Mark 4:1-34 | Jesus teaches in parables

In our last episode, we saw Jesus make a distinction between “insiders’ who follow him and outsiders” who oppose him. Mark highlights the irony when those we expect to be insiders are left outside and those we expect to be outsiders are circled around him inside.

Our episode, today, extends our understanding of insiders and outsiders. Jesus finds a way to speak meaningfully to both groups of people at the same time by using parables. Parables are stories from ordinary life which illustrate a spiritual or moral truth, and they became one of Jesus’ preferred methods of public teaching. The word “parable” means placing one thing beside something else to make a comparison. Sometimes these comparisons are surprising, forcing listeners to think of things in a new way. For example, if Jesus had said, “The kingdom of God is like the Roman Empire,” his listeners might have been able to think of similarities between the two, but when he said, “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,” well, that is far more shocking. “I wonder what he means by that!”

“Wonder” is just the right word in this context. It can mean curiosity, which makes one ponder and think deeply to try to understand. This is the kind of receptive person Jesus is looking for. But wonder can also imply uncertainty and doubt. This is the experience of those outside Jesus’ circle. They hear Jesus’ tantalizing stories, but they are satisfied to leave them as mysteries. They are not willing to spend the time and mental effort to truly wonder.

Most of the Gospel of Mark is written in a narrative format. In fact, only two sections depart from that style, focusing instead on Jesus’ teaching. One of those is our current passage, Mark 4:1-34. If you recall the overall structure of the book of Mark from episode one, you remember that the book of Mark is divided into three sections based on geography. The first part of Mark takes place around Galilee, and the last part takes place in Jerusalem. Between those two sections, there is a short section telling the story of the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Mark places these teaching portions at the center of the Galilee section and the Jerusalem section.

We begin our Bible reading, today, in Mark 4, verse 1.

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.
Mark 4:1

This is now a familiar setting for Mark’s readers. Again, Jesus teaches by the lake from a boat. The actual location is unknown, but it may be a natural amphitheater south of Capernaum where the land slopes gently down to a bay. Scientists in Israel have verified that this so called “Bay of Parables” can easily transmit a human voice to several thousand people on shore.[1]

The parable of the sower (4:2-20)

Continuing our reading from verse 2, 

He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Mark 4:2-9

In our last episode we learned about Mark’s penchant for writing in narrative sandwiches, where he places extra material into the middle of the story, which helps explain the whole. This parable of the sower is another Mark sandwich. The giving of the parable, which we just read, is the sandwich top, the explanation of the parable in verses 13-20 is the bottom of the sandwich, and the sandwich filling is verses 10-12 giving the rationale for teaching in parables. As we will see that middle section, which casual readers may skip over, provides the key to understanding the entire parable.

Jesus begins and ends this parable with a call to pay attention. This implies that the meaning is not self-evident. It will require real listening, real wondering Mark underscores the urgency and importance by using the imperative form of “listen.”. The task of disciples is not to try to make something of ourselves, but to allow the sower and the seed to produce a harvest in our lives.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed” (v. 3). This is the same verb, “go,” that we saw in Mark 1:38, “Let us go somewhere else…so I can preach there also.” In other words, Jesus has already acted out this parable in his ministry. Throughout Mark, Jesus preaches and proclaims as tirelessly as the farmer. Opposition and resistance will not stop him, and against all odds, Jesus’ ministry produces a harvest beyond compare.

In Jesus’ day, seed was sown by casting by hand, so some would naturally fall where it was not intended. Notice that three quarters of the farmer’s labor is lost. I think if I were sowing seed, I would try not to cast seed on the hardpacked path where I knew it would not grow, yet Jesus’ farmer casts his seed everywhere. Again, this is the approach we see in Jesus’ ministry. We never see him saying, “Well, I am sure that person will not respond to my message, so I will not bother to give it.” You and I might say that, but not Jesus. He freely seeds his message to all within earshot and encourages everyone to truly hear. Like this farmer, his seemingly wasteful over-seeding is vindicated by a bumper crop.

This story is often called The Parable of the Four Soils and interpreted as a metaphor of people’s different receptivity, but instead, the focus of the parable is on the sower and the seed. The amazing harvest is a clue that the growth is not due to human response but to God’s providential power. Today, using modern faming methods, the average yield for wheat is 110 seeds per plant according to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln[2], but in the hard-scrabble farming conditions of first century Palestine, even a 30-fold harvest would be miraculous. A hundred-fold increase would be a sure sign of divine blessing. 

At this point in the story, Mark inserts Jesus’ rationale for speaking in parables. This is the filling of the sandwich, which provides the key to understanding not just this parable, but this whole sermon of parables. 

Let’s read verses 10-12.

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
 "They may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
 and ever hearing but never understanding;
 otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!"
Mark 4:10-12

This teaching was not part of Jesus’ sermon from the boat, which began in verse 1, but this private teaching occurred later, when he was alone with the Twelve and the others around him. This is a recurring reference to those in fellowship with Him who did the will of God. 

Jesus gives his message to two audiences, which he lays out clearly here. To those on the outside everything is said in parables, but insiders receive a “members only” message. They have been given the secret of the kingdom of God. Jesus is that secret, and their understanding of who Jesus is grew gradually as they spent time in fellowship with him. This was a gift of God, not human intellectual achievement. Only God could open their eyes to see that the lowly Jesus of Nazareth was really God in the flesh.

The idea of insiders and outsiders was a familiar paradigm for Jesus’ hearers. They considered faithful Jews to be insiders; unfaithful Jews and non-Jews were outsiders. Jesus, however, divides his audience differently. Ones’s insider or outsider status depends entirely on their relationship to Jesus. This new social construction precipitated a spiritual crisis for Jesus’ hearers.

This passage of Mark raises many questions. “To those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven!’” Doesn’t Jesus want people to understand His message? Doesn’t Jesus want people to be forgiven? This seems incredibly harsh and doesn’t match with what we see from Jesus in the rest of the gospel.

The best way to begin interpreting this passage is to realize that at the end of this explanation Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah. Whenever we find the Old Testament quoted in the New, the author expects us to know not just the part quoted, but the surrounding context, as well. Let’s look at the original story in Isaiah 6 to see if that helps us understand.

Isaiah saw a marvelous vision of the lord, exalted on his throne in the temple. Isaiah realized that he was unworthy to see the Lord Almighty, since he was sinful, but God offered him forgiveness and atonement. Then Isaiah overheard God say in the counsel of heaven, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8) Isaiah volunteered, “Here am I. Send me!”

So, God commissioned Isaiah to go to his people with his message. In Isaiah 6 God said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
 be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
 Make the heart of this people calloused;
 make their ears dull
 and close their eyes.
 Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
 hear with their ears,
 understand with their hearts,
 and turn and be healed.'”
Isaiah 6:9-10

This is not the message Isaiah wanted to bring, so he asked, “For how long, Lord? 

“Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant (Isaiah 6:11),” God answered. “Until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken (Isaiah 6:12).” This came about in ancient Israel as the Assyrians conquered the whole nation except Jerusalem in 701 BC and then Babylon successfully laid siege to Jerusalem in 606 BC and deported most of the people. After this grim prophecy, the Lord offered Isaiah a faint hope for the future

But as the terebinth and oak
 leave stumps when they are cut down,
 so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
Isaiah 6:13

In 538 BC, the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, allowed Judah to return to their homeland. The life remaining in those abandoned stumps began to sprout and grow.

The important thing to notice from this excursion into Isaiah is that Israel and Judah, as a nation, did not receive Isaiah’s message and believe, but some individuals did. There were prophets who preached to God’s people. There were faithful priests and Levites whose psalms are included in the book of Psalms. Daniel and his friends, exiled from their homeland, chose to remain true to their commitment to God even in a foreign country. So, while most of Israel did not believe, some did.

Jesus now makes the comparison between Isaiah’s generation and his own. Most of the Jewish people, and especially the Jewish religious leaders, would not believe the message of Jesus, but some would. This is the same truth we introduced in our last episode about insiders and outsiders, which had played out in Isaiah’s time and was now happening again in Jesus’s.

We might paraphrase these verses this way, “But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that what happened in Isaiah’s day will happen again, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” 

This interpretation of Mark is confirmed by the way it is used in Matthew. Most interpreters believe that Matthew used Mark as one of his source documents for his gospel, but he did not necessarily simply copy the relevant passages. He sometimes interpreted what had already been written. In his telling of this story, Matthew says—

This is why I speak to them in parables:
 “Though seeing, they do not see;
 though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
Matthew 13:13-14

Notice that in place of a simple “so that” in Mark 4:12, which implies purpose, Matthew says, “in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.” The parables are given, not to keep people from believing, but the parables are given in the same way as Isaiah gave his message. Both Isaiah and Jesus knew that most would not believe, but some would. God’s message was made available to all.

Following this explanation of Jesus’ rationale for using parables as an insider message, Jesus continues to explain this parable to his group of insiders. This is the bottom of Mark’s sandwich, beginning with verse 13,

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Mark 4:13-20

“How then will you understand any parable?” Jesus asks. Understanding this parable is basic to understanding all others, because it combines two elements that are necessary to receive Mark’s gospel message, first, the meaning of Jesus and second, the meaning of discipleship. The first part of this story sandwich focused on who Jesus is, the one who comes from God and sows his message diligently and unsparingly. He announces His good news to all and lets the seed fall where it may. The last part of this sandwich, which we come to now, focuses on the meaning of discipleship by describing four possible responses to his message.

First Jesus says “the farmer sows the word.” If the seed is the word, then the farmer is Jesus.

Four times in this explanation Jesus says that people hear the word (vv. 15, 16, 18, 20). The first three soils(the hard path, rocky soil, and thorns) represent casual hearers. The Greek verb tense used for hearing describes a simple, singular action. This is superficial hearing. The last soil, the good soil, represents responsive hearers. Interestingly, this fourth word “hear” is given in the present tense, showing continual, on-going hearing. These are the people who hear, accept, and meditate on it, producing a miraculous harvest. 

Mark does not consider insiders and outsiders to be unchangeable distinctions. Some outsiders, who stop to wonder at Jesus’ message, will become insiders; some insiders (like Judas) will become outsiders. Faith also is changing. Like seed, it matures and bears fruit, or else it withers and dies.

In review, the key to understanding this parable is found in the sandwich filling of verses 10-12. The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to those who truly hear. Only they understand who Jesus is. Those who do not believe that Jesus is from God cannot believe his message. Right understanding of Jesus leads to right discipleship. You can expect following Jesus to be difficult, but you also can expect an incomparable harvest.

I would like to offer some words of encouragement for those who have committed themselves to take up the ministry of Jesus, sowing his seed in this world.

• First, sow the word with abandon. Do not try to determine people’s receptiveness and spend your effort only on those you believe will be responsive. Just sow your seed everywhere. You cannot know how someone will respond. 
• Secondly, you may find both casual and responsive hearers. Expect the same frustration that Jesus experienced when casual followers deserted his ranks
• Thirdly, growth and maturity are not a result of your effort, nor the effort of those who hear, but the gift of God. It is always God’s work in their heart.

The Lamp (4:21-25)

The parable of the sower is by far the longest parable in this sermon of stories. Now, Mark adds other parables and sayings to give further comment on the meaning of the parables. These appear to have been part of a pool of Jesus’ sayings that had already been gathered before Mark wrote. They are scattered throughout Matthew and Luke in various contexts, but Mark assembles them together here.

Verse 21,

He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Mark 4:21-23

The New International Version translation tries to make the beginning of this paragraph less awkward than Mark’s original. A more literal translation of this sentence would be, “Does the lamp come in order to be placed under the bowl or under the bed?[3] This awkwardness is actually an important clue to the meaning. “Lamp” is the subject, in fact it is “the lamp.” “The lamp comes.” This active verb, “comes,” is normally more suited for a person than a thing. 

Often, in the Old Testament, the lamp is used as a metaphor for God or the messiah. That gives us our meaning. Jesus is the lamp who has come to bring light and revelation. Light is frequently a metaphor for Jesus in the gospel of John, but Mark has it here as well.

Oil lamps give more light when elevated and uncovered. I grew up in an old farmhouse. In the kitchen was a shelf on the wall, about head height, that originally was intended for a lamp. In my childhood, we normally kept a radio there, but when the electricity went out, the radio was moved and the shelf returned to its original intent. It is surprising how much light is given by a well-placed oil lamp.

Jesus said that the lamp did not come to be covered, but “whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed.” This is a good summary statement of Jesus life and ministry, disclosing what was hidden. He is the revelation from God, disclosing God’s purpose and grace.

The Measure (4:24-25)

This theme of disclosure is continued in the illustration of the measure. Verses 24-25,

“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
Mark 4:24-25

“With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” was a common Jewish proverb of the day. It has a meaning similar to our English proverb “You reap what you sow.” This Jewish saying was intentionally stated in the passive voice, “it will be measured,” as a way to avoid using the name for God and possibly profaning him. The intent was “With the measure you use, God will measure to you.” In this context, the reference is to listening. If you listen carefully, you will understand; and even more understanding will be given to you. As we discovered already, this is the grace of God. God’s reward will exceed our effort to listen and ponder. 

The warning “whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them” was already illustrated in the parable of the sower. Those who had ears to hear were good soil, receiving additional understanding, some thirty-, some sixty-, some a hundredfold. Those who did not have a heart to listen are comparable to the other three soils which lost what little they had due to birds, rocks, and weeds. Both the promise and the warning point to the importance of listening. Take time to really wonder about what Jesus says.

The parable of self-growing seed (4:26-29

Mark concludes this section of Jesus’ teaching with two final parables and a summary of the purpose of parables. Both of his final parables describe a person sowing seed, but the emphasis of the two are quite different. 

First, we have the parable of self-growing seed. This is unique to Mark’s gospel. Let’s read verses 26-29,

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29

The emphasis of this parable is on the mysterious nature of growth. “All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.” Every stage of gospel proclamation and growth is animated and controlled by God. You often cannot see the growth of God’s kingdom when you are looking at it in the present time. For example, did you see growth in your church last Sunday compared to the Sunday before? Were there more people? Were people more committed to knowing and obeying God? Were they more encouraging to others, wanting to build them up? It would be difficult to answer those questions based on the change from week to week, but you might be able to see some growth compared to one year ago. Just like the growth of a plant is not easily seen from one day to the next, the work of God grows unseen, until suddenly you say, “Oh wow! Look what God has done!”

The parable of the mustard seed (4:30-34)

Anyone looking at the small beginnings of Jesus ministry with just 12 apprentice followers would not have predicted the world-wide presence of the church today, but Jesus was supremely confident in the growth of the kingdom of God. This is the emphasis of the last parable in this sermon, the parable of the mustard seed. Mark 4, verse 30, 

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
Mark 4:30-32

Some have found fault with Jesus for saying that the mustard seed was the smallest of seeds. It isn’t actually the smallest seed. Doesn’t this mistake in such a verifiable fact draw the divinity of Jesus into question? This is deliberate hyperbole. Jesus must have known that there were larger seeds, but this was a proverbial reference to small things in the Palestine of Jesus’ day. The gospel of Matthew uses it in this proverbial way also.

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20

At the end of his story, Jesus says that “the birds of the air can perch in its shade” (v. 32). Jesus appears to allude to a statement by the prophet Ezekiel, who used the same picture of birds nesting in the branches of a tree to describe non-Jewish people participating in God’s blessing with his chosen people (Ezek. 17:23). 

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; … it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.
Ezekiel 17:22-23

This reference may be a clue as to why this parable is placed last by Mark. His Gentile audience would find significance in the kingdom of God which has grown large enough to include even them. Jesus was founding a universal kingdom.

Concluding summary

Following this final parable, Mark concludes Jesus’ teaching from the boat with this summary.

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
 Mark 4:33-34

These parables are just a sampling of many parables which Jesus told. This statement parallels the beginning of this sermon in 4:2 where Mark says “He taught them many things by parables.” These parallel statements at the beginning and end form bookends to this section and mark it off from what came before and after. This was another common literary technique in Mark’s day.

Again, we find hyperbole in the statement, “He did not say anything to them without using a parable.” In fact, we do see Jesus teaching the crowds without parables, but this assertion emphasizes Jesus deliberate use of riddles to make people think. They were intended to catch people’s attention, tantalizing them into thinking more deeply.

When we read that Jesus spoke the word to them “as much as they could understand,” a more literal translation would be that Jesus spoke the word to them “as they were able to hear.”[4] This is now the tenth time in chapter 4 that Mark emphasizes the importance of hearing. Some might say, “I don’t understand these stories. They are strange and difficult. The question is, do you want to understand. Hearing takes time. If you want to understand the work of Jesus, spend time thinking, contemplating, examining what he says and he will help you understand it little by little. Spend time in wonder so you may truly see this wonderful Jesus.

Final comments

I have thoroughly enjoyed thinking deeply with you, today. In our next episode, Mark turns from the teaching of Jesus back to a description of what Jesus does. He presents four miracles of Jesus that show Jesus’ authority over nature, demons, illness, and death. I can’t wait to examine these stories with you. 

[1] Edwards, James R. The gospel according to Mark. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016.
[2] Robert Klein. (2020). Determining the seeding rate for Winter Wheat. CropWatch. https://cropwatch.unl.edu/determining-seeding-rate-your-winter-wheat/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20there%20are%2022,approximately%201.5%20bushels%20per%20acre.

[3] Edwards, 2016.

[4] Edwards, 2016