Scripture Reference: Mark 4:1-34

Imagine that you have bought yourself some furniture that needed assembly. You dig out the instructions and start leafing through. You find the diagrams and think to yourself, “no problem.” Yet as you continue, you see that some instructions to go along with the images would help a lot, but there are none to be found. You have to rely on how much you can understand from the images alone. What a predicament it could be! I’ve stated all that to lay a foundation for you.

When Jesus taught the crowds in parables, He didn’t make it easy. What He gave the people were pictures, but without an explanation. The pictures were intriguing, but they were hard to understand. He put his listeners in the situation where they had to decide what to do with the pictures. They could do nothing, or they could come back and ask what it all meant. But, of course, when Jesus spoke there was more at stake than putting together a TV cabinet or a folding table. These picture stories, these parables, are about whether or not we are going to be part of God’s kingdom. They are about joining up with Jesus, and thus belonging to God, or being left outside in the cold. That makes it essential that we understand the instruction book, that we listen very carefully to the story behind the pictures. Or, to put it in the way Jesus Himself puts it here, we must have ears that can hear and a heart of understanding.

Jesus has once again left the town, and He is back in one of his favorite places, on the shore of Lake Galilee. Once again the huge crowds have gathered. Previously (Mark 3:9) we can see that Jesus asked His team to have a boat ready for Him to speak from, because the crush of the multitude was so intense. This time He actually gets into it; they anchor the boat a few yards out, and from that vantage point Jesus can address the crowd in peace. It’s as if to tell us, “This is the big one. This message is so crucial that it has to be heard properly.” The throng edges right down to the waterside and Jesus begins to teach them using “parables.” The word “parable” (from the Greek para, meaning “beside”) is a very general word. It can mean anything where some sort of comparison is made; often a word picture is drawn and a particular point is made. Some parables contain more detail; others less. In general, we should not expect that everything in a parable has to mean something. Most parables intend to make one single point and they usually contain some incidental details simply to fill in the picture.

When the Bible gives us images of what people are like, they are most commonly depicted as plants. Sometimes it may be trees; sometimes grass and sometimes, as in several of the stories in this chapter, the picture is of a crop in a field. A plant doesn’t do much. It’s not in control of its own destiny, or of anything else. We like to think that we make our own way through life, shaping our world, making our own decisions. A plant can do none of those things, yet the Bible repeatedly compares us to plants! In these parables, not only are we like plants, we are plants waiting to be harvested. There is an end in view: we are planted here for a purpose, and the world does not meander on for ever; it is heading for a conclusion.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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