known." (1 Corinthians 13:12-13)

Ultimately, living a kingdom life is not about figuring it out and showing God how good a job we can do. In the end it’s about surrendering to God and saying, through our words and actions, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” As Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.” If the kingdom were a train, we’re asking God to help us on board something small that will become very big; something mysterious that will become very powerful.

Then again, parables are tricky things and you might have taken different meanings from these “teaching stories.” I imagine Jesus is very happy see his followers sitting down to many faithful discussions on these ancient stories, wrestling with what they say to our lives today. May the faithful and lively conversation continue until he comes again.