Even the Sower doesn’t understand exactly how the seeds
grow. In these chapters, we find a little parable unique to Mark: “The kingdom
of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and
rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
The earth produces of itself…” (4:36-27).
If Jesus has given the disciples the secret of the
kingdom of God (4:11), apparently it’s still a secret to them as well. Holding
the answer key seems to do them no good in the storm just verses later. We as
readers are given the inside track along with the disciples. We’re given the “explanation”
denied to the crowds about the different kinds of soil and are left to
speculate who’s who – as if we can place people in neat categories. We can
guess where the scribes and Pharisees might fall, but what about Jesus’ family?
They suspect he’s out of his mind. As for the disciples themselves, we’re told
from the outset that one of the Twelve will betray him. One would think that
sheer proximity to Jesus would tell them everything they need to know.
Or maybe it’s not about knowledge. The unclean spirits
recognize him as the Son of God, but I’m not sure that makes them good soil. We
know the soil by what it produces. Jesus says here that “whoever does the will
of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Knowing and doing are two
different things.
We might not know what kind of soil we’re dealing with or
why some seeds grow and others don’t. But we do know something about the
harvest. When a seed finally does take hold – as in the parable of the mustard
seed – even the birds that once ate up the seeds on the path now have a place
to make their nests in the shade. If there are boundaries to the kingdom of God,
I’m not sure where we can draw them.
We don’t get many of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel of
Mark. With Mark, we get no Beatitudes, no Sermon on the Mount, no Good
Samaritan, no Prodigal Son. For the most part, Jesus lets his actions speak.
What do they say to you?
Click on "comments" below and add your thoughts!
"Peace! Be still" Regarding Jesus commanding the elements, there are so few times that he does it, it confirms him a walker of the walk in keeping a low profile and not making a show of things. (As He said, pray in secret, don't make a big production about giving alms.) Just do what you need to do when needed.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I think about during these moments is that He said if we had as much faith as a mustard seed we could tell mountains to fall into the sea and they would (or something along those lines!) I actually believe that. He didn't feel special and taught that we were just like He was (is) and could do the same things if we only could harness the faith. I know I have faith... but I also know that I need to work on getting it up to mustard seed size.
It seems to me this isn't so much about either knowledge or doing, but rather about "being". Or maybe even more so about "becoming", which implies both knowledge and doing, I suppose - but at the same time acknowledges the workings of simple awareness.
ReplyDeleteI think what Jesus wants from us is to think more about what kind of soil WE are, instead of rushing to judgment about what kind others are. There's the knowledge part. If we come to know we're not the kind of soil we should be, at least identifying what kind of soil we are can help us change those things that keep us from becoming better soil. And there's ALWAYS room to become better soil! There's the doing part. Both together help us become more of what the Sower would have us be; help us to produce better fruit from the seeds that get scattered on us.
And perhaps the ultimate (and utterly counter-cultural) fruit is to understand that it's OK to not understand everything. That even the Sower doesn't have to understand how the earth produces - just that it does, and there will be a harvest. That we don't have to understand how we'll be OK in the storm - just that we will. That even if we see a seed fall on the hard path and get scooped up by a bird, that bird may actually be the means to get the seed into better soil. That if it's OK for the Sower Himself to allow for free will and not exercise ultimate control over all that (even though He could), then it's OK for us to let it be, too, knowing that He'll use our worst mistakes for good if we just let Him.
Excuse me? Relinquish control?? Seriously??? Now that's really asking too much! . . . isn't it? Or is it? Like I said - there's ALWAYS room to become better soil....
But inevitably, as you clearly know, mysteries remain mysteries--that is their nature.
DeleteIndeed. . . Praise God! I would submit that part of becoming better soil is living into and getting as comfortable as humanly possible with exactly that.
DeleteIt seems that when Jesus says "the secret to the kingdom of God has been given to you" isn't so much about the parable of the sower itself (although that is clearly important) but that the secret is that you have to go to Jesus to get the explanation. What Jesus seems to want is for people to keep coming back to him to understand and to reach the kingdom. It is only the disciples who hang around Jesus all of the time who get the explanation of all of the parables -- not that they always understand all of his explanations. I'm sure I don't always understand them either. This helps me to remember that living them and understanding them comes back to that "secret" -- going to the right person.
ReplyDeleteI think I harmonize w previous comments by saying that the actions and the parables are interdependent. They tell us, to the extent that we can"see" and "hear," why Jesus does what he does and, consequently, who He is. To the extent that the unknowable can be revealed to the imagination, he shows us the Kingdom of God (first mentioned in 4:26). In 4:26 He says that the hidden, the secret,is intended to be"disclosed." But we,like the disciples,have our human limits.
ReplyDeleteBack to Phyllis' comment. Yes, in Mark we encounter mysteries, happenings beyond understanding. We can participate in mysteries, as in engaging w Mark. And yes, Mark's witness shows us Jesus' way of being-in-the-world, and invites us to follow, to make the world better so far as we can, and to become better beings as we do our part to make this world more like the Kingdom.
ReplyDelete