Mark 4:21-34

After explaining the meaning of the Parable of the Sower (see previous post), Mark now presents a few more parables of Jesus.

Verses 21-15 are little parables. This series of brief statements is not straight-forward speech, but picture-speech. And the pictures are all about how parables work. So these are parables about parables!

For instance: Jesus asks whether a lamp is brought into a room to be put under a basket or bed. The answer is obviously no. A lamp is brought into a room to bring light and reveal things. So it is with parables: they are meant to reveal and bring light. This is the opposite of what Jesus says in verses 11-12, where the purpose of parables is to keep people from seeing! But Mark is probably wanting to make the point that the listener's blindness is not permanent. Eventually, Jesus' parables will indeed reveal God's truth. According to Mark's understanding, this happens after the resurrection, during the preaching ministry of the early church.

All that is hidden during Jesus' ministry will eventually come to light and be understood. The great secret of the kingdom of God (that the Messiah is one who suffers and dies) will soon become clear. And those who pay attention and embrace this truth will make great gains, while those who do not pay attention to this truth will lose whatever little they have.

Starting in verse 26 Jesus tells another parable--but it's not about how parables work, it's about the kingdom of God. This particular parable is the only one unique to Mark (which I find puzzling; why wouldn't Matthew and Luke have wanted to include this parable in their Gospels?). The kingdom of God can be compared to someone who scatters seed, but then the seed grows all on its own without further help; how it grows is a mystery to the planter, but when it has become ripe grain, then the planter harvests it.

How is this a picture of the kingdom of God? Since Mark does not give us an explanation, we have to guess. Here is my guess: The kingdom of God grows in our world, but it is a mystery how it happens and how it works. God uses us to plant kingdom seeds, but we don't make it grow. But the time is coming when the kingdom of God will become fully ripe and ready in our world, and then God will bring the kingdom to completion--the fruit of the kingdom will be harvested and available. Right now the kingdom of God is growing in our world--whether we see it or understand it or not--but it is not fully grown and ready to nourish all. But that time will come.

This parable is followed by another kingdom parable--the familiar parable of the mustard seed. How is this a picture of the kingdom of God? Again, Mark provides no explanation, so we have to guess. Many interpreters think the point of this parable is something like: though the kingdom of God has tiny beginnings, it will grow into something surprisingly large. Matthew and Luke seem to understand it this way since they change the mustard seed plant into a tree big enough to lodge birds' nests in its branches. But the mustard seed plant is merely a large plant, not a tree, and birds build nests in its shade, not its branches. Also, the mustard seed plant was not necessarily a positive image to Jesus' listeners. They may have regarded it more as a nuisance weed that takes over their fields. So it may be that Jesus intended the parable to be heard more like this: The kingdom of God is like a giant weed; though it begins as a tiny seed, it grows into a huge, spreading weed--but the birds like it!

If this is what Jesus intended, then the meaning may be that the kingdom of God does indeed grow in surprising ways; but will we welcome the kingdom (like the birds), or will we think it is merely a weed? I think this may indeed be the meaning of this parable because in Jesus' own ministry people had to decide whether this surprising and offensive man really was, or wasn't, representing the coming of the kingdom of God.

The concluding two verses (33-34) make opposite points. Verse 33 says that Jesus told people parables in order to help them understand, and that they did understand. Verse 34 implies that they did not understand, and that Jesus explained the meaning of the parables privately to his disciples. These opposite statements hold together Mark's own opposite understanding of the purpose of parables. He sees parables as both revealing and concealing--depending on whether one has learned the secret of the kingdom of God.