Mark 4:21-41.  In yesterday’s post I sort of limited who Jesus was talking to in the story to the twelve but in verse 10 it says he was talking to his followers including the twelve.  I think that is important for two reasons.  First Jesus was interested in more than the twelve hearing and understanding, ultimately God wants all of us to understand about Jesus.  Second by specifically mentioning the twelve we see that they were just like the rest of Jesus’ followers, they didn’t understand either and needed to be taught.  That would be comforting to the believers in Rome, the “Apostles” weren’t some super spiritual group, if the Apostles struggled and Jesus understood, accepted, and helped them then the Roman believers could expect the same care.  I will go back and fix the remark so that it is clear that more than just the twelve were listening to the explanation of the soils.

So in yesterday’s reading Jesus took his followers aside and began talking to them (see Mark 4:10-11).  In today’s reading he continues to talk to “them”, so I assume that the “them” in verses 13, 21, 24, 26 are the same group.  That is probably who he is talking to all the way through verse 34.  Remember that the main point of the “Parable of the Sower”  (Really the “Parable of the Soils”) was the importance of listening, hot just hearing, but listening.  We need to think about what Jesus was saying.  It’s interesting that some Bible experts like to go on and on about the “divine (or messianic) secret” in the book of Mark.  We talked about this in the post on Mark 1:21-39.  Jesus wasn’t keeping secrets, he said his purpose was to teach, in today’s reading his followers call him “teacher”, the people recognized his teaching had authority in it and was linked often to powerful miracles.  We have also seen that parables are meant to explain but that some people don’t learn because they don’t like what they are hearing.  People stop listening and don’t “get it”.  The reason I think these experts are interesting is because it is so obvious that Jesus wants people to know (It’s almost like these “Divine Secret” guys are an example of people not wanting to hear).  Now Jesus didn’t walk into the Temple his first day with a big sign on saying, “I am Yahweh.”  Apart from a miracle that would have been his last day, Jesus was strategic about his actions, to use a term that I have used before, he was working through the plan.  In verses 21-23 Jesus makes it clear to his followers that he wants people to know the truth about him and what is going on.  In verse 23 he even tells them (and anyone down through the years who reads the book of Mark) to “listen and understand” (“let him hear” meaning “understand”).  Verses 24-25 are a warning though.  They needed to be careful how they listened, if they listened and filtered everything through what they wanted or expected to hear then they would fail to really understand God’s plan.  In the Old Testament the bible uses the word “jealous” to describe God sometimes.  Oprah Winfrey once said that she wasn’t interested in a God who was jealous.  That’s too bad, we need to be interested in God for what and who he is because he wants the best for us, but he will not force us to take it.  In the case of the story in Mark the most informed people were the Jewish people and especially the Pharisees, scribes, and other religious leaders.  The had God’s word.  The problem was they were not willing to hear what it really meant and so were in danger of loosing that extra advantage.  It’s kind of like the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.  The rabbit clearly had the advantage in the race but lost because he was unwise.

In verses 26-29 Jesus continues to teach his followers about not getting stuck in a rut when it comes to how they understand God and Heaven and Eternity.  The Jewish people were looking for a kingdom.  They were living under Roman rule but God had promised one of their ancient kings a forever kingdom for one of his descendants.  That promised coming king, the messiah of Christ, had many predictions made about him in the Old Testament.  The Jewish people really liked all the parts about him taking over and setting up a forever kingdom, and in the time of Jesus there was a lot of interest in the idea, they wanted to be rid of outside control.  But they were missing the other predictions about the Messiah suffering for the sins of the people (See Isaiah 53 for example or even Daniel 9 where the Messiah is cut off).  This parable tells us that the comparison is between this kingdom, the Kingdom of God, and a man who throws out some seed and waters it.  He doesn’t really know how it all works but he knows he needs to water the seeds and does.  Eventually the seed grows up and the man gets some grain.  The main point here is that we don’t really know how this kingdom thing works.  The nice thing is that God does know, that it does work, and that in the end there is going to be a harvest (a good thing if you are a farmer).  As for us we just need to do what we know and God will do the rest.

The next part of the reading also explains something about God’s forever kingdom.  This time the comparison is with a mustard plant.  Mustard seeds are pretty small, about the size of a pin head.  The plant can grow as tall as 12’ and as big around as my arm (OK if you don’t know me as big around as a wooden fence post) although it is not normally allowed to grow that big.  The point of the comparison is that the kingdom will start out small but will eventually become quite large, large enough for birds to nest in.  The part about the birds may be a quote from Ezekiel 31:6 but that would seem a little strange since Ezekiel is talking about Assyria in that verse.  Ezekiel was writing about 580 BC. and in that chapter was warning Pharaoh that he better look out.  God had once made Assyria like a great and useful tree but then destroyed her.  A better parallel in the Old Testament is Ezekiel 17:22-24.  Those verses aren’t as close in terms of the words but the idea is much closer.  In those verses God plants a tree and causes it to grow, eventually all kinds of birds find shelter in the tree.  The tree in shoes verses represents Israel, which in turn represents the Kingdom of God.  The birds represent people from all over, not just Jewish people.  So in our parable in mark the kingdom will grow and it will be filled with people from all over.  That would be pretty good news to a bunch of non-Jewish believers hiding in Rome.

Verses 33-34 tell us that Jesus kept using parables to teach them the “word” as they were able to hear.  The term “word” in this case means all that Jesus was trying to tell the people, the good news about who he was and what he was doing.  Notice he was speaking to them “as they were able to hear it”.  So Jesus was interesting in people not just “hearing” but actually understanding his message.  In verse 34 he took extra care to make sure his followers understood, probably because his followers were going to be the teachers themselves very soon.

The last part of today’s reading gets the action going again as Jesus moves from this private but important time of instruction back into more public ministry (that word means service).  Jesus and his followers get into some boats to cross the Sea of Galilee to the eastern side.  Although Jesus has been to Jerusalem it the story so far he has spent most of his time in Galilee on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  During this trip he is napping in the back of the boat when a serious storm arises.  Evidently the Sea of Galilee is subject to sudden storm of this type which are quite violent and dangerous.  The followers in the boat with him (probably the twelve) get quite upset and wake him up and accuse him of not caring that they are all going to drown.  In response Jesus tell the wind to stop and the waters to smooth out and they do.  Then Jesus said to the people in the boat with him, “Why are you afraid don’t you trust me to take care of you?”  His followers were amazed that event the wind and water obeyed him, they still didn’t really understand that they were dealing with God himself in human form.

For me this last part is a good follow up to all the talk about hearing and listening.  We saw that Jesus really wanted people to understand his words.  In this last part of the today’s reading we see that Jesus’ word aren’t just a bunch of talk but that they have real power.   So whether the words are, “Get up and take your bead and walk away.”, or “Reach our and start using your hand again.”, or “Don’t lie.”, or “Be my witnesses.”, we know that Jesus has the power and cares enough to back us up.  He wants us to know, he wants us to understand, he wants us to act, and he is has our back, that is very good news especially as we experience trouble for following him.

Jesus than you for teaching, thank you for explaining, thank you for caring, and thank you for taking care or me.  Help me listen, help me act appropriately, give me the power to honor you with my life today and every day until your kingdom comes and forever.