Mark 4:21-34
Mark 4:21–25
“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.’ ‘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.’”
Jesus continues with parables that may initially sound confusing.
Why does He teach this way? So that those whose hearts are hardening may remain in that state, and those who desire the Kingdom may learn its mysteries.
The first image is a lamp placed under a bowl or a bed.
This is meant to be a silly example of how not to use a lamp.
For modern ears, it may help to imagine Jesus saying something like: “When you use a microphone, do you put it under a handkerchief?”
Of course not. Whatever is spoken into a microphone is meant to be broadcast.
There are two meanings here:
The teachings of the gospel are meant to be shared with everyone.
Christians will be known and seen by their light.
What Jesus is teaching His audience now (bright light) will not remain hidden.
The Kingdom was hidden for a time, but at the birth of the Church, the world began to see its light.
This parable supports Jesus’ broader teaching in this section: those who follow the Messiah look and act differently from those who reject Him.
Clement:
A well, when pumped regularly, produces purer water. If neglected, and no one uses it, it changes into a source of pollution. Use keeps metal brighter, but disuse produces rust. For, in a word, exercise produces a healthy condition both in souls and bodies. So “No one lights a candle and puts it under a bowl, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light.” For of what use is wisdom, if it fails to make those who hear it wise?
Jesus then gives a warning: “Pay attention!”
Why does He say this?
Because how one listens determines what one receives.
N. T. Wright:
Here Jesus seems to be telling his followers that the level to which they pay attention to what he’s teaching them will be the level at which they will receive the benefits of the kingdom. This isn’t quite like saying ‘You’ll get out of this what you put in’, since of course when everything depends on the grace of God it’s never a matter simply of people trying a bit harder and so getting a better return on their moral investment. It’s rather, again, a promise and a warning, both of which are amplified in the final little saying. If they grasp what Jesus is saying and go deeper and deeper into it, they will get more and more from it. But if they remain at the superficial level, like the incomprehending crowds, they will lose even that sense of God doing something new in their midst which they have at present.
Mark 4:26–29
“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.’”
This is the second parable, and it is unique to the Gospel of Mark.
Here Jesus explicitly introduces the theme: “The kingdom of God is like…”
He is not offering moral platitudes, but proclaiming the nature of God’s reign.
The image again involves a man scattering seed, recalling the earlier parable.
The same farmer goes out to sow.
In verse 27, the farmer “sleeps and gets up.” What does this mean?
Jesus is illustrating His complete confidence in the power and effectiveness of the Word.
Just as a farmer trusts that the seed will grow, Jesus trusts the Word to do its work.
“All by itself” does not mean humans cooperate with God as equals in producing faith.
It means that when the Word remains in good soil, it necessarily transforms.
The growth is mysterious and hidden.
Photo illustration of different parts.
“When the grain is ripe” has two meanings:
Individually: the death of each Christian.
Collectively: the Last Day, when the Kingdom comes fully at Christ’s return.
“He puts the sickle” reminds us that the Lord gathers His own and brings judgment.
Lenski:
There is no synergistic or semi-Pelagian thought in this parable but the very opposite, the monergism of the Word. The earth simply lies there, it does not reach out or even call for the seed; the seed must be brought to the earth by the will of another. So is the natural human heart. The Word must be cast into it by another, must lodge there and grow; then that heart has spiritual life in it, the living Word. This is how regeneration, the implanting of spiritual life in the soul, takes place.
Mark 4:30–34
“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.’ 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.”
This is the third parable, and the most familiar.
Jesus invites His hearers into theological imagination: “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like?”
If He asked us that question today, what would we say?
This parable is perhaps the easiest to grasp.
The Kingdom begins small, quiet, and unimpressive, but grows into something vast.
Lenski:
We think of the little Babe in Bethlehem, of the small following of Jesus when his work seemed to end with his death, and then of the phenomenal development during all the years since that time. In a despised corner of the world, from a carpenter’s home, came a teacher who gathered a handful of ordinary disciples and then fell into the hands of his enemies and died a wretched malefactor’s death. This was no tower of Babel, nothing big in the eyes of the world. Yet this was the kingdom that was to encircle the world and that is to shine in glory forever.
The birds nesting in the branches are not Christians, since believers already belong to the Kingdom.
Rather, they represent unbelievers who nevertheless benefit from the Church’s presence and influence in the world.
Mark closes this teaching section by emphasizing that Jesus taught the crowds in parables, and then privately explained everything to His apostles.