008-The Main Parable

The Gospel is One Big Parable.

• Discussion Outline
• Discussion Audio (1 hour 24 minutes)
• Text: Mark 4:1-20

Up to this point in the Markan account, the audience has not seen the contents of Jesus’ teachings. In chapter 4 we are provided with a sample of Jesus’ teachings. Through these few examples Mark gives his readers a taste of the ways in which Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God.

The material of 4:1-34 is arranged chiastically as shown here:

This session concerns A, B, C, and D. As such all conclusions remain tentative.

The following is the summary of the parables of 4:1-34.

The author of Mark uses the parables and sayings of Jesus to explain why the proclamation of God's reign is meeting with resistance and to assure the audience that despite the apparent lack of progress, God's reign will eventually burst forth in amazing fruitfulness.^[1]

The parable of the sower (or seeds or soils) is frequently interpreted parenetically; i.e., as exhortation or warning to believers. Some of these interpretations include:

• That we’re to cultivate and weed the soil (i.e., mission field)
• That we’re to strive to be fertile soil (i.e., work hard to produce fruit)
• And we’re to avoid being one of the unproductive soils (i.e., avoid the attractions of the world)

But the parable and its explanation are best understood to be descriptive.

… The allegorical interpretation is not parenetic in character… Neither seeds nor soil can change their nature, and the failure of the seeds to take root, or to flourish once they have taken root, is attributed to the influence of Satan, as we have seen. The Markan Jesus is not warning the disciples to be good soil; rather, he is warning them (and the overhearing audience) that even as the reign of God takes root and flourishes in some quarters, it will provoke opposition, persecution, and seduction from the forces of evil. It is the nature of the reign of God to provoke opposition; it cannot be otherwise.^[2]

The context in which this parable is to be read and interpreted is that of the immediate circumstances in which Christians were facing trials, persecutions, and possibly death. Perhaps some were being forced out of their homes and away from their families while some who once worshiped together were renouncing the faith they had once received with joy and eagerness. Through this parable the early Christians understood that the very same gospel that draws people to Christ can also elicit opposing responses.

There is nothing in the parables to exhort people to become better soil, to grow, or to bear fruit. Rather the only exhortation is to listen and understand the parable itself: that the gospel elicits different kinds of judgment from the people that come into contact with it, and that it is not the fault of the gospel nor the ones who sow, but rather it simply is.

The parable must also be understood in the context that the gospel is a hidden secret, a mystery, until the Passion and Resurrection. Even then, the gospel remains a mystery to those who refuse to exercise faith.

The parable of the sower is a description, not an exhortation.

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[1] Reading Mark, 4:1-34.

[2] Reading Mark, 4:1-34.