“Parables in Mark” Mark 4: 1-34

“Listen!” How many times have we said that in our lives? Or how many times have we heard it? From parents. From teachers. From grandparents and other adults in our lives. Implied in that statement is the idea that ‘I need you to pay attention, because this is going to be important.’

Jesus found himself one day teaching along the seashore - only the crowd got so large that he had to go out onto a boat so he could teach them. You can imagine it right? People crowding around, leaning in, just hoping to hear what Jesus has to say. Then all of a sudden he says “Listen” and starts to tell a story. 

But not just any type of story - a parable. Parables take common things that people understand but use them to explain things in a whole new way in hopes of opening folks up to a new understanding. And these parables Jesus was telling that particular day they had something big that he wanted folks to open their hearts and minds up to - the very Kingdom of God. 

Friends, this was the first deep dive explanation that Jesus gives in the Gospels about what the Kingdom fo God is all about and he has to tell parable after parable after parable, trying to get not only the crowds to understand, but later the disciples. 

Jesus starts these stories by saying, “you all, listen” and tells a parable that may be familiar to us - the one of the sower and the seeds. Remember, Jesus is talking to a lot of folks who farmed. Folks who understood the ground. People who knew, implicitly, that you need good, fertile soil in order to grow food. But Jesus tells this story of four different types of soil that seed can land on, and what happens to the seed in each instance. 

Then Jesus did something interesting - he went from talking to everyone “you all” to a call for each individual to listen. “Let anyone who has ears listen.”

But here’s the thing about listening. Sometimes we may hear with our ears but we aren’t really listening. I would imagine that some of folks hearing this parable thought it was just a nice story. Others may of heard, but they didn’t dwell on what Jesus was saying, just letting it slip right by them. Still others may have got confused and frustrated in the details. That’s not really listening. Or at least not listening that leads to understanding. They may have understood the context of the parable as farmers, but they weren’t understanding the overall meaning - what Jesus was really trying to convey. Martin Luther described understanding as the relationship between the learned tongue, the ready ear, and the prepared heart. 

In fact, we can imagine that many in the crowd didn’t understand, because the disciples, these folks that Jesus had called away to follow him didn’t understand either. In fact, if we are honest, the disciples probably both didn’t understand what Jesus was trying to preach in this parable as well as what they were doing in the first place. Most rabbis taught in synagogues and here they were going from town to town, house to house, outdoor setting to outdoor setting, doing amazing things that their brains can’t fully understand. 

Of course, Jesus didn’t give the disciples a straight forward answer to the question they asked either. They came to him, asking about the parables, and he told them that they had been given the secrets of the Kingdom. Only they miss the point that he is the secret, the Messiah, standing right in front of them. 

So Jesus breaks down for them step by step, piece by piece what this parable means, what he wanted the people to think and hear and understand when he spoke to them, but still didn’t tell the disciples this larger secret, the secret of who is he and why he came. At least not yet. 

Other times, we are like the disciples and we don’t understand. When we get to the parable of the lamp under a bushel basket, we skim right past what Jesus is saying to put our own understanding in place. In other words, at times we may hear, but not listen or understand as well. 

One of my favorite parts of scripture is that it tells this giant story from beginning to end about God. Only from time to time, we swap pieces of the story out in our minds instead of dwelling in it. Take for example this teaching about the lamp that is to not be hidden. We often think that means the same thing as Matthew, chapter 5, where Jesus tells those listening to the Sermon on the Mount that they are to be the light of the world. But that’s not what Mark 4 is getting at. Instead, here Jesus is saying the light that shines forth is God’s Kingdom, especially in the context of everything before and after this section. While Matthew 5 tells us to shine brightly, Mark 4 tells us to be witnesses to God’s Kingdom, telling those around us to look at what God has done. Be a witness to everything that the light of God touches. 

We also misunderstand who the Kingdom of God belongs to. The next part of the parable tells about seed that is scattered on the ground, and then the seed does what the seed is meant to do - grow. 

When we think that this is our church, that we own it, then we forget who the seed belongs to, my friends. When we think its about all that we do for the Kingdom, so that we can get recognized and a pat on the back, we forget that its about the seed. Its about the seed of the Gospel being planted in people’s hearts. We hear the word, but we don’t understand. 

Which leads to the last parable of the mustard seed. We often hear that the mustard seed is the smallest seed, which isn’t exactly true. There are seeds that are smaller, but this is one that the people around Jesus would have understood and known. Here is this seed that is about a millimeter in diameter and grows into this ten foot bush. But Jesus audience may have heard but not understood what he was saying because they were waiting for something else - for a tree. In Isaiah we find that people are waiting for the Kingdom to come as a mighty tree, not as a bush, so they may have glossed right over what Jesus was trying to say. 

So what’s the point? What is Jesus trying to tell people about the Kingdom of God? That it cannot be contained by their inability to understand and comprehend. This is God’s Kingdom. Where God reigns. We are simply watching and waiting and being invited to participate in it. 

All too often I think we, unknowingly, try to put God in a box. Thinking that if God doesn’t act in the way that we want, that it must not be God. But that’s not how the Kingdom of God works. The Kingdom is the entire story of God, dear friends. And even if we cannot catch all of it in our minds, just like the disciples didn’t catch on to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, it doesn’t stop it from happening of being true. 

Just like the mustard seed that blossoms into this bush, in the Kingdom of God, small things can lead to big things. Seeds can grow. People can come. In fact, if we believe these parables, people will come, if we are faithful to that which we are called to do. 

Church, this is why we do what we do. Not for our sake. But to proclaim the Kingdom of God! We are called to scattered the seed, but we trust that because of who God is, that seed will take root in God’s timing for God’s glory. The Kingdom of God is moving! Do you believe it! Then let us bear witness to the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ! Amen.