Year 2, Week 32, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 32, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Mark 4-5.

Today’s reading, like yesterday’s reading from Luke 8, and the day before yesterday’s reading from Matthew 13, records Jesus’ parable of the soils. Mark’s Gospel account adds a few more of Jesus’ parables than Luke's account, but not as many as Matthew’s account. In fact, overall, Mark 4-5 follows more closely to Luke 8 (actually, with Mark probably being written before Luke, it might be better to say Luke 8 closely follows Mark 4-5). Either way, the point is that today’s reading and yesterday’s reading are quite similar. Mark 4 opens with the account of the parable of the soils: “Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.” (Mark 4:1-3). Mark 4 adds a couple other parables before the chapter closes with Jesus calming the sea's storm followed by an admonition to His disciples: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:40). Mark 5 opens with Jesus’ healing of the demon possessed by many, but also underscores the fright that Jesus’ actions provoked: “And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region” (Mark 5:16-17). Mark 5 closes with the raising of the little girl from the dead: “Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). Again, Jesus’ actions provoked no small response: “And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement” (Mark 5:42).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the additional parables concerning the Kingdom of God that Mark included in his Gospel account: “And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground” (Mark 4:26a); and: "And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed” (Mark 4:30-31a). Clearly, these parables seek to explain something vital to understand about the Kingdom of God. That the Kingdom of God is a common theme in the parables, should be said about the parable of soils as well, for Jesus, in the context of the parable of the soils, explained His usage of parables: “And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven” (Mark 4:11-12). Like it was said about the reading from two days ago, the parables both clarified and concealed. To those who receive Christ’s words through faith, the parables aid in understanding; but to those who reject Christ’s words in unbelief the parables hide the real point. To those who experience salvation, the parables can be understood; but to those who are under God’s judgment, the parables do not make any sense: “With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything” (Mark 4:33-34).

While the focus in the parable of the soils is just that, the two other Kingdom parables focus on the seed sown. Whereas, the parable of the soils emphasizes the posture of the heart into which the seed of God’s Word is sown into, these two parables about seeds highlight the inherent power of the seed that is sewn into the ground. The seed that is sewn into the soil is a powerful, self-producing seed: “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mark 4:26-27). It is the seed itself that generates its own growth; it is neither the technique of the sower, nor, in the point of this parable, the condition of the soil that accounts for the seed’s growth. In fact, the sower can’t explain how the seed brings about its own yield: “The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:28-29). As these parables are speaking about something pertinent to the Kingdom of God, it should be acknowledged that the Kingdom of God comes into reality, simply by the innate power that resides in the message of the Kingdom of God itself. Growth of the Kingdom of God is a Divine accomplishment. While humans are commanded to sow and harvest, only God creates, builds, expands, and extends His Kingdom. The people of the Kingdom proclaim the Kingdom as well as receive people that the Kingdom has claimed, but the people of the Kingdom are not the key to the accomplishments of the Kingdom. The parable of the mustard seed builds on the parable of the seed by showing that as the seed produces its own growth, it starts out in uneventful, even somewhat unnoticeable ways: “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32). The message of the Kingdom, which creates its own growth, also creates its level of growth according to its own timetable. It may appear to be less effective than anticipated, but in the end, it will prove to be more effectual than ever imagined.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe