Although the Gospel of Mark frequently refers to Jesus teaching the people, the Gospel contains only two extended passages presenting the content of that teaching--chapter 4 (parables) and chapter 13 (the coming destruction and end of history). Both of these chapters are very puzzling to modern readers, but they are probably the keys to unlocking Mark's central purposes for writing this Gospel.
Chapter 4 begins with Jesus sitting in a boat teaching the crowds who are assembled on the shore. He may be in a boat so that the crowd does not overwhelm him, or perhaps because the water will magnify his voice. (Greek ampitheaters often had a pool of water in front of the stage for this purpose.)
Mark says Jesus taught many things in parables. When he uses the word "parables" he means any kind of speech that uses metaphorical or figurative language. For instance, re-read 3:23-27. Mark calls this figurative language about a divided house, and about a strong man, "parables." But when we use the word "parables," we are refering more specifically to a brief fictional story. Jesus' teaching, according to Mark, consists of both of these ways of speaking--figuratively and in stories.
The teaching begins with a story-parable--the most famous and, at least for Mark, the most important of all of Jesus' parables. Not only is this parable found in Matthew and Luke, but also in a second century document called "The Gospel of Thomas."
When we read this parable we can't help but automatically interpret it the way Mark does (or Jesus does) in verses 14-20. In this interpretation, the parable is an allegory--the various elements in the parable are symbolic of other things. The seed is the word of God (or hearers of the word), the birds are Satan, the rocky ground is persecution, the thorns are the cares of the world, etc. Read this way, the parable is a warning to future missionaries and potential believers that the Christian message can be subverted by many forces, and that many hearers will not believe, or will stay committed for only a short time. However, when the Christian message takes root in a truly committed person, the results will be unimaginably fruitful. Such an interpretation was very useful to the early church--serving as both a warning and an encouragement. Mark's church probably faced anguished persecution, and many defections, and the real possibility of becoming extinguished.
Interestingly, the disciples are depicted as not understanding this parable (or his other parables). Jesus tells them that he is going to let them in on the "secret of the kingdom of God" and explain the hidden meaning of the parables, but the outsiders are just going to get puzzles. He quotes Isaiah to explain why the crowd gets only puzzling parables--so that they will not understand, repent, and be forgiven!
Obviously, this is very troubling for us. First of all, it makes no sense. Jesus' message from the very beginning is for people to repent and get ready for belonging to the coming kingdom of God (1:15). Surely he wants people to repent! Second, is this really the function of parables and figurative speech--to make things not understandable?! Why then would Jesus command, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"?
Matthew and Luke were also uncomfortable with how Mark quotes Jesus, so they make slight changes in the wording. As many scholars have suggested, maybe Mark (or Jesus) didn't literally mean that the parables were meant to keep people from understanding and repenting, but rather that the (unexplained) parables force the hearers to get actively involved. Many don't--so it's their own fault that they don't understand and repent.
But there's perhaps a better explanation. Mark is writing from the standpoint of his own church around the year A.D. 70. For him, Jesus is already risen, and it is now realized that Jesus was the Messiah, but a very unexpected Messiah--a crucified, self-giving, servant Messiah. This is the "secret" of the kingdom of God. During Jesus' ministry it was virtually impossible for anyone to truly understand this. (The disciples will fail to understand repeatedly in Mark.) Only after the resurrection will the secret of the kingdom be revealed. So for Mark, the parables are a way for Jesus to talk about the kingdom, but it is not truly understandable yet.
In addition, Mark knows that most of Jesus' hearers did indeed reject him; and even after the resurrection, most Jews and gentiles continued to not accept the Christian message of Jesus' messiahship. This must have been very embarrassing to the early church. So perhaps Mark relieves that embarrassment by saying that this rejection was all planned and fore-ordained by God; the parables tell the truth, giving people no excuse for not repenting--but they also obscure, because that was God's plan.
For us that makes no logical or moral sense, but several biblical writers are able to hold together both of these ideas--that God makes our hearts hard, AND that we are responsible for not responding to the message (think of the story in Exodus about God hardening pharaoh's heart, but still making him responsible for not letting the Israelites go). Also, this is how Isaiah himself probably understood the rejection of his own message. He tried to get his people to repent; they didn't; so he concluded that God had sent him to preach to them, but that God had also closed their ears so that the message would condemn them.
Although this may be Mark's understanding of why Jesus spoke in parables, it is highly unlikely that this was Jesus' own purpose. His parables were not meant to be confusing and keep people from repenting; rather, his parables were meant to be an imaginative way for people to experience the coming of the kingdom of God.
Most scholars believe that the interpretation of this first parable, given in verses 14-20, comes from the early church, not Jesus. There are several reasons: the allegory is not consistent (is the seed supposed to be the word, or the hearers?), the parable can be easily translated back into Aramaic (Jesus' own language), but the interpretation cannot, and the interpretation clearly applies to the early church--not Jesus' listeners. Most scholars conclude that Jesus probably did not interpret his parables--that would be like explaining a joke; and that his parables were not allegories--instead they were stories in which the story as a whole (not the parts) has meaning.
If we read this first parable without the later interpretation, and if we read it without any allegorizing, a somewhat different meaning emerges. It's a story about a farmer who broadcasts his seed in various directions. Most of the time the seed fails to produce a crop. But when it lands in just the right conditions, it is capable of producing far in excess of all the lost seed. If this is an illustration of the kingdom of God, perhaps Jesus is suggesting that even the kingdom of God fails most of the time--not taking root; but when it does, it will grow and multiply in ways we can hardly imagine. Perhaps Jesus was wanting to give hope to the peasants that, as bad and hopeless as life is, God's kingdom will indeed come and transform everything.
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