Bible study: Mark 4

Chapter 4 includes several parables as Jesus teaches. Parables are short stories that carry a lesson, kind of like a fable. But they are also complicated, and meant to be thought-provoking, revealing depth that is not evident at first glance. They seem simple, but mean so much more. Jesus explains them sometimes (which I often think defeats the purpose of a parable, and is regarded as editorializing by the composer or a later editor rather than original to Jesus). In this chapter, he even suggests that there are some people who are not meant to grasp them, but that they are intended for those who are “inside”.  Parables often begin with “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”, as a way for us to comprehend an abstract idea by comparing it to something that is right before our eyes. The irony, of course, is that the kingdom of heaven is like Jesus, who is standing right before the eyes of those who listen to him. Through parables and through his very living Jesus shows us what the kingdom or empire of God looks like, what the new life brought through Christ is like, when God’s will is done. (Ruge-Jones, I Tell You, This Is the Way It Is notes on chapter 4)

4 soils in a small area, Bethlehem 

Because of the rural setting (beside the Sea of Galilee), these agrarian parables make sense for Jesus’ audience, though they may be a bit more puzzling to us today. Driving through our landscape, we encounter acres upon acres of highly organized straight rows of crops, planted by a large machine using chemicals and technology. Some of my favorite crop spots perhaps reflect Jesus’ reality a bit more accurately: the last corner, over a rise, beside a bend in the creek that gets planted so as to make the most of every square inch of the property; the place where it’s hard to drive the tractor, but it’s good soil. It’s less controlled, and harder to get to, and surprising when something grows there and you have to figure out, now, how to harvest it. I think this is part of Jesus’ point: the kingdom of God is unpredictable, and grows when and how it will. The one thing we can count on is surprise.  

Cedar Trees, Lebanon

As the scene shifts to the sea, think of other images of water and sea from scripture. Often the sea symbolizes chaos, lack of control, turmoil (think creation, flood, exodus, Jonah). But here is Jesus, again offering a new interpretation as he sits calmly in a boat on the sea, and later calms the raging sea. What do you make of this contrast between land and sea, the reliability of terra firma vs. the unpredictability of the rolling water? What does Jesus’ presence on the sea tell us about the kingdom of God? Do these parables of planting seeds go together with Jesus and the sea?

Boat ride across the Sea of Galilee